re too fast jimf centerline com jim frost writes there are a few things to keep in mind about europe since you brought it up my autobahn knowledge is admittedly second hand but i believe the following to be true my knowledge about driving in the u s is also second hand but i think i can correct your statements about our autobahn drivers are much better disciplined in europe than they are here oh yeah that would be paradise in fact you can forget it from all i ve heard from my u s relatives drivers esp here in germany are much more agg ressive but not disciplined one of my relatives a l a resident hired a car at the nuernberg airport and went about miles to our home he said then that he grew about year older during this ride and swore he d never drive a car in germany again this was in and he kept his promise the situation now is even worse as effect of the increased volume of traffic what you mean by better disciplined should perhaps be considered cautious due to fear when driving around here you always have to take into consideration that the majority of the other drivers absolutely relies on you they expect that nobody fails or sleeps many of them exploit this by driving as fast as their car can go of course only where that is allowed you might think dream on so any mistake you make is a very high risk to your health and if you re ex posed to such a situation from your very first day as a driver you learn to handle it or you lose that s the way i and most people i know experience our traffic situation whether you think this is pleasant or efficient is up to you i think we handle a very high volume of traffic and that at high speeds with modest compared to the volume and decreasing rates of lethal accidents otoh more and more people esp women dislike driving because they feel overtaxed and threatened and each accident is one accident too much the roads comprising the autobahn are much better designed than they are here and usually include animal fences this makes them far more predictable than most us highways better designed and maintained may be but animal fences are very rare auto bahnen and many other streets have guard rails i hope that s the right word a plank made from thick steel sheet fixed on uprights it s about feet high those guard rails are designed for keeping vehicles on the road smaller animals can crawl under the plank bigger ones can easily jump over it the point is that esp larger animals are very rare in germany they tend also to be very timid accidents caused by animals are a neglegible danger not all of europe is the autobahn most places in europe have speed limits that aren t out of line with what we used to have in the us if my friends weren t lying to me they re typically not much higher than km h you re right there are speed linits even on the major part of the autobahn but the attitude towards driving see above seems to be very similar to that in germany i ve been in france switzerland italy austria spain belgium the netherlands besides that you really can t rely on the residents abiding the local speed limits i ve got quite a lot of practise k miles and i m used to travel at mph fyi with a car even smaller than a rabbit but i consider driving on the highways round paris or milano really a thrill i strongly suspect you won t find a lot of rabbit owners doing mph nearly km h on the autobahn but i could be wrong sorry but you ll find quite a lot rabbit class car or even smaller mine is a peugeot owners going that fast small cars with much hp are very hip over here and most people buying such cars aren t afraid to let them run some people have no respect for their own lives i disagree the size or weight of a car is rather irrelevant formula cars weigh less than kg and the drivers have a chance to survive accidents at mph or higher otoh when crashing against a solid object at mph it makes no difference whether you sit in a porsche a mercedes a tank or on a bicycle your re dead bye stefan stefan dalibor dalibor immd uni erlangen de and now for the next case in kangaroo court i accuse you of being the reincarnation of adolf hitler i don t think that mere denials will be sufficient you will have to submit to examinations by a parapsychologist that i personally select perry metzger pmetzger shearson com in article in news admin policy
