"Brent P" > wrote in message
. ..
> In article >, Rob wrote:
>> Our interstates should be like this. According to everything I have
>> read, their accident rates are no higher than ours. They may even be
>> lower.
>> .
>> http://gettingaroundgermany.home.att...tm#speedlimits
>
> The thing you don't seem to grasp, when speed limits are used, they make
> sense there. Have you driven any part of the Autobahn at all? I have. I'd
> rather drive in congested traffic on the autobahn in a construction
> zone than about 90% of the interstate driving I do here given my past
> experience.

We lived in Germany for seven years, and I had the fortune to have an E-Type
Jaguar. We were married in Basel, had to return to Mainz, and my
child-bride woke up to find I was driving 130 mph on the Munich to Frankfurt
Autobahn, and she made me promise to never do that again. The second time
we had two kids and a VW Dasher, so I never saw 90 again.

Germany has graduated driving licenses, and *all* of the drivers on *all* of
the Autobahns know *all* of the rules (or they are not allowed to drive the
Autobahn) and so they are very predictable in their actions, unlike the
"free-form" driving that is done in other places. One always keeps to the
right, and only pass to the left, and if there are blinking headlights
behind, immediately dive back to the right. Back in D.C. there was a famous
Dr. Nestor, who wrote many a letter to the editor of the Washington Post
proclaiming how he was proud to drive the speed limit in the left lane. He
would be dead, or in jail, in Germany.

Accident rates, when we were there, were higher than the US. The reason is
that the high speeds themselves are not necessarily unsafe, but when there
is fog, or an unexpected stoppage, then many cars collide, at high speed.
Overall there are fewer accidents, but when they happen they involve many
more cars than on a US Interstate.

We drove everywhere, the distances meaning little, by US standards. I was
used to driving twelve hours a day in my annual commute from Dallas to
Sacramento for the Jazz Jubilee, so six hours to Paris? A piece of brioche.
We even drove to Calais, ferried the car to England, and drove the wrong way
around England, then back, in about a week - no hurry.

The secret to the Autobahn is the drivers, and the cars, both better than
the US. You may not register a car in Germany if it has any leak, or any
rust, at all. A number of American soldiers got good deals from Germans,
who could not register their cars, but the soldiers could get NATO
status-of-forces exemptions, and US Forces Germany license plates. Very few
American cars that I saw, in Germany, could pass the rigid German
registration. They make no bones about the fact that they do not want
everyone to drive - it is a rich person's way of life - everyone is supposed
to take the train.