I drive from Shooters Hill to Maidstone every day for work navigating at various times A2, M2, M20 and M25. The amount of frighteningly appalling driving I see on a daily basis scares the brown out of me but I doubt raising the speed limit by 10 mph will have a dramatic effect on my chances of making it there an back.
Having more disciplined truckers in Germany helps as does the fact that many autobahns are two lane only, meaning its a case of right or wrong lane, unlike in the UK. Also reduces the bottlenecks of three into two. Must say I've always found the tailgating to be terrible compared to the UK.
Must say I've always found the tailgating to be terrible compared to the UK.
I'm really surprised you found that. I dont pretend to drive in Germany every week, but we went by car from Prague on holiday to Lubeck recently, and the only idiot we encountered on 1500kms over two weeks was Czech.
You definitely would not wish to drive the Prague-Brno motorway...you might meet somebody like this. Well, at least he went down for five years. The worrying thing was that he was not some dumb idiot, but a senior sales manager, for Pilsner urquell actually, and I know people who know him
I used to do the run to Berlin regularly, but probably sat at the wrong speed - 90 ish - too fast for the slow lane and too slow for the fast lane! What surpises me is how much worse the accident rate is on German autobahns compared to French ones. What doesnt suprise me at all is that Germany seems twice as safe as the USA with its ridiculously frustrating speed limits.
Having more disciplined truckers in Germany helps as does the fact that many autobahns are two lane only, meaning its a case of right or wrong lane, unlike in the UK. Also reduces the bottlenecks of three into two. Must say I've always found the tailgating to be terrible compared to the UK.
Most of those going north/south are three lanes. During the Cold War the Autobahns going east/west were built with two lanes to make it more difficult for any potential invader.
It is true that cars are much better and safer when the speed limit on motorways was introduced. It is probably also true that driving standards haven't improved. The right speed should depend on conditions/other traffic. I can see secnarios where 90 or 100mph wouldn't be an issue.
It is also true on busy motorways that everybody driving at the same speed leaving a decent gap would make jams a lot less likely. A car breaking slightly has a knock on effect with the weight of numbers and can become a stand still (It's mathematics). Variable speed limits should be more widely used and enforced because sometimes the right speed should be 50 and drivers should have a road etiquette of always letting one in.
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Must say I've always found the tailgating to be terrible compared to the UK.
What surpises me is how much worse the accident rate is on German autobahns compared to French ones.
What doesnt suprise me at all is that Germany seems twice as safe as the USA with its ridiculously frustrating speed limits.
Most of those going north/south are three lanes. During the Cold War the Autobahns going east/west were built with two lanes to make it more difficult for any potential invader.
It is also true on busy motorways that everybody driving at the same speed leaving a decent gap would make jams a lot less likely. A car breaking slightly has a knock on effect with the weight of numbers and can become a stand still (It's mathematics). Variable speed limits should be more widely used and enforced because sometimes the right speed should be 50 and drivers should have a road etiquette of always letting one in.