Autobahn speed limit proposal revs up debate in Germany

[WestCoastJoe]

Autobahn speed limit proposal revs up debate in Germany

By Michael Birnbaum, Monday, May 20, 3:57 AM

BERLIN — For many in this car-crazy nation, the freedom to hurtle down the famed autobahn at 120 mph or more is an inalienable right.

Germany, one of the world’s top car producers, is alone among industrial countries in allowing drivers to decide for themselves how fast to race along the highway. So a proposal this month to impose a speed limit of 75 mph has set off an election-year battle that has some people questioning a basic tenet of German identity.

The traffic-cop-like suggestion from a top opposition leader challenged Germans to pick two popular obsessions — safety and sustainability — over another: a seemingly primal need to use their 500-horsepower engines to catapult themselves across their country’s gently rolling countryside.

On speed limits, “the rest of the world has been doing it for a long time,” Sigmar Gabriel, chairman of the Social Democratic Party, told the Rheinische Post, adding that Germans should drive slower for safety. Traffic deaths have been dropping for years in Germany, but Gabriel said they would drop faster if there were a speed limit.

His proposal, which revived a decades-old discussion in Germany, was quickly disowned by other senior members of his party, although other Social Democrats and members of the Green Party quickly lined up in support. Last week, lawmakers debated the speed limit in Parliament — under a dome from which one can see the rotating logo of German car giant Mercedes-Benz dominating the skyline of western Berlin. They took no action, nor is any expected before September parliamentary elections.

On 60 percent of Germany’s autobahn, drivers are free to go as fast as they wish, and German-made BMWs and Mercedeses frequently shoot down the left lane at 120 mph. Elsewhere on the highways, usually in areas where traffic is heavier or near cities, there are already speed limits of roughly 60 to 75 mph.

Speed limit advocates have appealed to the one thing that many Germans like almost as much as their cars — the environment — and that, in the end, may be what pushes the country to act. Driving more slowly reduces emissions and uses less gas, and at a time when Germany is moving ahead with ambitious plans to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions, rocket-fast Porsches strike some here as a little hypocritical.

Opinion polls show Germans split over the idea, but the issue is so sensitive that it is unlikely to be acted upon until after the September balloting. Chancellor Angela Merkel opposes speed limits, although she is never seen behind the wheel, unlike her Audi-loving predecessor, Gerhard Schroeder. Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union has a comfortable lead in the polls.

“There won’t be a general speed limit on Germany’s highways under my rule,” Transportation Minister Peter Ramsauer said in a statement. Ramsauer is an amateur pianist who in 2011 released a CD called “Adagio in the Auto,” on which he and other musicians played slow classical compositions intended to calm drivers as they navigated Germany’s 7,936 miles of autobahn.

Speed limits are deeply tied to Germany’s postwar identity. Adolf Hitler built up the country’s highway network, but the Nazis instituted a nationwide speed limit of 50 mph to conserve resources after World War II started in 1939. By 1953, with the country’s postwar industrial boom underway, speed limits for cars were eliminated altogether. They were later added in cities and on some stretches of highway.

In a country so devoted to safety and sustainability that it is phasing out nuclear power in large part due to fears stemming from the 2011 *beep* Daiichi nuclear accident in Japan, Germany’s strict adherence to fast driving seems somewhat incongruous.

“People think they have more freedom” without the speed limits, said Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer, the director of the Center Automotive Research at the University of Duisburg-Essen, who added that he takes his BMW up to 115 mph if the road is clear but usually drives at 75. “You could compare it a little bit with the U.S. position of having guns.”

Duedenhoffer used to work for Porsche, where American buyers would occasionally come to pick up their cars and sample German roads, he said.

“But they would then just drive it at 60 miles an hour,” he said. “They weren’t used to driving 250 kilometers per hour,” or 150 mph, he said.

Germany’s roads, constructed to some of the strictest safety standards in the world, rank firmly in the middle of industrialized countries in terms of traffic deaths. For every billion miles driven on German roads, nine people were killed in accidents in 2011, according to figures to be released this week by the International Transport Forum of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. In the United States, 10.9 people died for every billion miles driven, while in Britain, 6.3 people were killed.

Britain’s speed limit is 70 mph. U.S. speed limits are set by the states. The highest, 85 mph, is found in some parts of Texas. Most highways range between 65 and 75 mph, though in urban areas the limits are often lower.

German opponents of speed limits say that drivers are smart enough not to go faster than is safe.

“We have a lot of motorway sections that have bottlenecks and congestion, so people are quite happy if they can drive a little bit faster on tracks where it’s possible,” said Juergen Berlitz, a traffic expert at ADAC, a German drivers association.

But some say that argument is absurd given that 387 people died in accidents on the autobahn last year.

