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2013-05-16 10:52:05
By Stephen Evans BBC News, Berlin
When German politician Sigmar Gabriel suggested a speed limit on all stretches
of the autobahn, there was a collective drawing-in of breath and raising of
eyebrows. His party was perceived to have skidded on the slippery road to
September's general election.
Why, many wondered, would a politician trying to win votes suddenly come up
with a proposal so clearly doomed to lose them?
He might have suggested banning sausages for all the support he got, even from
within the Social Democrat Party (SPD) - and he's its chairman.
It was, after all, a former chancellor from the SPD, Gerhard Schroeder, who
described the land of BMWs and Porsches as an Autofahrernation - a nation of
drivers.
So the proposal to put the brakes on in Germany went down like a flat tyre in
the fast lane.
As a commentator in Bild put it: "With his go-it-alone suggestion of a 120km/h
speed limit on motorways, Gabriel has confirmed an important judgment on
himself: every day, he's good for a newspaper story and some days for two!"
Sigmar Gabriel
Germans seem to regard it as a basic human right to get into their BMWs (or
Mercs or Audis or Porsches) and scorch down the autobahn at warp speed.
Motorway speed limits around the world
Fast cars
United Arab Emirates: 140km/h (87.5mph)
USA: varies between states - 104-128km/h (65-80mph)
Sweden: 120 km/h (75mph)
China: 120km/h (75mph)
New Zealand: 100 km/h (62.5mph)
In pictures: Hitler's autobahn dream
You can have your own foot flat to the floor only to be passed by a car which
disappears in a blur of speed and go-faster machismo.
Others in the top echelon of the SPD were not amused, particularly as the party
has been suffering in the polls against Chancellor Merkel's Christian
Democratic party with the election just over three months away.
Peer Steinbruck, the SPD's candidate for chancellor and the other half of the
centre-left party's leadership, said: "I do not think it's sensible to activate
and ignite this debate. The issue is not in our programme for which I am
answerable."
Bild's headline, by the way, was "Steinbr ck pfeift Gabriel zur ck" (Steinbruck
whistles Gabriel back).
Sigmar Gabriel's argument was that studies show that speed limits decrease
serious injuries and deaths from road accidents - as the rest of the world has
long accepted.
German speed limit Nein danke?
And it should be said that some stretches of autobahn - like junctions, areas
of construction and accident black-spots - do have speed limits. In some
built-up areas, there's a speed limit to keep noise down. The authorities have
the power to impose restrictions where necessary but it is true there is no
general restriction.
Driving on Estonian ice...
To my right is a sign that sets out the road rules for the journey ahead.
On this particular road, it is forbidden to wear a seatbelt: you might have to
make an unexpected and speedy exit from your car.
You can't drive here after sunset, or with a vehicle over 2.5 tonnes. And it is
strictly illegal to travel at between 25 and 40km/h (16-25mph). At those
speeds, your car tyres will create dangerous vibrations that could crack the
surface of the road, sending you and your vehicle to a watery grave.
No seatbelts allowed on Europe's longest ice road
On the best estimate, about an eighth of the whole network of 13,000km (8,000
miles) has no speed limit and about a third has a permanent limit, with the bit
between coming and going according to need.
What's it like pushing a car to its limits on an autobahn without limits? Three
years ago, Automobile magazine did a road test on the A95 between Munich and
Garmisch in southern Germany.
"We're in a 480-horse-power Porsche 911 Turbo cabrio, pedal to the metal in
fifth - make that sixth - gear," wrote the reporter.
"At this speed, you need four eyes: one for the road directly in front of the
car, one to scan the horizon for slower vehicles, one for the mirrors, and one
for the instruments. The speedo shows 297km/h... 301...306... 311... 314...
314... 314... That's 195mph.
"On the return run, we'll briefly hit 200mph on the short downhill section near
Murnau. This is white-knuckle, eye-wateringly fast. Even though your
concentration is sharply focused, a clear picture stabilises for only fractions
of a second."
Autobahn by night
There is another view. Greens in Germany think that speed limits would
significantly reduce CO2 emissions (and they agreed with Sigmar Gabriel when he
made his pronouncement).
Motoring organisations are more sceptical, although there is a group called the
Verkhersclub Deutschland for people who like to think of the environment (it
advises on the right tyres to buy, or speed to drive to minimise emissions).
Kraftwerk - Autobahn
Kraftwerk perform Autobahn
There is a established tradition in rock music of writing about roads (Route
66, 2-4-6-8 Motorway), but nothing quite matches the 1974 LP Autobahn by the
German electronic band Kraftwerk.
The 22-minute title track pays tribute to Germany's roads. As Band member
Wolfgang Flur explains:
"We used to listen to the sound of driving, the wind, passing cars and lorries,
the rain, every moment the sounds around you are changing, and the idea was to
rebuild those sounds on the synth."
BBC Music: Review of Kraftwerk - Autobahn
It says that little empirical research has been done recently, but there was a
study in 1996 which showed that a speed limit of 120km/h (75mph) on autobahns
(assuming it was observed by 80% of drivers) would reduce CO2 emissions from
cars by about 10%, and one of 100km/h (62.5mph) would cut them by nearly 20%.
But there's obviously a wider argument to be had in a land of big car
companies. Baden-Wuerttemberg, for example, is a state with a Green government
but it is also the home of Porsche and Daimler (which includes Mercedes).
When Winfried Kretschmann became the state's premier, he said he favoured
tougher speed limits to lower casualties and to lower emissions. "Gas guzzling
luxury limousines are not the future," he told Wirtschaftswoche magazine.
This was not a tone to reassure the two big employers in his patch. Meetings
were held. One was between Mr Kretschmann and Porsche chief executive, Matthias
Mueller.
"This first exchange is a good start for an intense and above all constructive
dialogue with the prime minister and his government," said chief executive
Mueller, afterwards. "I am confident that with the necessary understanding for
each other we can further strengthen the automotive state of
Baden-Wuerttemberg."
This debate over speed limits has been going on for more than 100 years.
As the Allgemeine Automobil (General Motoring) magazine put it in 1906: "It's
understood that excessive speeding is to be disapproved of - but a ban would be
clumsy. A maximum speed for the open road is hardly workable."