German roads have a certain speed limit based on what type of road they are. For example, everyone knows the beloved Autobahn has no speed limit, but also a smaller category of streets, the Autostraße, also has no speed limit in most cases. However, certain stretches of these roads do have speed limits because of any number of factors that would make driving at 250 km\h a tad dangerous.
But there are other types of streets that do have speed limits, and your key to successful driving in Germany is being able to determine what type street you are currently driving on, because in their twisted logic, Germans think it makes sense to tell you what the speed limit isn’t, instead of what it is. Let’s take the following sign as an example:
Simple, right? There is no speed limit because the restriction has been lifted. Not so easy, since all you know now is that the speed limit is not 60. How easy would it have been to put 100 kmh on the sign, or just stripes to let you know its unlimited? It doesn’t matter. Every German will argue until they are blue in the face that it makes perfect sense to tell you what the speed limit isn’t. This is probably because they paid $2,000 to get a driver’s license, so they must know better.
deutsche Übersetzung für Astrid
Einen wunderschönen guten Abend, liebe Astrid,
hier die Übersetzung:
Deutsche Schilder sagen einem, was die Geschwindigkeitsbegrenzung nicht ist
Deutsche Straßen haben eine festgelegte Geschwindigkeitsbegrenzung, je nachdem, um was für eine Art von Straße es sich handelt. Zum Beispiel weiß jeder, dass es für die geliebte Autobahn keine Geschwindigkeitsbegrenzung gibt. Aber auch die Bundesstraße, eine kleinere Art von Straße, hat keine Begrenzung, zumindest in den meisten Fällen. Wie auch immer, bestimmte Abschnitte auf diesen Straßen haben wiederum Begrenzungen, weil einige Faktoren das Fahren mit 250 km/h ein wenig gefährlich gestalten könnten.
Es gibt allerdings auch noch andere Arten von Straßen, die Geschwindigkeitsbegrenzungen haben. Und Ihr Schlüssel zum erfolgreichen Fahren in Deutschland ist die Fähigkeit zu erkennen, auf was für einer Straße Sie sich gerade befinden, denn mit ihrer verdrehten Logik denken die Deutschen tatsächlich dass es Sinn macht, wenn die Verkehrsschilder darauf hinweisen, welche Geschwindigkeitsbegrenzung gerade nicht gilt, anstatt einfach zu sagen, wie schnell man fahren darf. Lassen Sie uns folgendes Verkehrszeichen als Beispiel nehmen: Siehe Abbildung 1.
Einfach, oder? Es gibt hier kein Tempolimit, weil die Begrenzung aufgehoben wurde. Nicht ganz so einfach, weil nun das Einzige, das Sie mit Bestimmtheit wissen ist, dass die Begrenzung nicht 60 km/h ist. Wie einfach wäre es gewesen, eine 100 auf das Schild zu schreiben oder einfach nur Streifen, um zu zeigen, dass die Geschwindigkeit nun offen ist? Es ist egal. Jeder Deutsche wird mit Ihnen argumentieren bis er blau wird, dass dies das einzig Logische ist. Wahrscheinlich kommt das daher, dass man in Deutschland $2000 für den Führerschein bezahlen muss, also müssen sie es ja besser wissen!
Sonnige Grüße in den Norden,
John
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April 30th, 2008 at 11:33 am
I actually think, that this sign makes sense. When you are driving on the Autobahn and are dringing through a building site the allowed maximum speed is normally limited to about 60 km/h. As there is no speed limitation on a Autobahn the only way to repeal the speed limitation is an additional sign (with or without number makes no difference).
I know my English isn’t very good. But this goes me now the ass along.
April 30th, 2008 at 10:11 pm
Yeah Thomas, but if it is a Landstraße then there is a speed limit, not unlimited, but rather 100.
May 5th, 2008 at 3:27 pm
Actually, there is another sign with just the stripes in it (see here). This other sign says, that all bans and limits are canceled, while the one with the speed within just cancels the speed limit, so that for example bans on passing are still active.
May 5th, 2008 at 4:46 pm
My boyfriend suggested that ths sign was invented to save printing costs. The red colored sign for a new speed limit might be more expensive than the black-and-grey one. (Actually I don’t think so, but who knows?)
May 6th, 2008 at 6:44 pm
This sign that you hav eshowd John is related to another Sign, which shows that it is forbidden to overtake someone.
