this post was submitted on 07 Oct 2023
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A section of the A24 was limited to 130 kmph for 20 years to reduce accidents. Because the reduction the speed limit was lifted early this year. Now there are 8% more accidents with injury and 42% more injured. Politicians call now to make it possible to limit the section again.
https://archive.ph/hPIpp
For highway lowering the speed may be effective but lowering the speed limit from 50 to 30 won't stop drivers from going 50 unless the road is designed for lower speeds. So long as lanes are wide and there are little obstructions for drivers to worry about hitting, such as bumpouts, boulevards, etc., they will go as fast as they feel comfortable unless there is a cop behind them.
Edit: 50kmh to 30kmh I don't know what that is in freedom miles
BTW: the mortality is around 50% if a car hits a pedestrian at 50km/h.
At 30km/h it's around 3%.
So yeah, speed in centre ville counts!
Damn pedestrians killing drivers for driving quickly, won't somebody do something?!
In Germany the speed limit in Cities is 50km/h and in residential zones 30km/h, strong controlled with a lot of radar traps. If you exceed this they screw up your life, in case of hitting a pedestrian even possible with jail time. It cannot be confused by the lack of speed limit on some highway sections, that traffic regulations are very strict and controlled in Germany and any violation can be very expensive.
I think that comment was meant as a joke because if a car hits a pedestrian, its obviously not the driver who gets injured...
Anyway, we do have speed radars in Germany but I have not seen one in a 30-zone and inside the city they are rather rare I'd say...
Well, respect radar control, it depends also in which city or village you are of the local administration, in some are existing only few and in others on every corner. Often also mobile radarstations in "civil" parking police cars.
Or just do like we do in the US and place an "undercover" cop every quarter mile behind street signs.
I lived in Germany for a few years. There are Autobahn stretches that have no speed limit, but the rule was, if you're going over 130 KPH and get into an accident, your insurance won't cover the accident. You pay 100% out of pocket for everything.
Suffice to say, Germans were some of the best drivers I've ever seen in my world travels. They're used to people driving insanely fast on the Autobahns, so they'd always stay in the right lane, except to pass. If you were coming up quick on someone from behind, you just flash your brights quickly and they'd immediately pull into the slow lane.
It was very frustrating moving back to America and no one would respond to flashing headlights. And so many people in America just coast in the left lane, even if there's no one in the right lane.
I also miss yield signs. In Germany, you'd be hard-pressed to find stop signs anywhere outside of the cities. Every intersection had yield signs, and if you didn't see cars coming, you just rolled right through. None of this stopping in the middle of nowhere with no cars in sight BS. Traffic circles were amazing, too. They kept traffic flowing through 4-way intersections without stop signs or lights. My home state (Minnesota) is starting to implement them all over the place and it's wonderful.
Yeah the lane discipline makes driving on the Autobahn sooooo much nicer and less stressful. You don't get morons hogging the left lane thinking "I'm going at the speed limit, no one can go faster than me" and causing traffic jams. Done quite a few trips up and down the country and it's always quite pleasant.
I‘ve never heard of insurance not paying when driving above 130 and it sounds highly unlikely.
As far as I know it‘d result in the driver beeing partially at fault, which would cause your insurance having to pay part of the crash - upping your premiums.
That 130km/h stuff is not true. 130 is the advised speed. If you go above, you might be also considered at fault if an accident occurs. And for that, you have insurance. Example would be driving 180, someone taking over a lorry with 100 and they crash into each other.
Also Germans don’t drive that well.
I fucking hate german drivers(tourist). Try driving in Norway in the summer. 90% of the you are stuck behind a fatass german in a camping van. I fucking loathe them with a burning passion.
it looks like it's designed for pretty extreme speeds
Unlike the average driver.
It's not actually. It's quite an old network so it was built before cars could go as fast as they can go now. There are surprisingly sharp corners and very short off ramps. If it were built from scratch today it would be even safer. Speed limits are bs outside of particularly tricky areas.
Is the image from the article not of the highway in question?
Ah yep my bad, I was speaking generally. The image in the article is only a short section of highway but it does look like one of the 2 lane sections that are usually quite old. If they were more modern and built for higher speeds they'd have an even shallower curve and would probably be 3 lanes with a hard shoulder. If you drive on the Autobahn you'll have a few moments where you notice the difference in road layout from those which more modern highways implement - the on and off ramps in particular can be a bit scary.