Filed under: Euro, Green, Safety
Environmentalists threaten autobahn speeds, again
Over the past several years, environmentalists have established the autobahn, Germany's high-speed national motorway, as one of the primary battlegrounds on which to wage a war on greenhouse emissions. While about one-third of the autobahn's roads are limited to 130 KPH (80 MPH), other portions are devoid of a set speed limit, instead relying on the age-old deterrent of excessive speed: common sense.The prevailing rule on Germany's freeway system is "safe and prudent," or what we were all taught in driver's ed., "never drive faster than it is safe for current conditions." Although Germany enjoys one of the lowest per capita death rates in the world (not so when gauged by miles driven), environmentalists and other supporting parties maintain that if the speed limit was set at 120 KPH (75 MPH), emissions would be reduced by around 30-percent and subsequently, the health of the nation would be improved.
The Transport Minister of Germany, Wolfgang Tiefensee, is adamant that emission-reducing measures are a top priority, but has said on numerous occasions that a general speed limit "does not make sense."
Our favorite quote on the matter, courtesy of Timm Krägenow of the Deutschland Financial Times was, "Derestricted driving on the autobahn is to the Germans what pesto is to the Italians and the baguette is to the French. No one in Italy or in France would dare to try and ban the cultural characteristics of their country."
We won't argue with that logic.
[Source: Automotive News –- Sub. Req., Deutschland Financial Times]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
James 9:11AM (12/29/2006)
Good thing this article doesn't go on any further, god only knows how slow 130km/h would be after a few more paragraphs!
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HybridAndy 9:20AM (12/29/2006)
I was over in Germany recently for work and I got to drive on the Autobahn, unfortunately in a Mercedes van with a diesel engine and 7 people with 400 lbs of luggage but I did manage to get to 160 kph (~100 mph). I was very impressed with the other drivers lane discipline and awareness compared to American drivers. Apparently passing on the right can get you in a lot of trouble over there but most cars would pass and then get back over in the right lanes to let faster cars past. Definitely a different experience from the Buick going 56 mph in the 55 zone in the 18 wheelers blind spot for 2-3 miles that I always seem to get stuck behind here.
I was stuck in an ICE train most of the time but it seemed like most sections of the autobahn (at least between Frankfurt and Essen) were actually restricted to around 120 kph with only occasional short 2-3 miles stretches that were unrestricted. Maybe there is more open unrestricted road on less busy areas of the country but it's not all wide open, drive as fast as you want all the time like you might think.
Interesting fact, they don't exit numbers or compass designations for their roads like we do (or at least that I could decipher). The exits are only labeled with the closest city name and and you get on the road headed to one city or headed to another, not going east or west. Also, the German sign used at the exits is Fahrt, I know it's immature but for some reason I always laughed inside when I saw that.
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Jim 9:40AM (12/29/2006)
About 90% of German car owners are members af the autoclub ADAC. They are one of the strongest lobbies in the country, and are strongly opposed to any overall restictive speed limit, I don't see it happening any time soon.
Hybrid Andy was driving in one of the most densely populated areas of the country, hence the areas of restricted speed limits he found. That isn't the case in the more open areas. There are hundreds of kilometers of unrestricted autobahn to be enjoyed. I lived outside Frankfurt for 3 years, and got so used to driving to work at 90-95 mph in my Honda CIvic Si that it was, well, unremarkable, like driving 65 in America. The lanes are wider, the lane line longer, and 90-95 just feels, well, normal. But then that motorcycle wreck I saw was... oooh...bring the scraper for what was left. German drivers are very good, very prcise and correct. But accidents at 100 mph are rarely fender benders.
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Army Chief 9:49AM (12/29/2006)
As an American living abroad (in Germany) for the better part of the past decade, I have to say that German road manners and driving abilities definitely put ours to shame. Lane discipline, observance of right-of-way and a certain seriousness about the joys and perils of high speed cruising are all taken for granted here. German drivers expect a certain baseline competence of each other, and in general, they get it.
I realize this will sound outrageous to some, but I've also come to accept that there is nothing inherently unsafe about a competent driver in a well-engineered and maintained car traveling at speeds north of 120 or even 130 miles per hour. In fact, provided the roads support it (as they certainly do here), one can drive considerably faster than that without any real drama. (I'm assuming that it is obvious that much of this is car-dependent. My BMW M3 coupe is far better suited for the task than my Oldsmobile Silhouette van.)
