Speed Limits on All German Autobahns Met with Stiff Resistance
 

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/03/w...eed-limit.html

Interesting article in The NY Times today about how Germany's CO2 emissions are way above a previous goal of lowering them - in part due to nuke-energy plants being closed and coal-emitting ones replacing them, even though Germany is also at the forefront of green energy - but so far not enough.

So, the government planners turned to transportation to lower those substantial emissions, and one obvious goal that The Green Party and green groups had in their radar were autobahns and their traditional lack of any speed limits, and, some super-duper cars roll at at well over 200 mph (speed record for a normal car about 237 mph), But, of course, as everyone except probably Donald Trump knows, the higher the speed - after about 60 mph or so - the more pollution per mile and this escalates as speeds increase.
- the faster the more pollution.

*30% of autobahns already have speed limits in urban areas where roads are congested, and those stretches have a 26% lower accident rate than full speed ones do - making safety another goal of instituting speed limits..

So, as the article shows. the bulk of Germans were up in arms with this government proposal - some even started wearing yellow vests with threats of protesting like in France. The idea of a speed-limit-free autobahn is so ingrained in the German psyche that the article compares it to Americans being wed to guns and Japanese to whaling. Some say that in a highly regulated country - where few dare J-walking across an empty street if the walk sign is red - =that the one unregulated thing - the autobahn - is a sacrosanct German thing..

So, though everyone admits such high speeds are terribly polluting, Germans and foreigners can delight in the thrill of just going full tilt for the foreseeable future.

And, who doesn't enjoy that freedom to travel at speeds rivaling faster German trains. I know when I picked up a VW Squareback at the Wolfsburg factory (to ship home after driving all around Europe) I was looking forward to experiencing the autobahns without speed limits - and even though my small VW could barely exceed 80-90 mph except when going down hill - it was a thrill seeing cars blow by me when I was going 70 or so!

And on Fodor's some have written about their thrill doing and say that this was one thing that brought them to drive in Germany. But unless you have a souped up car, you'll be stuck in the slow lane and watch many cars blow by at what seems Indy speeds.

I once was driving a luggage van for our bike trips in Germany - a big old loaded down Mercedes - and got stuck somehow in the passing lane going at about 60 mph top speed - and to show how seriously German truck drivers take this sin - one got out a huge knife and waved it at me when he passed me in the third high-speed lane. So, if autobahning it learn autobahn etiquette!

Anyway I feel the Germans should put speed limits on all autobahns to cut emissions and save lives. Yet, I would lament that. But, it seems that will happen when Americans pass gun control and Japanese abandon whaling all together.

ANYONE WITH ANY EXPERIENCES OF TOOLING ALONG GERMAN AUTOBAHNS?

>>I know when I picked up a VW Squareback at the Wolfsburg factory<<

Production of the Squareback ended at Wolfsburg forty-six years ago . . . .

>>So, if autobahning it learn autobahn etiquette!<<

It ain't 'etiquette' - it is the law. Same in the UK and other European countries. Driving slow in the middle and outside lanes is a citable offense.

When we fly into Munich and head south there is so much congestion we get speed limits. We take the train mostly now. I drove from Frankfurt to Belgium once and only got in the passing lane one time. The cars were going so fast you don't even see them coming. Our rentals have been slow except for one time we got a Mercedes upgrade. I am all for the speed limits. The speed cameras bug me the most. The yellow-vested protesters have destroyed many in France. The revenue is huge so France is very upset over that.

In the 1980s when I was stationed in Heilbronn, I had a new BMW. I used to leave Heilbronn and arrive in Garmisch 3h later -- including a stop for gas. I used to routinely travel 105 mph. The car would wobble at 110 and straighten out again at 115. I asked the BMW mechanic about it, and he said that's a normal characteristic of the car -- and that few Americans ever discovered it. I decided that 105 mph was plenty fast enough.

When I was reassigned to the USA, I got several speeding tickets, no surprise. It took about a year to get retrained for US roads.

Yes, today I am thankful for the great public transport in Germany!

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Always interesting when the NYT decides to cover "Europe".

Many autobahns are too congested, being worked upon or in such poor condition that it is impossible to drive really fast on them anyway, but i think a speed limit, albeit 130 or 140km/h would be a good thing. Too many Germans head into the Netherlands and forget we have speed limits.

However if you have speed limits you have to be able to enforce them - hence speed cameras. Don't speed -no problem. Yellow vests destroying them doesn't solve anything.

I have one ticket in my life and it was from a speed camera in D.C. I was merging into heavy traffic and had to go a bit fast to not get hit. It turns out it was 55mph. I was going 63 mph. Someone destroyed the speed camera last year and was designated a hero. It has generated tons of money for DC apparently. A friend said she got two tickets from it in one day not knowing the speed dropped there. 110 a pop. The yellow-vested truck drivers apparently feel the need to destroy them. Why I love public transportation in Europe.

Always interesting when the NYT decides to cover "Europe".>

No most European coverage is not of interest to tourists as this article is - many hear about autobahns having no speed limits. You obviously don't read the Times which has 3-4 pages on Europe each day -mostly political things.

Some sparsely populated U.S.states like I believe Montana have abolished speed limits in normal conditions on roads with few drivers - had to fight Federal Government to do so as Feds have imposed max speeds across the country - the pollution of that is nil as folks have always exceeded the speed limits there anyway.

The federal government set the top speed limit in the US for about 25 years. When they finally gave that power back to the states, Montana went with no posted speed limit for a while, but had to give it up for safety reasons.

Keeping up with the posted speed limit is always a challenge for me when driving in Europe--fortunately, my GPS unit usually tells me what the speed limit is (not always 100% accurate, but at least it serves as an aide to my memory and observation of signs).

but had to give it up for safety reasons.>

Well if Big Sky Country with relatively fewer cars than German autobahns re-imposed a speed limit says that Germany should too for safety.