UNCOVERING THE TRUTH ABOUT GERMANY’S AUTOBAHNS

UNCOVERING THE TRUTH ABOUT GERMANY’S AUTOBAHNS

A      Officially the Bundesautobahnen, which, when translated, means federal expressways, we know them more commonly as the autobahns – Germany’s impressive system of motorways. There is nothing extraordinary about them, fine feats of engineering though they may be, so why has the term autobahn become so well known? The simple answer is that people living outside of Germany have had their curiosity more than a little tickled on account of the fact that Germany’s motorways are, in one specific way, very unique indeed. They are not the longest system in the world, this plaudit going to the Interstate Highway System of America, nor are they even second or third (China and India respectively), and though they come a healthy fourth in the length stakes, this is really neither here nor there. No, indeed, what fascinates us about the autobahns has nothing to do with their technical or design features. It is though, a lot to do with how fast you can go on them. The autobahns, you see, are the only stretch of motorway in the world on which you can drive your car (provided it is not towing a trailer) at, well, any speed you like. Now that’s a very attractive proposition for many boy-racers out there who would salivate at the prospect of being able to drive as fast as they wanted, and, therefore, on that rather scary point, perhaps we should consider asking the, well, obvious question: what on earth were the Germans thinking when they did this? Surely having no speed limit whatsoever is a recipe for disaster.

B            To clarify, there is a ‘recommended’ speed limit of 130km/h on all stretches of German motorway, and a hard limit is imposed on some vehicles. Buses carrying standing passengers and motorbikes pulling trailers cannot go faster than 60 km/h. All other buses, as well as passenger cars and trucks with trailers, and all vehicles weighing in excess of 3.5 tonnes are not allowed to exceed 80km/h. Rare exceptions include buses that have been officially certified to travel at 100km/h and passenger cars carrying trailers that have received similar certification. Nonetheless, the fact remains that all other cars, trucks and motorbikes, while encouraged to adhere to the ‘recommended’ speed limit, are by no means bound to it and can, in effect, travel as fast as they please. Indeed, many of them do and it is not uncommon to see a car racing past you on the autobahn travelling in excess of 140km/h.

C             In such circumstances, it would not be at all surprising to learn that Germany has an awful record on road safety, except that it doesn’t. Indeed, Germany’s road safety record is comparable, and in some cases superior, to that of all other industrialised European countries. So is this just luck rewarding recklessness? Well, first of all, it’s important to concede that speed limits do apply at junctions and other danger spots, such as sections under repair, and that there are even weather-related speed limits on some stretches of the autobahn (lower speed limits are used in cases of wet lanes). To fail to point this out would be to paint a picture, rather unfairly, of speed-hungry officials putting the travelling public in jeopardy on roads in order to gratify their own thrill-lust. Of course, this is not the case. Indeed, safety considerations aside, the Germans have even imposed speed limits for other purposes, such as to reduce pollution and noise on some stretches of the autobahn, so there is no crazy speed-fuelled agenda here. ‘Mad’ you may say, but the Germans actually seem to think this is safe.

D               And the statistics appear to back them up though. After all, the International Traffic Safety Data and Analysis Group’s research indicates that there are 2.2 road-user fatalities per billion vehicle kilometres on German autobahns each year. Using the same statistics, 4.5 fatalities occur on United States motorways each year. In fact, when you look beyond the