The point is simply this: in his matter, as in so many others, the Germans have a "big boy rules" philosophy when it comes to personal responsibility and adherence to common-sense. That enables them to extend freedoms here that would never work in the United States. Where the autobahns are concerned, Germany, not the U.S.A., is truly the land of the free and the home of the brave.
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Michael 10:02AM (12/29/2006)
It's blind activism, plain and simple. I'm a native German living in Germany, so I'm confronted with this question somewhat frequently. If you actually do the math, it turns out the benefits in terms of greenhouse gas emissions would be negligible. A fraction of the total greenhouse gas emissions of Germany are caused by passenger cars, out of which only a fraction spend an even smaller fraction of their life at over 75mph. In the end you'd be looking at a 0.0x% reduction of emissions.
If you took the money it would cost to establish said limit and spent it on energy counseling programs, subsidized more energy-efficient refridgerators etc. instead, it would be a lot more effective, but I guess the odd MB E55 going 155mph for a few minutes per year is a more attractive target for environmentalists than a few hundred thousand 20 year old fridges wasting (mostly coal-derived) electricity 365 days a year.
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hessi 10:11AM (12/29/2006)
Andy: German exits do have numbers, you can find them on most, if not all signs surrounded by a circle. It is true though that they don't give you a compass direction, mostly because you can go in different directions from the exit.
Furthermore, the german word for exit is "Ausfahrt", not "Fahrt". "Fahrt" means drive/journey/ride.
Regarding Damon: Nearly no stretch of the Autobahn is restricted to 130 km/h but 80/90/100/120.
There is though something called "Richtgeschwindigkeit", which is 130 on nearly all Autobahnen. It is allowed to drive faster than that, but if something happens, you might have part of the liability, even if you didn't do anything wrong, as long as the accident might not have happened if you hadn't driven that fast. And yes, that is as inaccurate as it sounds...
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Axel 10:13AM (12/29/2006)
The sentence about the french and the italians makes a lot sense. It's simple as that: the party establishing a general speed limit on the Autobahn will simply loose the next elections, no matter what else they have to offer.
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Jason 10:26AM (12/29/2006)
Same as environmentalists here: loud and intrusive.
Stop wondering about carbon emissions. It has nothing to do with the environment and you would know it if you stopped for a second or two.
It's all about social control.
They won't stop until you are forced to consult them before you begin breakfast--and I am not joking.
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ron 11:16AM (12/29/2006)
do enviromentalists ever shut up, they have already broken have the traditions in the world along with their liberal friends
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HybridAndy 11:21AM (12/29/2006)
Ausfahrt, that's what is was. I remember seeing that the first time and I thought "what a horrible name for a town" and then I noticed it again when we got off in Essen which was 20 minutes away and though "Ass Fart must be the biggest city in Germany! I wonder if they keep that a secret because their embaresed we'll laugh at them" and then I realized it had to stand for something else and put 2 and 2 together and figured out it just must mean exit.
Beautiful country, and I would love to take my Subaru Spec B over there and drive, but if I never eat pork again I'll be happy.
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Damon Lavrinc 1:24PM (12/29/2006)
Hessi - Thanks for the information! The AutoNews article I cited misrepresented those speeds and I'll make the correction in a bit.
James - It was late. The figures are fixed. Thanks.
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Bob_Ericson 2:18PM (12/29/2006)
Seriously, this is a great idea. Slow down for mommy earth!
If they were serious about saving the planet (which I'm told my many scholarly scholar-types), we'd all ride bicycles.
Actually, that's a lie. If you work, eat, or live, your carbon footprint is too big. Hybrids are a joke. Do you know the amount of resources that are required to build a hybrid? Bying a Prius is like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.
All your frantic puny efforts will fall woefully short.
We must embrace the final solution - now.
If you're SERIOUS about avoiding the catastrophe called Global Warming, go to the kitchen and get a SHARP knife. Slit your wrists in the back yard (so you can feed the plants in your last unselfish act).
Too radical you say? Eh, you know the line: "How do you boil a live frog?" Slowly.
