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Driving on the Autobahn

• DrinkWater 7y ago
  Disclaimer: I am German. I absolutely hate driving on the Autobahn in Germany. The pure stress and the amount of assholes you encounter is absolutely astonishing. I have driven cars before in other countries, including the “chaotic” Italy and the US, and it was always a more pleasant experience.
  • Scoundreller 7y ago
    Was the US pleasant because of the lower speed limits and their limited enforcement, or because of some quality of the drivers?
    • IfOnlyYouKnew 7y ago
      From my experience, it’s mostly that all cars drive at about the same speed. In Germany, you typically have to change lanes constantly because the right lane is mostly trucks going 80kph while on the left lane you have people coming at you with 200kph and their lights flashing.
  • pkulak 7y ago
    Yeah, I'm a pure right-laner myself in the states, and this sounds like my version of hell.
  • mattferderer 7y ago
    I'm curious where in the US. I find it varies greatly depending on location. The Autobahn did a bit as well. The bigger the nearby city, the more traffic, the bigger pain is my global finding.
    • bunderbunder 7y ago
      Though, driving culture matters a fair bit, too. For example, I find Chicago to be much more pleasant to drive in than Milwaukee. Chicago's driving culture is relatively aggressive, yes, but there are conventions that people follow, so traffic is generally predictable. Once you get to know the rules, it's fairly easy to navigate given the traffic density. Whereas, in Milwaukee, the only convention I could discern during the several years I lived there is that the person who's trying to merge onto the highway going 20mph below the speed limit is also the person who'll fly past you at 20mph above the speed limit a minute or two later.
      • inferiorhuman 7y ago
        Once you get to know the rules Only one rule matters in Chicago: potholes have the right of way.
  • dsfyu404ed 7y ago
    Your post seems odd. The autobahn is generally regarded as some of the best highway experience there is when it comes to other road users. As someone who spends too much time going slower than the rest of traffic in grossly overloaded light trucks I think I have some authority when I say that being a road obstruction to the point where people pull dick moves to pass you is a great way to turn everyone else into an asshole make driving stressful. As long as you're not trying to go a ton slower than everyone else in your lane (forcing them to rapidly merge left or slow down, wait for a gap and move left cutting someone off) driving in your lane shouldn't be too stressful.
    • joezydeco 7y ago
      I'm an American that has driven in Germany over the past 20 years and I can sympathize with my German friend up top. It's changed, and I'm sure if OP was less polite he'd mention the influx of beat-to-shit vehicles from the east that can now drive through western Europe and don't follow the rules as well. And the trucks from Poland. So, so many trucks from Poland.
      • Moru 7y ago
        Yes, have noticed this too. Love when trucks try to pass each others, one going 80 kmh and the other 81. Blocking two lanes completely for 10 minutes.
        • teh_klev 7y ago
          In the UK we call that "elephant racing". Deeply annoying.
          • FabHK 7y ago
            "Elefantenrennen" in Germany.
        • scotty79 7y ago
          In Poland our equivalent of autobahns have mostly just 2 lanes so that's fun. You may use that time of forced slowdown to adjust heating/cooling or find something good on the radio.
  • arendtio 7y ago
    To some extent, you can adapt your driving style to avoid getting stressed. It doesn't work in every situation but when I want to avoid stress on an autobahn with 3 lanes I try to establish a common speed (e.g. ~120kph) for the middle lane by following someone who drives with a very constant speed. That way we can pass the trucks (right lane) and the racers on the left lane can do whatever they are up to. Sure, when there are no trucks around, I switch to the right lane too. In my experience, this doesn't make you a whole lot slower (comparing end-to-end travel time), but the stress and gas consumption is quite a bit lower (compared to driving mostly on the highspeed left lane).
  • maxxxxx 7y ago
    I am German and I have no problems with the Autobahn but it always takes me a while to get used to the speed when I am back. I can easily see how it's frightening for people.
  • inferiorhuman 7y ago
    I absolutely hate driving on the Autobahn in Germany. The pure stress and the amount of assholes you encounter is absolutely astonishing. I was surprised by the poor behavior I saw on the Autobahn outside of Frankfurt a few months ago. The Polish trucks were especially bad. I have driven cars before in other countries, including the “chaotic” Italy and the US, and it was always a more pleasant experience. And then I got back home and realized just how undisciplined and generally awful Bay Area drivers are.
