this post was submitted on 20 Aug 2024
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Not trying to compare these two things, but as a German it always stroke me as odd that many Americans will go to any lengths in order to defend their right to bear arms, but they all totally accept the fact that there's not a single highway in the US without a speed limit.
In Germany, it seems to be the other way round. Noone really cares that guns are strictly regulated but most people will fiercely oppose the introduction of speed limits with the same level of fanaticism of American gun nuts.
Tbf, the limit on how many bullets you can legally fire (outside of defense of life or great bodily injury) in public is "0" so technically there is a limit on that too.
Yeah I've always kinda questioned why we have speed limits on highways because not only is the entire point of a highway is to go as fast as possible but there's also very rare actual enforcement with the few speed checks being the cause of accidents thanks to people braking to 50mph when they were going 80mph also we have laws dictating that if everyone is doing a faster speed then the limit you can get pulled over for doing the limit
So the police have somewhere to find extra funding.
A speed limit encourages everyone to go a similar speed and sets the tone to a safeish speed. How fast most traffic goes on a highway does vary wildly by region, but at least from what I've seen regionally, its largely informed by the construction of the highway and the speed limit. Lower limit means lower overall speed while a higher limit leads to a higher overall speed
As an American who has lived in Germany, I’ve found the lack of speed limits to be more of a fantasy.
Sure, there are stretches of the autobahn where there is no speed limit - but they are comparatively short. The constant construction destroys any ability to make true use of the autobahn. Similarly, the public tends to drive at 110-120kph - despite the lack of speed limit. Overall, a disappointing experience.
To compare, the highways in the US may have speed limits of 65mph, but the traffic moves at 75-80mph in the slow lane (NJ, NY).