Should there be a general speed limit for the Autobahn in Germany?
Here’s what I’m thinking, let me know down in the comments what you’re thinking.
Hey everyone, Dana here! Vroom, vroom, vroom!
Before moving to Germany, I had absolutely heard of the German Autobahn.
The Famous German Autobahn where there is no speed limit whatsoever.
That’s what I had heard about the Autobahn, I guess probably from movies, maybe from people
who had studied abroad in Germany.
The Famous German Autobahn where you can drive absolutely as fast as you want.
From these accounts, I don’t know exactly what I expected the Famous German Autobahn
to look like, but certainly not just like, you know, a highway.
I think maybe I thought the Autobahn was a particular part of the highway in Germany.
Like maybe this, this magical section of highway in Germany, I don’t know.
One of my first conversations with Stefan about the German Autobahn went a little something like this:
So there’s no speed limit on the Autobahn.
Well, not exactly. Some places have a speed limit.
Ok, so like a couple places? Like, one or two?
No, more than that.
Three or four?
More than that.
Oh. How many?
A lot.
But there are still places without a speed limit.
Yes.
Okay, so the German Autobahn is without a speed limit in most places.
Ehh, I don’t know know about most places. It’s getting less and less.
Okay, but those places without a speed limit...you can always go as fast as you want?
Yes. Well, no.
No?
Sometimes there are then speed limits at night.
Oh, I guess that makes sense.
And sometimes speed limits under certain weather conditions.
I guess that makes sense too.
And your insurance might not fully cover an accident if you’re going too fast.
And going fast uses a lot more gasoline.
And there’s more and more traffic on the road, so even when there is no speed limit
you often can’t go that fast because of the traffic.
Oh.
The Famous German Autobahn was starting to sound a lot less mythical and a lot more like,
well, just a normal highway by the minute.
But is that a bad thing?
Should Germany simply go ahead and put a cap on the Autobahn speed limit?
I’ve recently read a few articles on the topic and I’ll link to some down in the
description box below.
130 kilometers per hour is the number that I've often seen referenced as far as a Germany-wide
Autobahn speed limit goes, which is about 80 miles per hour, still faster than the speed
limit on the highway in Florida.
So seeing as I moved to Europe from Florida, 80 miles per hour, 130 kilometers per hour
still seems pretty fast to me.
Although I can understand how that could seem slow compared to, you know, no speed limit at all.
Although as Stefan explained to me, the number of places where you can still actually go
as fast as you want on the Autobahn have already been decreasing over the years.
Okay, so pros and cons.
What could be some of the pros of implementing a general speed limit on the Autobahn in Germany?
As many of the articles that I read and as Stefan pointed out to me, you know, the faster
you go, the more gasoline the car uses, and that means more CO2 emissions.
So capping the speed limit on the Autobahn could be a measure to reduce CO2 emissions.
Another possible pro could be a more relaxing driving atmosphere.
Of course this is going to depend on your point of view, but I have heard from Germans
who said that they actually liked driving on the highway more when there was a speed limit
and pretty much everyone was going along at the same speed.
So everyone was just kind of on the highway, like, basically moving as one mass, sort of.
So yeah, some people have told me that this was a lot more relaxing and a lot more calming
for them than on the German highway where you could have people going at all different speeds.
And I would say going along with this, I have also heard some people say that having a speed limit
reduced the feeling that you need to try to get to where you’re going as fast as possible.
If there’s no speed limit on the road, um, maybe some people feel pressured or they feel
like other drivers might feel pressured to try to get wherever they're going as quickly as possible.
Whereas if there’s a speed limit then it just takes however much time it takes to get
somewhere, there’s not really perhaps so much that pressure to go faster just because you could.
On the other hand some possible cons that I can think of could be the fact that some
people really, really love that there are places where they can put the pedal to the
metal and they can really drive as fast as possible.
I can also imagine that perhaps for some people it’s like this last bit of freedom, there
are so many rules in the world, you know.
Maybe for some people it feels like at least we have that, at least there are still some
places in Germany where you can go on the Autobahn and drive as fast as you want.
And another con could be the fact that then Germany would no long have the distinction of being
one of the only countries in the world with a highway that has stretches without a speed limit.
Like I said, I knew about the Famous German Autobahn before I had ever come to Germany.
And then the Famous German Autobahn would be no more.
It would just be...the Autobahn. In Germany. With a speed limit. Just like other Autobahns.
As far as my opinion goes, I would say that I’m leaning more towards being okay with
the Autobahn having a general speed limit.
Like, I don't think it would really bother me if that were the case because
well, I guess for me, as someone who grew up in a place where roads always had speed limits,
it's just not really that big of a deal for me.
So yeah, and because I would say to me the pros seems to outweigh the cons.
Um, yeah, I don't really care if it has a speed limit.
But I can definitely see both sides of it and I'm definitely looking forward to hearing
about your take on it down in the comments.
So my question for you is: do you think the Autobahn in Germany should have a general
speed limit? If so what speed and why? And if not, why not?
Please let me know in the comments below.
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