Ah, the world-renown Autobahn. Driving at speeds over 150 mph right next to semis driving 50 mph is quite a rush, and should be on anyone’s to do list when visiting Germany. It’s just a shame the Dutch don’t learn to speed up or get out of the way.
But the lack of a speed limit doesn’t really fit to the German mentality for two reasons.
- It is quite dangerous. Germans love insurance against unfortunate things from happening to them. Physics says going at an unlimited speed may turn out bad.
- It is a waste of gas. As you go faster your wind-resistance gets much higher and you waste fuel. Germans are generally very ecologically minded, so you would think that a country that makes you pay a deposit for just about any container that could possibly be recycled and makes you sort your trash three ways would set speed limits on the Autobahn.
So what does Germany do instead? They spend money to put up signs to tell you there is no speed limit like this:
So you can now drive as fast as you want, but you may soon start noticing signs like this:
That’s the suggested speed. If you are feeling like a nice person, you will follow that suggestion for the safety of the rest of people on the road and to do your small part for the environment. But then the weirdest thing Germany does is put up advertising on giant billboards to tell you just how uncool you are if you drive fast.
The worst part of this whole thing aside from being a complete waste of money is having to constantly explain to American colleagues traveling in Germany that the sign is not about what they think it is about.
I guess Daimler, Porsche, VW, BMW, Bosch, and Conti are happy just the way things are.
deutsche Übersetzung für Astrid ein/ausblenden
Guten Abend, Astrid,hier die Übersetzung:
Verwirrende Nachrichten auf der Autobahn
Ah, die weltberühmte Autobahn. Mit über 250 km/h gleich neben einem Sattelschlepper mit 80 km/h zu fahren ist ein ganz schöner Adrenalinschub und sollte auf jedermanns to-do-Liste der Dinge, die man in Deutschland machen muss, stehen. Es ist nur eine echte Schande, dass Holländer nicht lernen, schneller zu fahren oder den Weg frei zu machen.
Aber die fehlende Geschwindigkeitsbegrenzung passt aus zwei Gründen nicht ganz zur deutschen Mentalität:
- Es ist relativ gefährlich. Die Deutschen lieben Versicherungen gegen alle möglichen schlimmen Dinge, die ihnen zustossen könnten. Die Physik besagt aber, dass das Fahren mit unbegrenzter Geschwindigkeit eventuell schlecht ausgeht.
- Es ist Spritverschwendung. Sobald Sie schneller fahren wird der Windwiderstand höher und Sie verbrauchen mehr Sprit. Eigentlich sind Deutsche sehr ökologisch eingestellt, daher würden Sie wohl annehmen, dass ein Land das Sie Pfand für so ziemlich jeden Behälter der wiederverwertet werden könnte zahlen lässt und Sie ihren Müll in drei verschiedene Tonnen sortieren lässt, sich für eine Geschwindigkeitsbegrenzung auf der Autobahn entscheiden würde.
Was machen die Deutschen stattdessen? Sie stellen Schilder auf, die Ihnen sagen, dass es gerade keine Geschwindigkeitsbegrenzung gibt, so wie dieses:
Siehe Abbildung 1!
Nun können Sie also so schnell fahren, wie Sie möchten, aber Ihnen werden vielleicht bald solche Schilder auffallen:
Siehe Abbildung 2!
Dies ist die vorgeschlagene Geschwindigkeit. Sollten Sie einen netten Tag haben, werden Sie zur Sicherheit aller Verkehrsteilnehmer diese Geschwindigkeit einhalten und Ihren kleinen Teil zum Umweltschutz beitragen. Das Merkwürdigste, das die Deutschen tun ist aber, dass sie Werbung auf riesigen Schildern aufstellen, die Ihnen sagt wie uncool sie sind wenn Sie zu schnell fahren.
Siehe Abbildung 3!
Das Schlimmste an dieser ganzen Sache ist, neben der Tatsache dass es reine Geldverschwendung ist, den amerikanischen Kollegen die ganze Zeit erklären zu müssen, dass dieses Schild nicht das bedeutet, was sie denken.
Aber für Daimler, Porsche, VW, Bosch und Conti ist die Welt noch völlig in Ordnung, so wie es ist.
Gute Nacht,
John
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May 7th, 2008 at 5:30 am
Well, I guess the last sign *is* about what your colleagues think - that’s the psychological trick. Young men love driving fast, but being told by a girl they have a small … more than offsets that.
Great blog!
May 7th, 2008 at 8:45 am
@John:
You should mention, that you can only drive as fast as you like (and be able) on the Autobahn (highway). And even 33% of the Autobahns are restricted with permanent speedlimit. About 20% of the Autobahn are restricted with situation dependable speedlimit.
So, the Germans have only Speedlimit at about the half of their highways… And even there the trafficjam prevent high speed driving most of the time.
On Autobahn there is a speed recommendation of 130 km/h which is about 80 mph. I suggest to use this recommendation…
May 7th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
thanks, frank, for this exceedingly typical german comment! LOL
May 7th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
Well, honestly, suggested speeds are a “suggestion” … which fortunately means I can safely ignore them. Especially at between 5 and 7 in the morning on some stretches of our highway … completely deserted, good weather … 220 km/h, here I come! (really, only when there is only light or no traffic. The Audi A4 has superb brakes, but the adrenalin surge after swerving some idiot changing lanes at 80 km/h because there is a truck about A MILE ahead of him is not a comfortable feeling at all).
