Call for Speed Limit Has German Blood at 178 m.p.h. Boil

PFAFFENHAUSEN, Germany, March 14 — Ask Marc Bongers about the wisdom of introducing a speed limit on the German autobahn, and he answers by impatiently revving the 435-horsepower engine of a specially modified Porsche. Slowpokes, he said, already spoil half the fun.
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With a stretch of empty road ahead, Mr. Bongers floored the gas pedal, and within seconds the speedometer registered 286 kilometers an hour (178 m.p.h.) — something that is still legal here. That, by way of comparison, is about the speed of a commercial jet taking off.

The Germans do love their fast cars, and in many areas their autobahns enable high speed. It’s possible to drive very fast on these well-maintained roads because for one thing, Germans are impeccably polite on the roadways. Someone cruising along in the left hand lane at 180 kilometers (112 mph) will flash his lights – once – and the slowpoke ahead of him doing a turtle-like 135 will obediently tuck into the right hand lane at once to allow the speedster to pass.

Last week, the European Union’s environment commissioner, Stavros Dimas of Greece, set off a national debate here by suggesting that the German government introduce a general speed limit on the autobahn.

To be sure, at least half of the 7,500 miles of autobahn already have either permanent or temporary speed limits. But the autobahn’s anything-goes stretches are the world’s fastest public roads.

“Speed limits are useful for many reasons, and are the order of the day in most of the E.U.’s 27 member states and the United States,” Mr. Dimas said in an interview with the mass-market newspaper Bild. “Strangely enough, it is only in Germany where they are controversial.”

Speed in parts of Germany are now limited as a result of the slow death of the country’s forests – the other great love - because of leaded gasoline. However, speed limits are a recent phenomenon and are very controversial.

This is “a trivialization of the climate problem,” declared the German environment minister, Sigmar Gabriel. The German Association of the Automotive Industry said Germans needed “no coaching” from other Europeans on how to protect the environment.

Even Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has put climate change at the top of her agenda as current president of the European Union and the Group of 8 industrial nations, opposes a uniform speed limit.

Each country in the European Union is quite ready to urge its neighbors to change their ways, yet is remarkably reluctant to conform. Perhaps it will just take more time.

For years, speed limit advocates tried to argue their case on safety grounds. The autobahn, though, is statistically safer than highways in many countries, even if its crashes are singularly horrific. Saving the planet, it turns out, may be more persuasive than saving lives.

“Given the pride of Germans about being No. 1 in protecting the environment, this could lead to a breakthrough,” said Peter Schneider, a writer who limits himself to 90 m.p.h. on the autobahn.

Mr. Schneider is realistic. Driving fast, he said, is deeply rooted in the German psyche — a form of expression that survived even World War II. It is an addiction that crosses social and political boundaries.

It is about 520 kilometers (323 miles) from Luxembourg to Hamburg. Leaving the city, you travel along poorly-maintained roads through heavily wooded hill country, the road following the contours of the land, passing small farms and the occasional village. You cross the border at Trier, a lovely renaissance town, and join the autobahn there.

Back in the 70s it was a tough ride, with lots of gear changes and brake work. If you do the trip during the early winter, when rain is common, it can be a fascinating trip. If you were told to get there “soonest” you try to pile on the speed even in this pretty country, counting the kilometers until you can get on the German autobahn.

One of the great moments in life is banging along the autobahn at 175 kilometers in a little four cylinder Fiat, watching the mirror for those arrogant Mercedes, BMW and Audi drivers, and politely pulling over to let them pass.

The most exciting part of the trip might well be just north of Koblenz, when, coming around a bend in the road you suddenly come upon a US Army convoy with tank transporters in the right hand lane, doing the mandated 60 kilometers. In those days Fiats had very forgiving transmissions and excellent brakes.