I'm not going to make any blind choice here. What is required is a study on how much pollution and CO2 is emmited over a length of time. If the numbers generated are high enough and models showing that reducing the speed limit are low enough then I would say placing a speed limit is acceptable. On the otherhand, we could cut out more pollution be further regulating off-road vehicle use and SMOG type equipment on them. An old 2-stroke snowmobile is going to pollute far more than a new BMW doing 120mph.
Not only the pollution, but the visual scars that off road vehicles leave on the landscape are also worrying. Just yesterday I drove through route 130 between San Jose and Patterson, California (one of the most beautiful roads I ever drove in my life) and at one area where OHVs are allowed you could see the landscape was a lot uglier, with dirt tracks going up hills and creeks. I know snowmobiles do similar environmental damage. I think you need different choices on your poll: "The autobahn should have speed limits if that will benefit the environment"
This information is inaccurate. I was in Germany in 1977. The section of autobahn by the Rhein-Mein AFB was posted at 100kph. The documentary on the History Channel showed sections that have variable speed limits based on traffic volume & conditions. I suspect the original reference is to a stretch of highway that is going to have a speed limit imposed for the first time.
I was working in Salzburg in 2003/04, just across the Germany/Austria border and travelled nearly every weekend down the autobahn. The stretch between Salzburg and Munich was certainly variable speed limits, but these were advisory limits only - they were not enforced in Germany, but were in Austria. You had to be careful to ease off on the gas when you hit the border coming back into Austria.
There are speed limits on the german autobahns all over the place. Might it be for a high traffic area, to reduce the noise pollution when driving close to an inhabited area, before a tunnel or a bridge (often down to 80km/h) or for roadworks. The sections of highway where you can really drive as fast as you wish, with as little traffic as possible to do that in safety (that is, keeping enough distance between you and the preceding car), are really fewer than you would expect. Moreover, what Germany really needs are faster and more efficient railroads (most of Germany does not have high speed rail links yet) and less cars on the roads. Most of the time the german autobahns are clogged with cars (kms of staus/traffic jams at least every weekend) and there is not much to drive fast around. Really. And...they do check the speed. Not as bad as in Austria, but they do check. Moreover, most highways around big cities are speed limited, often flexibly, to keep the traffic flowing (something many highway in the US would benefit - there is simply no traffic control in city highway in the US, apart the useless, IMHO, traffic light to let cars in at the ramps). So the chances to drive any faster than 120km/h are *very* few. A speed limit of 150km/h would not be a bad idea, but a limit to less than that would not make much sense. Most accidents are not due to speed, but more to lack of attention, talking or SMSing on the phone, not keeping enough distance, driving recklessly, cutting off, mechanical failure. Speed does make accidents worse, but it's often not the cause. I do see often risk of accidents at very low speed indeed, and mostly in towns.....
The Autobahn is the last great place on earth where a person can drive down the highway as fast as they want, in full FREEDOM from any beurocrat telling them what speed they aren't allowed to exceed. For the love of FREEDOM, please don't impose a speed limit on this last great stretch of FREEDOM road remaining in the world. Don't chop down the last remaining freedom tree!
Dream on. The German Autobahn's have been subject to speed limits like everywhere else for many years. Only a very few stretches escaped speed limits.
Roads of the Northern Territory of Australia had until a few years ago, open speed limits. Now they have the highest speed limits in Australia at 130km/h, the rest of Australia has limits as high as 110km/h.
Isle of Man has no speed limits and, having driven both in Germany and in the Isle of Man I can tell you that the adrenalin rush is much more satisfying in the IOM. The Autobahns are just scary no matter how fast you drive, no matter how fast you go someone will always be going twice as fast or half as fast and it is the speed difference that causes the problems. It is astounding that you can look in your mirror and see a light in the distance and as you watch it becomes two lights so quickly you can see the horizontal movement as they separate, next thing you know a Ferrari is flashing at you. In that situation, if you are doing 150 and the cars inside you are doing 100 it is damn difficult to get out of the way. Personally I do not approve of speed limits anywhere but I do think that driving law should be considered the same as any other law in that if asked for a job inteview whether you have a criminal record then they should not add "excluding driving offences". Breaking the law is just that and the partixcular law you break cannot be relevant. Dangerous driving that causes death or injury should be treated the same as if you had stabbed or shot someone, doesn't matter to me what sort of offensive weapon you use. Having limits on speed are just a way to draw the line more easily so the police can sit on their fat ar*** and not bother doing any work to get a conviction but in truth they do not define that it is safe to go that speed and people are dead because of it and likewise people pay fines for exceeding it though there is no danger in doing so. I will get off my soap box now
We used to have open speed in Montana until maybe 8 or 10 years ago? And Montana lead the nation in highway fatalities. But hey ... we gotsta have our freedom, right? Problem is, some of the fatalities are innocent bystanders ... and it WOULD be nice to have the ER MD available if our grandkid had an emergency ... but if the ER MD is busy working on a 125mph fiery crash/burn victim, then again, someone else's rights are being impinged. Life: It's a series of trade-offs. Don't get me wrong ... my nitrous 750 honda would run 9's in the quarter, but I wouldn't do it on an open road (at least now that I've survived my youth )
Germany isn't Montana though, and neither is the autobahn an US interstate. The requirements for a driving license in Germany are more rigorous, and can cost an individual $1000+. The gentle curving of the autobahn doesn't lend to highway hypnosis like the straight as an arrow interstate.
You would be lucky to get away wtih so little anywhere in Europe except Greece where who you know and how much cash you have still run the country. I think an average minimum of 40 hours at £30 per hour for lessons plus the test fee itself. I would reckon two or three thousand dollars would be close. I am sure lots of people will now respond telling us how they did it with 2 lessons but that is not normal now like t was when I took my driving test. 54 years old and the world has changed some.
I'm not sure what the totals are here in the UK but 40 driving lessons at £50/hr = £2000 minimum. Add on the fees for the written and driving tests plus the cost of insurance as a new driver, oh and the fees for the provisional licence and the issue of the full licence if you pass and it's a very expensive business. There is talk of making our driving tests a two stage process with the basic learner test followed by a period of practice and then another set of tuition and testing to include motorway, night driving and inclement weather.
My source was a couple years old, and it said $1000 to $2000. Still a world of difference from just having to pass a written and driven test with no required lessons.
Lessons aren't required here but your chances of passing without are small. The test requires parallel parking, reversing around a corner, emergency stop and all the usual driving with correct use of indicators, observation, safety gap and situational awareness. If you don't take instruction then you are very unlikely to pass. Out of interest, what does a US driven test involve, is it very basic?
Well, from nearly 20 years ago, the only things I didn't have to do on the test was the reversing around a corner and emergency stop. In NJ, it is on a closed course with no other traffic. We had a drivers' ed class for half the year/semester as part of the health course. A friend of mine failed it, but already had his license for nearly a year. It didn't include any time behind the wheel, but cousins' school in Delaware did. I had about 3 hours of official behind the wheel training. I don't know how much it cost, but getting it meant an insurance discount. Here is New Jersey's current requirements: State of New Jersey - Motor Vehicle Commission The provisional license and unsupervised practice period are new to me. You'll need to practice, and probably study, to pass. I didn't find it difficult, and at least one mistake was allowed. For the people who I knew that failed, nerves were the most likely reason. Under current NJ law, the test appears free, which is how I remember it. The permit and final license is only $40 total. The real cost is insurance. For the new, young driver, peer pressure is a far greater cause to passing the test than financial pressure. Keep in mind that in the US, drivers licensing is handled by individual states, and requirements and fees will vary.
