Is this the sound of the German Autobahn?
Maybe if you're visiting.
Because for many locals
hurtling down the highway at top speed is just
another day of driving.
Germany is the only industrialized nation
that doesn't have a general speed limit.
So if you see this sign, you can put the pedal to the metal.
For some, these joy rides are liberating.
And they elicit fascination abroad.
"No matter how fast you're driving in Germany,
someone is driving faster than you."
But many experts say this fast driving
makes the highways less safe.
It also burns lots of fuel, which is terrible for the environment.
Germany could save millions of tonnes of CO2 a year
if it implemented a speed limit.
So why doesn't this self-proclaimed green power
take its foot off the gas?
In Germany, the debate around the speed limit is polarizing.
A slight majority of the population wants one,
but the opposition is loud.
And spoiler alert:
This discussion often doesn't revolve around facts.
"It's kind of an emotional debate."
This is Katja Diehl.
She wrote a book about mobility in Germany.
"Because people want to be free,
to have the free will of driving really fast."
But let's take a look at the facts first.
Germany has more than 13 thousand km of Autobahn.
Famously well-maintained and toll-free for cars.
Most countries in the world got speed limits
to improve road safety or to conserve fuel.
Yet in Germany,
you can drive as fast as you want on about 70% of highways.
Opponents of the speed limit argue
that there are fewer road deaths per kilometer on the Autobahn
than in some nations – such as France or Italy.
But experts like the German Road Safety Council say
it would become even safer with a limit.
In recent years, the discussion has shifted to another aspect:
the climate.
The one thing all studies agree on is that
a speed limit on these highways would lower emissions.
The question is: to what extent?
Well, according to the latest study
by Germany's environment agency,
the country could save up to 6.7 million tonnes of CO2 per year
if it implemented a speed limit of 120 km/h.
That's about as much as low-emission countries
like Rwanda and Eritrea pollute in a year.
The researchers say a limit would reduce CO2 output
because cars would burn less fuel on the Autobahn.
When you drive fast, the engine needs to work harder
to overcome increased resistance from the air and tires.
But they also argue that new restrictions
would dissuade many people
from even taking the highway to begin with.
Drivers would choose more direct routes through
low-speed areas like cities or country roads.
Or they could switch to greener modes of transportation.
Another study commissioned by the car-friendly FDP party
denies the effect of these last two variables.
It puts the savings much lower – at 1.1 million tonnes per year.
So, realistically speaking,
how substantial really is
a cut of a one to six million tonnes of CO2
for a top polluter like Germany?
"The opponents of motorway speed limit argue
that the emission reductions would be trivial."
Giulio Mattioli researches
transport and climate policy.
"They just choose the denominator
that would make it appear ridiculously small.
But I think if you choose the right denominator,
the reduction would be substantial."
The denominator he is referring to is the gap between
how much the German transportation sector
should be emitting,
according to the Federal Climate Protection Act –
and how much it actually is emitting.
In 2022, the sector went over its CO2 emissions target
by 9 million tonnes.
A speed limit could reduce that difference significantly
if we go with the German environment agency's estimates.
If we go with the liberal party's estimates,
the limit could reduce a portion of these excess emissions.
"It's such a low hanging fruit
in terms of it will have other benefits,
in terms of safety, in reducing road deaths,
and it already exists
in pretty much any other country in the world."
But for some Germans that is a big ask.
They see driving fast as an expression of their freedom.
And cars as part of their culture.
"Some of us Germans see it as a kind of DNA.
I think it started, sorry to say, with Adolf Hitler."
The Nazi dictator promised to motorize Germany in the 1930s.
A venture that he said would create jobs
and drive technological development.
He wanted to lay the groundwork
for one of the earliest highway networks in the world.
For a while the Nazis implemented no speed restrictions.
That is until resources started running low during World War II.
And autobahn drivers had to stick to a limit of 80 km/h
to conserve gas.
After the war, having autonomy
became crucial to many Germans.
"Germany was really destroyed, there was no hope,
there were people coming back from the fronts
and the car was a kind of a freedom sign."
Owning a car was the aspiration.
And that turned more and more feasible
as the car industry started booming.
Producing cars
became the answer to rebuilding the country's economy.
And driving them fast
became the answer to rebuilding its freedom.
West Germany got rid of the Nazis' speed limit law in 1952.
Similarly, when the communist GDR dissolved
during German reunification in 1990,
its Autobahn speed restrictions went with it shortly after.
For decades,
many Germans fought tooth and nail for this liberty.
Any time anyone messed with the right to drive fast,
they were met with outrage.
