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First Speed limits on the Autobahn

By Alborz Fallah |

With speed limits already in place in the Northern Territory, the last place left for speed lovers has been Germany’s famous Autobahns – but that may all change as a German state introduces the first speed limits.

First Speed limits on the Autobahn

The northern city of Bremen today became the first state in Germany to introduce a speed limit on its autobahns. The new limits are 120kph but will, thankfully, only affect 60 km of road given the small size of the state.

Germany’s autobahns have had a long and successful history of being the testing grounds for many manufacturers. They were originally built without speed limits by the Nazis and since the end of WW2 the European car industry has successfully lobbied against such limits.

Interestingly, the reasoning behind the move was not simply to reduce the road toll or increase safety, but more so to cut CO2 emissions. Environmental groups have lobbied the German government for years, arguing that speed restrictions would cut vehicle CO2 output by 5 per cent immediately and by 15 percent in the future.

“This is a good day for traffic safety and we are also sending a signal about protecting the environment and climate, our goal is to introduce a general speed limit on motorways in the whole of Germany together with other states,” said Reinhard Loske, Bremen’s environment minister.

However, German leader Angela Merkel has previously ruled out introducing a national speed limit of 130km/h as proposed by her own coalition.


 
  • anthony C

    so half an hour of restricitons. thats gota be the most fustrating half an hour in the world!
    i wonder who will be hte first to get a speeding ticket

    cookie

  • Bobby Z

    You know what ammazes me, is that all these people saying how ridiculouse it is to have no speed limit, and let ppl drive as fast as they want, etc.

    And as most of you know Since the beggining of 2007 the Northern Territory had a speed limit of 130 km/h put on its roads. And apparently all of this is in the name of having less road crashes.

    AND u know whats funny , in December last year i remember reading a report about how Road Crash deaths increased By 20 % in the Northern Territory in 2007.

    and even sometimes u hear on the news or read in the paper, that someone smashd into a police car or parked car, because they were too busy looking at the speedo and not the road.

  • anthony C

    going fast isnt a problem if the roads and drivers are good…. european drivers on average are MILES! ahead of the average australian driver. if we had no road speed limits here, there would be a pile of 10 year old holden commodores with young people inside each week.

    the autobahn is one of hte best built roads “i mean their german after all, boring.. but well built” their police and rescue/ambulance service is 2nd to none

    your right about the speedo thing though. especially now with agrogate speed cameras turning up that can nab you for speeding Between cameras… people are more worried about the dial in front them. instead of the car in front of them “or behind or to the sides”

    cookie

  • Matt

    Whilst I appreciate the environmental sentiment it’s shameful in a way that a minority of do-gooders can have such an impact on the majority.

    Germany is perhaps the last bastian of safe, high speed driving. Soon the cuffs will be on so site none of us will enjoy the freedoms so hard earnt.

  • Reckless1

    A vehicle will produce a given amount of CO2 per tank of petrol/diesel.

    So the “saving” on this 60k of road will equal the difference between the rate of fuel consumption at 250 and the rate of fuel consumption at 120 multiplied by whatever the factor is that converts the result to CO2s. At 250 the vehicle would be on this bit of road for 15 minutes, but at 120 it will be on the stretch for 30 minutes. The CO2s at 250 wouldn’t be double the CO2s at 120, so the car would produce MORE CO2s on this 60ks of road.

    Assuming that only 10% of traffic would travel above 120 in any case, this little effort is utterly futile in its effort to save the planet, and will produce more pollution on this piece of road than before.

    Given that ALL the fossil fuel on earth is definately going to be used up, there is no possibility to “save” us from CO2s ……

  • Dlr1

    Reckless1, your argument is fundemantally flawed because you are relying on the premise that the vehicle travelling on this section of road consumes fuel at the same rate regardless of speed.

    Any vehicle travelling at 250km/h will use substantially more fuel per 100km than one travelling at 120km/h. Many vehicles would need to be driven at or near full throttle to maintain speeds over 200km/h.

    If a vehicle uses 15L/100 at 250km/h, but only uses 10L/100 at 120kmh then they would use 9 litres to cover the 60km at 250km/h and only 6 Litres at 120km/h to cover the same distance despite the trip taking twice as long.

    On this basis the speed limit does save CO2 emissions.

    And for the record I am still a supporter of suitable roads having higher or no speed limits.

  • mistertwo

    Only about 20% of Autobahns have no speed limits, so where did the “First Speed Limits on the Autobahn” statement come from?

  • Flying High

    This is Europe we are talking about. The speed limit will be seen as a guideline to be ignored if desired. Just like on all the other freeways on that continent.

  • Ivan

    Don’t tell me that the 20% of autobahns without speed limit reside in that small state, then we’ll have even less %.

  • o

    NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO atupid greenies

  • Oz.

    Don’t worry, it’s only 60KM of the Autobahn being speed limited, the rest you can go as fast as you like!

  • No Name

    Not quite Oz – there are already limits on sections of Autobahn and have been for a while.

    I remember hearing a story about a chap who drove his Mclaren F1 at full speed. When he had a problem with it and connected it to the modem for diagnostics from the UK they couldn’t believe it have been regularly driven at full speed. Amazing