No speed limit?

[Ghostrider275452]

Originally Posted by rebel12

This is also because getting a driver license in the US is a joke. In Florida you pass your driving test in a parking lot. Not so in Europe. Dirver licenses are expensive and require quite a few hours of training with a certified instru

I agree with this, any idiot can get a driver license, just look around while you drive, you'll see them. I deliver auto parts for a major chain and I did not realize how many azzholes there were driving until spending more time on the road and quite frankly it scares the hell out of me.

[DukeGanote]

Originally Posted by Repubocrat

One thing that blows my mind about Germany is being able to drive on the Autobahn without a speed limit...

Most of western Europe didn't bother with motorway speed limits until the Gas Price Crisis of '73-'74. Even Germany had a temporary limit then of 100 km/h (62 mph) -- for a short period.

Is that mindblowing? Not if you know the autobahn safety record. In 2011, the autobahn fatality rate was 2.0 deaths per billion-travel-km. The fatality rate for other national/rural roads was 8.7-- over four times higher! Of the 4,009 people killed that year in Germany, 453 (about 11%) were killed on autobahns.

The reason is pretty simple, and it gets back to why the interstate system was built. The common causes of crashes are crossing traffic at intersections, opposing traffic in-the-next-lane, sharp curves, and unforgiving roadside obstacles like trees and telephone poles. All those hazards are "designed out" of freeways (such as interstates and autobahns).

IMHO, the U.S. spent millions of dollars building rather safe roads, and now does a fine job turning the traffic stream into a revenue stream on our safest roads. Writing speeding tickets is easy to do, and generates impressive headlines, but doesn't have much bearing on the overall traffic safety of the U.S.

http://tinyurl.com/autobahn2010
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