Today, the outrage is not necessarily linked
to overcoming the restrictions of an authoritarian regime.
But there are other limitations in a country
as highly regulated as Germany.
Throwing away glass or mowing the lawn on a Sunday?
Too disruptive, according to German law.
Washing your car at home?
That's a no-go in most areas.
And forget about dancing on Good Friday.
"There are a lot of very detailed bans of what people can
and cannot do.
But it seems that for some reason the motorway speed
has been construed as an area
where there should not be a limit.
Perhaps because, in a country with tens of millions of cars
and pristine roads,
driving fast might just be one of the easiest ways
to find that slice of freedom.
This slice of freedom
has become a bit of a selling point abroad.
Tourists even come to Germany to drive as fast as possible.
For several hundred Euros, you too can rent a premium car to
"enjoy the excitement of the notorious German Autobahn,"
"drive full-throttle" and "reach top speeds of 300 km/h or more".
But if other people also find driving fast so fun,
why is Germany one of the only countries that still allows it?
After all this time, the speed limit can hardly be sold
as a relic of Nazi Germany.
Well, that booming car industry that provided many Germans
with a taste of freedom back then is still around of course.
And it's very influential.
The line between politicians and the car lobby
has long been blurry.
"So you see this, what in Germany we call Drehtür-Effekt.
You step out of politics and you go to the industry
or to the lobby organizations."
These close ties became apparent
when Germany's previous transport minister
met with industry representatives 80 times
during his tenure of nearly four years.
This was first reported by the German newspaper
Süddeutsche Zeitung.
He only met with environmental associations once.
And the new government continues to give privileged access.
Its last mobility summit
was almost exclusively stacked with car representatives.
It's no surprise then that the government has often pushed
for the car industry's interests.
When it comes to limiting caps on vehicle emissions,
for example.
Or expanding highways around the country.
As for the speed limit:
We can't say the car lobby has actively petitioned
against it in government.
But we know that the conservative and the liberal party
currently stand in the way of this restriction.
And so does most of the industry.
"We do not need a general rigid speed limit on open roads."
Simon Schütz is a spokesperson for the VDA,
an interest group for Germany's automotive industry.
"We need situation adapted speed regulation."
The VDA suggests digital boards could show a speed limit
when bad weather or traffic conditions require it.
According to the group, a rigid limit
would have minimal effects on the climate or road safety.
Its fact sheet references a study that says the limit
could cost German society more than a billion euros.
The study calculated how much time Germans would lose
if they drove slower.
And how much of an average wage
they would miss out on, as a result.
But this 2023 paper,
published in the journal for Ecological Economics,
disputes assertions like these.
Its cost benefit analysis says
Germany could save hundreds of millions every year.
Because yes - there is a cost to the speed limit.
But benefits like paying less for fuel, damages from accidents
and even future effects of climate change
outweigh these costs.
The VDA also says a speed limit could turn some people
against further climate protections.
"There has been a tendency to want to achieve goals with bans,
with rules, with regulations.
And I believe that that is counterproductive and ultimately
maybe even dangerous, because every ban, every rule,
every regulation is decreasing the approval in society."
Despite discussions like these,
public opinion has swung towards
being slightly in favor of a speed limit in recent years.
But as long as car lobbyists don't see a benefit in it,
proponents will continue facing an influential opposition.
Recent attempts to implement a speed limit
have been denied in parliament.
Because one of the parties in power, the car-friendly FDP,
blocked the issue from being part of the coalition agreement.
Instead some opponents like to point to alternatives
to save emissions –
like going electric.
Many car producers are becoming more open to this shift.
After all,
the EU has banned the sale of new petrol and diesel cars
from 2035.
And Germany is very slowly incentivizing people
to use electric vehicles.
But there are still tens of millions of cars
with combustion engines on German roads.
And not everyone can afford to get rid of theirs – or wants to.
Beyond that, the country has the potential
to improve public transport in rural areas.
And revamp a train system
that currently is often late and unreliable.
But these solutions take time.
What many environmental researchers stress
is that a speed limit is one of the fastest mechanisms we have
to lower emissions in the meantime.
"In my opinion,
if the German government can't even bring itself to do that,
then I wonder what it can do to reduce transport emissions."
"I think we need to have better status symbols
or better dreams than driving fast or owning a car."
For some people, this would feel like an attack on their culture,
their personal freedom.
But it would put Germany on par
with most countries in the world.
"This is as fast as I'll go.
But I'm interested in your opinion.
Should Germans learn how to slow down?
Or is it their right to drive fast?
Let us know in the comments
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