And both Signs can come in combination, especially at dangerous places. So if the sign that you have shown comes up, it tells you, that the speedlimit is no longer active, but other rules like “no overtaking” could still last.
(please have mercy with my english)
by the way: I enjoy your weblog!
May 8th, 2008 at 2:05 pm
1. There is no such this as ‘Autostraße’ in Germany.
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autostra%C3%9Fe
2. You can’t drive as fast as you want on the Autobahn. At least not all the time. Take the best Autobahn in the world - A7 - for example:
http://www.autobahnatlas-online.de/A7.htm
legend: http://www.autobahnatlas-online.de/Legende_e.htm
And yes, this Autobahn website is insane!
May 16th, 2008 at 9:14 pm
We germans ever believe we know better, that’s part of our culture
Think of it as a game, we ever play devil’s advocate
May 18th, 2008 at 12:16 am
Hi,
sorry, but not only “Autostraße” is wrong, “Bundesstraße” is also the wrong term. “Bundesstraße” designates roads that are usually open for all kinds of traffic (motorized vehicles, bicycles, pedestrians). “Bundesstraßen” are built and maintained by the country of Germany.
The correct term is “Kraftfahrstraße” (road for motorized vehicles only). They look like an “Autobahn” but may have intersections. A few “Bundesstraßen” are in fact “Kraftfahrstraßen”.
Other types of roads are “Landstraßen” (”Staatsstraßen” in Bavaria), maintained by the individual states. “Kreisstraßen” are maintained by the county (”Kreis”) and “Gemeindestraßen” are maintained by the town the are in.
Regards
Recumbent Andreas
May 18th, 2008 at 6:26 am
we germans are always blue in the face when arguing, it’s the only way we know how to do it.
having that said, it makes sense since the driver is assumed to know the general speed limit for a certain type of road, so marking the exception instead of the rule is a perfectly sensible approach afaic.
check it out when going by the very large town of ausfahrt the next time.
May 26th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
If you didn’t recognize the speed limit before and got caught by a speed cam this sign can be helpful to calculate how much you drove too fast.
Also a new limit of 100 wouldn’t be true because there are different speed limits for cars and trucks.
However these signs are my favourite signs.
May 28th, 2008 at 7:53 pm
Another reason for telling which speed limit is not valid anymore:
It is possible to have two different speed limits at a time,
i.e. one for cars and one for trucks, or one for daytime, another one the night or one for good weather and another one for rain.
With showing the - now invalid - speed limit on the speed limit end sign you know which one of them has been lifted…
June 3rd, 2008 at 3:20 pm
Hi,
it’s simple: the number of signs used is less when telling what the speed limit isn’t.
another point about the stripes: there is an difference between a sign with only stripes and the one with stripes and a number. Without a number it tells you: forget about all signs you’ve seen before, like “no passing”, etc. but IF there is a number or another symbol inside, you are only allowed to forget about that specific sign!
in the 60 case: forget about the speedlimit but not about the “no passing”-sign.
Sorry for my bad english but as you can see, your posting is NOT correct.
- Flo
June 25th, 2008 at 8:17 am
Wow. I’m American and this entry really scares me. One, it sounds like you’re out there on the same roads others are driving. Two, it’s only the second post I’ve read on this blog, so maybe this is premature, but - are you making any attempt to integrate? It sounds like you’re harshly criticizing something you don’t understand.
These signs lifting restrictions only worry me when I see them and realize I hadn’t been aware of the restriction. Am very keen on maintaining 0 points in Flensburg.
July 13th, 2008 at 3:25 pm
Those signs are nothing else then green bulbs at traffic lights. Green light says that you do NOT have to stop. If they would leave out the green lights, you would never know, if you really may cross the street or if just the red bulb is damaged.
Traffic psychologists found out that people’s short-term memory is very limited. That means they will forget traffic signs after a short time. Therefore for example special speed limits are repeated every few kilometers to remind them.
On the other hand a special speed limit has a special reason. For example a section of a road may be extreme dangerous or they just want to reduce the traffic noise in a limited area. But how do you know where this area ends if there is no sign that informs you?
So be sure, we (Germans) don’t place that signs randomly, but we do it when it’s required. And one requirement could be to keep traffic running. You should know that in Germany you can be disciplined, when you drive much slower as reasonable!
July 15th, 2008 at 9:11 am
> If they would leave out the green lights, you would never know, if you really may cross the street or if just the red bulb is damaged.
