American Autobahn? (tires, lane, truck, drivers)

[0marvin0]

I believe the autobahns are engeneered a bit better ie. better and thicker road surface materials, to withstand the much higher speeds. I would be in favor of that here in the U.S. but it would be more expensive. As I remember way back when the 55 mph national speed limit was removed there were sections of highways in less populated areas of states like Montana that had no speed limit. Not sure if that is still the case.

[Yellow Jacket]

I would love to have it but we would have imbeciles who insist on driving in it at 50 mph. Germans aren't pretentious cowards at least not when driving.

[flynavyj]

Originally Posted by ukrkoz

Incorrect:

A hard limit is imposed on some vehicles:
60 km/h

• Buses carrying standing passengers
• Motorcycles pulling trailers

80 km/h

• Vehicles with maximum allowed weight exceeding 3.5 t (except passenger cars)
• Passenger cars and trucks with trailers
• Buses

100 km/h

• Passenger cars pulling trailers certified for 100 km/h
• Buses certified for 100 km/h not pulling trailers

[13]
The German autobahns are famous for being among the few public roads in the world without blanket speed limits for cars and motorbikes.


Also, Americans don't know how to build an autobahn. It's the blood thing. Even if they call German engineers. You know they roll a fresh egg on tarmac and if it cracks, they will remake it? And tarmac is scoped with lasers for imperfections? You want THAT quality here?

Thank you for filling in the extra information on the speeds, i knew there were intricate details and limitations...and yes, i'd be ok with those.

As to having "quality" roads here, yes...unfortunately, we still all our tax dollars for other programs, so we'd have no way to pay for it...maybe if we forced congress to utilize our tax revenue for what it was intended for?

[flynavyj]

Originally Posted by 28173

I'd love it!

However before that, there should be a huge campaign to explain to entitlement drivers that the left lane is for passing only. Police should be giving steep fees to anybody holding up the traffic on the left lane (with nobody in front of them).
Actually, this should happen now!

I think there are a lot of campaigns that'd need to be tackled, inattentive drivers, distracted drivers being tops...drunk drivers, etc being not far behind.

[flynavyj]

Originally Posted by Fargobound

Have you seen some of junk driving on American roads? Germany is really strict on car inspections and driver testing.

I seen a car trailer today with four miss matched car tires in different sizes being towed by truck that was junkyard refugee. Of course the lights were all busted off and the pigtail was nothing but a shredded bundle of wires dragging on the ground.

Junk on our roads is a major issue...specifically the junky cars Now, just because the cars are junky doesn't mean they shouldn't be allowed on the roads anymore, but maybe we should impose speed restrictions on vehicles that don't have the ability to pass what i'm denoting as a "Tier 1" safety inspection.

[City Guy997S]

Few issues on the fantasy autobahn:

1. Vehicles not ideal (minivans, pickup trucks, large SUVs.....not common stuff in Germany)
2. Distracted drivers.....texting, cell phones,etc.....not as common in Germany
3. Lack of driver training, left lane bandits
4. Environmaniacs........Fuel burn, carbon footprint.....My Nissan Leaf would run out of battery power in 20 miles of WFO driving

[Yellow Jacket]

There is crap all over the Autobahn. Skodas for example. Dacias for example. At least those drivers kept their collective arses in the slower lanes. In America, they would crowd the left.

[flynavyj]

Originally Posted by ElkHunter

We already have one and it's called the Interstate System.

There is not a lot of difference between our Interstate and Germany's Autobahn. Although the Autobahn doesn't have an enforced speed limit, it does have an advisory speed limit that is 81 mph. In the Western half of the US, most interstates are 75 and Texas has 85. Most people cruise slightly higher than posted 75, so I'd say it's almost identical between the two.

In the state I live in, it's 100 miles between towns and then it's a very small town that offers no on/off traffic anyhow.

People don't commute from one town to the other around here, so the traffic on the Interstate is tourist or travelers and most are wanting to see the scenery and are in no particular hurry anyhow.

I could certainly see raising the speed limit in some areas of the Western US, but not much. Maybe 80?
.

Raising the speed limits is much of what I wanted to concentrate on here. Our current limit is 70 mph on many interstates, 75 in rural areas, and 80-85 in rural states that are "pushing the boundaries". As you stated, most drivers drive above the posted speed limit, why would people speed if they thought they'd fling out of control and into a ball of fire...either people are stupid/crazy or the speed limits are arbitrary (which is my thought).

So, instead of having an arbitrary 75 mph speed limit, why not have an 80-85 mph speed limit. Certain stretches of road could remove the limit, and with the exception of some drivers, the majority would still average out to about 85 mph...Just from my observations in Germany, even when the speed limits were unrestricted, folks averaged out to about 100-110.

[SVTRay]

The US Interstate system is the brainchild of President Eisenhower and loosely based on the European Autobahn.

[Jabronie]

Did not read what other said, but ...

1) Our infrastructure is no where near up to par for this

and

2) American driving habits absolutely do not jive with what it takes for these speeds. There is essentially ZERO acknowledgement of how right/left lanes are supposed to work. ZERO.