“If in Germany within one year, two fully booked airliners with 400 people crashed, what a debate about air traffic security we would have,” said Stephan Kuehn, traffic policy spokesman of the Green Party, in a parliamentary debate last week. “Every road traffic death and injury is one too many.”

[WestCoastJoe]

That would be a little bit disappointing if a speed limit was imposed on the Autobahn.

Not that I would ever take advantage of driving at speed there. Been on the Autobahn, but as a passenger.

What is the fastest you personally have driven? For me it was 105 mph in my MGB back in the 1960s, flat out. That feels fast until an Austin Healey roars past at 125 mph.

When people look back at their younger years, they sometimes think they are lucky to have survived as long as they have.

[WestCoastJoe]

There are speed limits on some portions of the Autobahn already.

[WestCoastJoe]

Austin Healey

MGB, British Racing Green

[South Pender]

Is the Healey a 100-6 or 3000? Had an MGA in 1962, black with red interior. Never took it up to 105 mph, though. Really craved a Morgan Plus-4, but as a struggling student, couldn't possibly afford one.

[WestCoastJoe]

Is the Healey a 100-6 or 3000? Had an MGA in 1962, black with red interior. Never took it up to 105 mph, though. Really craved a Morgan Plus-4, but as a struggling student, couldn't possibly afford one.

Austin Healey 3000 or 2500.

The MGB was a beautiful driving car, but very high maintenance, especially compared to cars nowadays.

Had a friend with an MGA, of which he was very fond.

Yes, the Morgans are beautiful. Couldn't afford either a Healey or a Morgan. The '65 MGB was only $1550 back in 1968.

Wasn't pesonally interested in the MG Midget nor the Triumph Sprite.

MG = Morris Garages, right, SP?

[Toppy Vann]

For every billion miles driven on German roads, nine people were killed in accidents in 2011, according to figures to be released this week by the International Transport Forum of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. In the United States, 10.9 people died for every billion miles driven, while in Britain, 6.3 people were killed.

There is a huge societal cost to road crashes - medical systems, businesses with lost talent and communities with lost volunteers and of course families.

Old habits die hard. People resisted seat belts as a freedom issue for a long time. Now I just see that in China and HK both expats and locals ignore seat belts where provided in public transport and taxis.

The Germans are relying on the 85th percentile rule in traffic flows. That is - research has proven that in any set of driving conditions (sometimes fog is an exception) that 85% of the motorists will drive at the safest speed for the conditions (road, weather, congestion). The issue is what the 15% doing - while some are going too slow and some too fast as they weave in and out of the traffic. Both the slow and the too fast produce the unsafe conditions for all road users and they cause crashes.

Where we struggle is the 50 KPH rule where that is generally far too slow for many roads and of course everyone drives 60. But the speed limit is set to account for all conditions including congestion and pedestrians and bicyclists, etc - all that are not on the Autobahn.

What has been proven to regulate the speed and flow of traffic (BUT is not accepted by the public as they see it as a cash grab) is is the use of speed cameras to keep cars moving at the safe speed. States like Victoria, Australia are renowned for driving crash and death rates down with this and education, etc. They also have traffic lights on some highways on ramps that go red when a heavy flow of bumper to bumper traffic comes and go green when it is flowing so where safe mergers can occur. They can electronically change the speed limits too. Not cheap but savings in policing and other costs such as medical and doctors pay for this.

When we had photo radar in BC the problem was the police as they won't be dictated to (their view) as to where to put it and how to run it. What should have happened was that it should have been in fixed positions (not vans) that were announced as in other countries so the speeders could choose to pay if they so desired. The speed cameras across BC helped contribute to 6 years of no ICBC rate increases and under cover monitoring in non police vans showed that average speeds had dropped all over BC in the north, east, Island and this turned up in ICBC stats with lower crashes and lower severities and thus average costs as the hits weren't as high in speed. BUT the stubborn RCMP refused to budge on deployment as that is police discretion and that can't be interfered with.

The public should have chosen sites - black spots.

I suggested to Gordon Campbell as Leader of the Opposition (he didn't like this ) that to make it public and put cameras on hard to police stretches like the Barnett Highway (there had been some high speed late night deaths that could have hurt innocents but ended up single vehicles) would be a good thing for safety. He knew he had a winner in eliminating it entirely.

The irony is that the police wantedit but were too foolish (espec RCMP) to do what it could have done to work with other non police partners to save it as a tool by making it a public tool with community input and not hide it. It is not about the cash grab but saving lives and preventing injuries.

Our emergency rooms would be less full but for traffic crashes.

[South Pender]

MG = Morris Garages, right, SP?

Sorry for the delay; just noticed this question. To be honest, I don't know. But it sounds right!