Actually, we do have traffic lights like that here, whose states are “yellow”, “red”, “off” [where “off” means to behave according to the usual traffic signs]
September 24th, 2008 at 11:16 pm
While it is true that Germany generally has more road signs than the US, this sign makes perfect sense as Andreas and Florian explained so well.
A look at traffic statistics shows that Germany has less deadly accidents even if you figure in such things as traffic density, road conditions and distances traveled and speed limits.
Given that the German system is more complicated it is only normal that our driver’s ed be more involved, too. However, it seems to work pretty well. In my driving practice in Germany I do encounter less incidents of dangerous driving where the reason is most likely that people either don’t know the rules or neglect them. The incidents where someone is just driving like a jerk are about equal, though.
October 29th, 2008 at 7:18 pm
Besides all the fun here, I think the ‘60 stroke through’ sign thing is a very good sample, of how one (or lets better say a hole nation) sort of becomes ‘Betriebsblind’ (professionally blinkered) for the reason of being used to each and every nonsense from childhood days on.
No question, placing a sign telling what the currenty speed limit is, instead of what the speed limit is no more, would ease the task.
But as you said, people who have to pay 2000 Euro or more for their driving licence, want to have some return of investment — a proof that the 2000 Euros have been worth it!
But probably there is another psychological aspect of this. We are the volk of Freie Fahrt für freie Bürger and so the End Of Speed Limit 60 sign is far more liked then a Speed Limit 100 one. It’s sort of a common self-deception.
November 14th, 2008 at 1:15 pm
I totally agree with the inverted signage. I’ve been in Germany for four years and have witnessed the difficulty multiple friends / relatives have when trying to get around in a rental.
“So…how fast can I drive here?”
“Well, you no longer have to drive 60.”
“Oh…” (blank stare)
If Europe is trying to make signs universally understandable to improve unity among the countries in the future, they might reexamine their speed sign’s tendency to dwell in the past (or not exist at all i.e in Holland).
April 26th, 2009 at 11:37 pm
What’s the problem with those signs?
The red colour is always reserved for something that is out of the ordinary and needs your attention. Red and roundshaped signs always mean ‘forbidden’, red triangular ones always mean ‘danger ahead’, with no exception.
Blue always means, that you have to follow certain rules that come with that sign.
And finally grey always means a sign is longer valid, regardless of the colour of the former sign.
To me, it all makes perfect sense, but it’s something you grow up with and learn in kindergarten, so you almost intuitively follow this particular set of rules.
But I have to admit, that sometimes these signs are put up unnnecessarily, because the square-shaped ‘Vorfahrtstraße’-Sign makes all previous signs invalid. That’s something even a lot of Germans don’t know.
To make it even more confusing for you, there are blue round-shaped speed signs, but they are pretty rare, though. These signs mean, you have to at least drive the speed indicated, and they are not overruled by grey signs, but signs of blue colour crossed out in red.
There might be a lot of signs, but there’s no inconsistency in shapes and colours of any sign in Germany. I think it’s thought out really well.
It’s like those Autobahn-signs, Americans seem to think it’s somehow wicked how Germans use them. But there’s a general rule nobody speaks about, too. All Autobahns with odd numbers run north-south, all with even numbers east-west. One digit ones run through the whole of Germany, two digit ones are local Autobahns. Three digit ones lead to two digit ones, the first two digits indicate, which one it is.
May 28th, 2009 at 5:32 pm
Very true, even as a German who payed 2000 $ and spend half a year in driving school to get a drivers licence, I have to admit that infact it makes no sense at all to have sighs that say what the speed limit isn’t.
It keeps confusing me, cause sometimes, like after that crossed out “60″ sign, the speed limit is 100 km/h, but it doesn’t say anywhere, you just have to know that on that kind of street, the speed limit is always 100. Confusing hoch drei.
June 21st, 2009 at 12:51 pm
Only a striped sign means, that ALL restrictions (such as no parking) are lifted.
And every German knows, that you are allowed to drive 100 km/h on Landstraßen.
It’s really pretty logical, and I would argue ’till I were blue in the face.
June 22nd, 2009 at 3:16 pm
Plus, it’s not a German thing. I’ve seen them in the Netherlands, too.
July 20th, 2009 at 9:34 pm
THIS sign just lifts the speed limit, but doesn’t affect an “Überholverbot”.