Road comment rage

Cars don't kill people, slow drivers do!

If you read German papers in the last week, you might have thought that the world was going to end again -- at a speed of 75 mph.

A leading politician of the social democratic party (one of the big two here) called for a general speed limit of 120 km/h (about 75 mph) on the autobahns. He was immediately shot down by his party's candidate for chancellor in the upcoming election.

But it was too late.

Every politician weighed in, and the German papers' comments sections were full of road comment rage.
The ruling party nixed the call by saying that more people die on two-lane highways and small roads, so let's work on this. The small fact that there are 28% more fatalities on autobahn sections without speed limits compared to sections with speed limits did not count. Of course, there were a host of very reasonable readers, from "sure, why not" to deep physical formula explanations, but the age of reason was a while ago -- if that label was ever accurate in the first place.

Emotions on the side of the freedom fighters ran wild:
Why not go down to 30 km/h, that's even safer?
Punish the dangerous folks doing 70 mph in the left lane!
What if I need to get somewhere fast?
A general speed limit is only one part of their agenda against freedom!
Do something about the old drivers!

We felt right at home in the charged atmosphere after years without the adrenaline kick of a dumbass gun debate.

We told you in one of our earliest posts how small a country Germany is compared to the US - heck, you could walk the 400 miles to Berlin and back and still get home in time for dinner!

In the debate, something fell bay the wayside, so let us clue you in.

First, the generation of nazi drivers has died out, making the autobahn experience much more pleasant than even 30 years ago.
Second, on workdays, there are so many trucks on the autobahns that the effective speed on the two-lane ones is not much above that suggested speed limit anyway.

Here is an anecdote those retired US service men and women from a bygone era have seen and experienced.

In the old days, how could you tell a newly transferred service member in the breakfast line with a single glance?

The answer: for the first week or so, they would show up all ashen faced in the morning, glad to have survived another day of German road commute.