chadbag
Well-Known Member
Just to be clear -- I am only speaking of German Autobahns, which are the only ones which have some stretches as unlimited speed. Every other country I know of in Europe has limits on every limited access motorway.
I drove the autobahn almost daily to work for a year and a half when I had a job in Munich. Admittedly this was almost 30 years ago, but I've been back several times since and driven and nothing had really changed.
A whole country of 83 million learns to drive and drives this kind of motorway everyday. Nothing special about it if you have the right parameters. Most people only drive about 70-90 mph on it anyway, but the high speed driving is not that stressful if you learn and internalize the stuff I mentioned. Stay to the right, and watch the road a 1/2 mile ahead, not the bumper of the guy in front of you. And be respectful. There are idiots there too but it works on whole.
Regarding road quality -- I never saw any Autobahn that was in the same condition as the average US interstate. And if they had damage or issues, they were not unlimited speed. The attention to road quality is much higher there.
Drivers there are better schooled on how to drive and learn their responsibilities. And to have patience and fit in to the traffic flow. It is interesting to see a line of trucks and a line of cars passing and watching every car go by and then immediately move right when they have passed, and then the final Porsche in the line blow by them all (trucks are speed limited and tend to bunch up as some trucks drive slightly faster than others until they approach the trucks in front of them).
I was in a 64 car pile up on the A92 on Feb 27 1992 (or a day plus or minus -- from memory). In the Fog. No one died. I had barely just gotten on at the exit/onramp before and ended up in the middle of the pile up. There were idiots in their big Mercs and Audis racing through which made it worse, of course. Fog accidents happen in the US as well (and often people die). The difference is, I think, that people there pay more attention and look further ahead and don't stare at the road in front of them. The particular one I was in started when a car rear ended a truck/trailer combo that ahd just entered the Autobahn and a few cars piled into them. Then those that stopped behind it got piled on by those behind. This happened a few times. The 64cars were really a bunch of smaller ones spread over a KM of space.
Anyway, the problem in the US is the quality of roads and the quality of drivers education and the entitlement feeling of people on the roads who drive in whatever lane they want, and pay no heed to the other cars around them, weaving in and out, no signaling, speeding in stupid places, tailgating, etc. I'd like to see cops pay less attention to minor speed infractions and pay much more attention to tail gaters, those weaving in and out, not signaling, and the general jerks on the road.
BTW, my car insurance in Germany was not much different than my car insurance in Mass before I moved there, as a percentage of the budget