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Billy 2:46PM (12/29/2006)
It's not just the Germans who have lane discipline, pretty much every civilized country realizes that the passing lane is ONLY for passing, etc.
It's rather stunning when you see some drivers actually impressed by that, it should be the norm, and, frankly, the cops in the U.S.A. should be putting a lot of drivers in jail for parking their cars in the left lane, etc.
That might help pull the U.S.A. out of the third world backwards driving habits that plague it.
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dd 4:39PM (12/29/2006)
As a Brit living in Germany I can tell you, the high speed of the Autobahns becomes normal very soon. It's much better in my opinion to not have to spend time looking at the speedo all the time, and to use the road and traffic conditions instead to gauge what speed I should be driving. Last week we had some fog and we were all driving at 40mph on an unrestricted section of Autobahn. The next day it was a bright clear day and that same section was at 150mph. The conditions dictated the speed, not a sign by the side of the road.
As for lane discipline, it's not perfect. On a 100 mile journey you'll encounter 3 or 4 people that won't get out of the left lane despite the next person they could overtake being half a mile ahead. But I've driven in the states and UK (of course) and it's MUCH worse there.
What you do see a lot of here is respect for a faster car. You find a lot of people move over very quickly if you're driving a Porsche/Ferrari/Lamborghini :)
I once got stopped by German police because the personalized license plate I had ("300") on my Nissan 300ZX Twin Turbo looked suspicious. They thought I might have stolen the car straight from a dealership. Once we'd cleared it up that it was a genuine number, both officers were keen to talk about how fast it went and what I got it up to on the Autobahn. Petrolhead cops - gotta love it. It was 186mph (300km/h) if you're wondering.
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Guten Tag! 12:06AM (12/30/2006)
Best words of the day: If you're SERIOUS about avoiding the catastrophe called Global Warming, go to the kitchen and get a SHARP knife. Slit your wrists in the back yard (so you can feed the plants in your last unselfish act).
As far as Greens bitching about 'excessive' speed, they were doing it twenty years ago when I lived in Germany and they obviously are doing it now. It's pretty darn fun driving in Deutschland! Wheeee!
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MJL 4:57PM (12/30/2006)
I like what's been said about high speed driving and its negligible impact, but to "Jason," I am surprised to hear that anyone literate enough to use a computer still believes that carbon emissions are not directly and seriously impacting the environment. The link is pretty well proven (at least in every serious institute of higher learning I'm aware of); are we going to be the generation remembered for whining and looking for ways to avoid responsibility at a critical time? The debate is about whether we'll stop whining, not whether it's a critical time.
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Bob_Ericson 5:25PM (12/30/2006)
Although actors, actresses, entertainers, leftists politicians and social sciences professors agree that man is causing the end of the world, real climatologists do actually agree that the earth is warming. But they can't say exactly why. There's tons of hypothesises, but no consensus. That coupled with the slight percentage that comprises man's contribution. Gases from cow sphincters are now thought to be greater than man's contribution. A little funny, but a hugely embarrassing example on how little data we have on the entire phenomenon. And with the limited knowledge we have... we'll let's just shitcan our entire economy (although Kyoto lets China & India dump all the stuff they want - reeeal smart). Sorry, carbon footprint too big.
The only real solution that they dare not speak is a severe depopulation. Instead, they'll just hound your work-a-day ass until you're in too much of a stupor to argue back and you'll just accept Chairman Gore's Ecological Revolution. You can sign up now, there are plenty of roles on the "winning" side of this Revolution: Politician, informant, lawyer, meddler, "activist", AutoBlog Green contributor, poetry slam competitor, browshirt, keyboard monkey with a social conscious. Join the fun!
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Lawry Goldstein 12:01AM (12/31/2006)
I hate to agree with 'Bob_Ericson' but he is 100% right. If you want to stop the problems caused by our current systems is to destroy the current population down to a few million. Run everything off solar with enough power to make new panels as the old ones ware out.
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don 6:58PM (1/03/2007)
Hey, all, what global warming there is is the result of many things and human activity is on the list... dead last, of course. #1 on the list is by far the oldest of sources: solar activity.
Drive your car as fast as the laws allow, and elect people who will vote to raise those limits where they are restrictive.
Life is too short to let the wackos run it.
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