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> Not to mention languages like German which capitalize way more than English. And as everyone knows, Germans drive like crazy on their Autobahns, so they're c

• odiroot 11y ago
  > And as everyone knows, Germans drive like crazy on their Autobahns Not actually true. They may drive fast but in a really cultural and organized way while (mostly) respecting all the rules.
  • jakub_h 11y ago
    Clearly you haven't been in a car with my German grandfather.
• cm3 11y ago
  This myth may have been true 30 years ago, but if you go on any Autobahn today, you will find there's at most 5km, if at all, of unrestricted sections. Germany is famous for its forest of street signs and speed restrictions on roads are very popular with the administration. There's often config like UNRESTRICTED -> 100km/h -> 80km/h -> 60km/h -> 100km/h. Or the worst: 70km/h -> 100km/h for maybe 150 meters -> 70km/h again. Arguably the 100km/h section could be replaced with no signs aka still 70km/h. But, street signs are popular in Germany and sometimes I have the impression somebody gains by the number of signs posted. Yeah, so no unrestricted autobahns, really. I've found it more relaxed to drive at a constant 120km/h in the Netherlands. No braking and accelerating all the time.
  • rangibaby 11y ago
    Japan has a similar system. Thankfully, speed limits are rarely enforced on highways, and hidden cameras aren't allowed.
    • cm3 11y ago
      I didn't know Japan had limitless highways.
      • rangibaby 11y ago
        I mean similar as a confusing amount of different speed limits on roads. You are way more likely to be stopped for speeding on normal (gratis) roads than highways.
      • masklinn 11y ago
        They don't, and most japanese roads (including highways) have ridiculously low speed limits[0], but as rangibaby notes the speed limits are uncommonly enforced, nobody respects them [0] default 60km/h[1] for undivided inter-urban roads though it's common to get a 50 or even 40km/h speed limits, the default highway speed limit is 100km/h[2] but it's commonly lower than that, and I've seen limits as low as 70km/h on highways, keep in mind that all highways are toll roads and they're expensive as hell (entry fee of ~¥200 plus ~¥25/km[3], Hokkaido has a special tourists rental ETC[4], Honshu does not) [1] under 40mph [2] 62mph [3] ~¥40/mi [4] from ¥1800/day for 2 days to ¥800/day for 2 weeks or more, unlimited travel. With regular ETC, going from Sapporo to its airport (New Chitose) is ¥1400.
        • knughit 11y ago
          Interesting, because Japanese is stereotyped as a very rule-following culture. But maybe that applies to social rules, not legal rules.
        • cm3 11y ago
          But I've heard very good things about Japan's bullet trains, so I'd guess there's lees need for highways. In Europe only France seems to have high speed train that actually goes at high speeds. German ICE is chugging along in first gear all the time except for short stretches but those are are very few and between. I once took Cologne to Amsterdam with ICE and it took more than 3 hours, which defeats the point of a fast train.
  • banach2 11y ago
    Not sure about this. I drove through Europe last year, including through several cities in Germany and encountered a lot of unrestricted autobahns. There are some areas where they gradually decrease the speed limit (often for roadworks) but I never came across any section for which the the speed limit was altered for, effectively, less than 8 seconds. As someone living in the UK, the missing presence of 40/50mph average speed regions for tens of miles was quite welcome.
    • cm3 11y ago
      There really aren't long stretches of unlimited road and frequent limit fluctuation is risky both from an accident and ticketing perspective. If you want to slow it down, keep it at 80km/h, but don't do a circus of jumping up/down.
  • cm3 11y ago
    Although 120km/h constant speed needs decent amount of variation of scenery if you don't want to fall asleep.