May 7th, 2008 at 5:58 pm
I wonder if it would actually work to introduce a standard speed limit on Autobahns AND allow passing on all lanes (left AND right!!!). But I suppose that would reduce the available German gene pool quite fast…
May 7th, 2008 at 7:09 pm
let alone the political uproar a binding standard speed limit would cause. if not anything worse. just the humble suggestion brought about the “autofahrer-partei” a couple years ago. you don’t wanna push it too far with the germans.
May 7th, 2008 at 10:56 pm
Something else to note is that when you get into an accident and you drove with more that 130 km/h it is always, at least partly, you fault. That’s the reason why government and military regulations only permit to drive at 130 km/h.
May 9th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
You have also to be aware of this 130km/h suggestion when having the driver’s license checkride. Exceeding the suggested speed leads to a fail
(In fact I don’t know anyone who had to use an Autobahn at the checkride)
May 9th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
“some idiot changing lanes at 80 km/h because there is a truck about A MILE ahead of him”
the mortal sin!
May 9th, 2008 at 8:26 pm
flipflop:
That’s strange, here (Düsseldorf) going onto the Autobahn is part of the normal test procedure only in rare cases it’s not done (exceeding the time limit)
May 14th, 2008 at 4:41 pm
About that billboard, I think that other meaning is totally intended.
May 23rd, 2008 at 8:06 am
> It’s just a shame the Dutch don’t learn to speed up or get out of the way.
*lach* This is soo true.
May 24th, 2008 at 8:51 pm
in our region we even sort our trash four ways.
November 12th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
I have always maintained — and shall continue on and on and on — that the German as such is a creature full of conflict and agression.
Lacking the option of popping by the hardware store to get a rifle and a few rounds, the least he needs is a fast car with a full tank. Now, which lends itself better to the proceedings — a busy or deserted motorway — remains a matter of individual personality.
Mit freundlichen Gruessen
Herr B.
November 24th, 2008 at 8:39 pm
I’m tired of reading all the other comments so I’m just adding my mustard without knowing if this is already said.
The suggested speed on the blue sign is a bit more obligatory than one may think. You may go faster than the suggested speed. But if you do, you may be accused for driving to fast if you get involved into an accident and you will be guilty for it at least partially. On the autobahn, the default suggested speed is 130km/h.
The uncool “Raser” is someone who goes as fast as he likes even if there is a speedlimit. Also he tailgates, flashes his lights and he doesn’t use the blinker when changing the lane.
November 25th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
That’s not true. I drove over 150km/h for a good 5 kilometres during my driver’s license checkride and did not fail!
# flipflop Says:
May 9th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
You have also to be aware of this 130km/h suggestion when having the driver’s license checkride. Exceeding the suggested speed leads to a fail
(In fact I don’t know anyone who had to use an Autobahn at the checkride)
November 25th, 2008 at 3:36 pm
Hah, in Austria we sort trash in 7 ways:
* plastic and packaging
* paper
* white glass
* colored glass
* metal
* organic waste
* waste which does not fit in any of the other categories
In return we are only allowed to drive 130 km/h maximum speed at our Autobahn.
November 25th, 2008 at 5:27 pm
* plastic and packaging
* paper
* white glass
* colored glass
* metal
* organic waste
* waste which does not fit in any of the other categories
Well, apart from the fact that the “Duales System Deutschland GmbH” aka “Der Grüne Punkt” makes us put metal and plastic / packaging into the same category, it’s the same in Germany.
But with the “Dosenpfand”, which actually means most beverage containers (plastic bottles, cans etc.) have to be returned to the shop to get your deposit back, the colored / white glass category has been reduced to almost only wine bottles and pickle / jam jars…
Before that, deposit was only for glass and plastic pottles that are cleaned and reused by the industry instead of being recycled.
Nowadays people in Germany not only take the usual boxes of beer, water and soft drink bottles back to the supermarked / beverage store, they also carry huge bags of empty plastic bottles and beverage cans to the supermarked nowadays to get their deposit back…
Strangely, the aimed effect to promote reusable glass bottles seems to have gone in the opposite direction. Instead now there are more and more beverages, formerly sold in deposit free “one-way-bottles” (literal translation) made of glass, available in plastic bottles or beverage cans only. Ok, they’re returned and recycled as I said above, but glass recycling is still better than aluminum/aluminium or plastic recycling.
December 2nd, 2008 at 8:40 am
I really hate those billboard signs! What happened to the good old “Freie Fahrt für freie Bürger”?
June 19th, 2009 at 3:38 pm
The purpose of the comment is twofold:
First I want to give a little update that the second (the blue) sign is about to be abandoned in July 2009 …
Second I wanted to add that the sign had a relevance for your insurance … crashing at a speed higher than the recommended could give you trouble with your insurance company … because you might have been able to prevent the crash driving at the recommended velocity … that is what I call german style …
June 19th, 2009 at 9:46 pm
50% of the Autobahn have a speed limit
The normal Richtgeschwindigkeit (the sqared blue sign) is 130 km/h (80,7 mph).
If there is an accident, and you are faster than these 130 km/h and it wouldn’t have happend if you were slower you ALONE are the culprit!
March 8th, 2010 at 11:29 am
just try to exchange the buzz words and arguments in any “Freie Fahrt für Freie Bürger” discussion in Germany by any 2nd Amendment discussion over in the States. Got the picture? 8D
September 4th, 2010 at 8:07 pm
Quote Smee:
I really hate those billboard signs! What happened to the good old “Freie Fahrt für freie Bürger”?
There’s the thing: we don’t like how “Freie Bürger” kill themselves and others by irresponsible speeding, do we?