    • badpun 7y ago
      Re: Polish truck drivers being bad - keep in mind that Poland has the largest trucking industry in EU, so you just see a lot of Polish trucks and naturally some of them will drive badly.
  • geggam 7y ago
    I question anyone's sanity who thinks Italy is a better driving experience than the German Autobahn.
    • borumpilot 7y ago
      People who drive on intuition will feel this way. In my experience, typically drivers who are not trained well / lack experience with the culture & finesse that fast & safe driving requires. I have done Amsterdam to Bern (Holland > Germany > Switzerland) and back once every weekend for 5 years: the difference in driving culture is extreme. When the Germans will: 1: Check left mirror for coming traffic 2: Stay on their lane for 5 seconds 3: Check left mirror AGAIN to see if that far away car suddenly is dangerously close The Swiss and Dutch will check once, if the car in the mirror looks "tiny" just yank over the the next lane. Not strange, since both these nations allow for a maximum speed of 120kmh. Everyone is going the same slow. I dreaded the 1 hour in these two countries more then the 5 hours spend in the Autobahn.
      • thirdsun 7y ago
        As a german I'd even add the shoulder check before changing lanes. There situations where the mirror alone isn't enough.
    • lazyjones 7y ago
      Northern Italy (Milano, Genova etc.) is perfectly fine, Toscana and further south is hell...
      • geggam 7y ago
        My only Italy experience was Rome and the surrounding area. That remains the only place in the EU I refuse to drive.
  • ktpsns 7y ago
    As a German driving a lot on the Autobahn and spending a lot of time in long distance trains (ICE), I can of course absolutely second that. However, Germany is not Germany, it depends very much on the region. For instance, on the large 4-lane sections around Frankfurt, people drive aggressive and fast like mad. On the 3-lane sections in NRW, people have to drive annoyingly slowly because the Autobahn is a single roadworks. Then there are so many 2-lane Autobahnen in more rural areas which are also annoying because the average speed is low but there are aggressive people who think the left lane could bring them an advantage.
  • KozmoNau7 7y ago
    I'm Danish, but my girlfriend is German and we rent a car every time we visit her family down there, in Baden-Württemberg. The area around Stuttgart is absolutely awash with big Mercedes and Porsches, for obvious reasons. (As an aside, if you're ever in the area, go visit Auto & Technik Museum Sinsheim, and prepare to spend a whole day there gawking at awesome old machinery and airplanes) At first, I found driving there a little bit intimidating. I'm used to Danish roads, where we drive 80km/h rather than 100km/h on most roads, and the speed limits are rather strictly enforced at 110/130km/h on motorways. I'm also used to Danish drivers, who generally accelerate and brake more gently, and generally drive slower cars (due to higher prices/taxes). In comparison, Germans are more forceful drivers. I wouldn't say "aggressive", because they're much better at stopping for pedestrians at crossings, and yielding the right of way. But they accelerate and brake harder, drive faster in corners and have much more faith in the quality of their roads, and the skills of other drivers. Once I got used to that difference in behavior, I found it much easier to grok German traffic and fit in. That said, a BMW X5M passing you at 250+km/h while you're chilling at 160km/h in a rental Opel Corsa is always a little unnerving.
  • ioulian 7y ago
    I'm from Belgium, and every time time I can I go to Germany to drive on the Autobahn. If you say there are a lot of assholes in Germany, try and drive in Belgium, nobody can drive here and everybody drives on the left and doesn't have a general idea of driver around you. For example: When I drive in Germany on the left lane, and there are 2 lanes blocked by trucks, and another car wants to pass them on the left lane, they will see me and wait (or even break). They know I can't break that fast and will create an accident. In Belgium, you can drive on the left lane, and somebody merges into the left lane 10 m before you and keep going 90kmh on the left lane creating a traffic jam and unnecessary breaking. This is what I like about german drivers, they see their environment and know their (and other drivers) location in the traffic. Also, move to the right rule, it looks like 90% of the people follow it perfectly, in Belgium everybody drives on the second lane. Spain is the second best country I've driven in. Croatia is also fine.
    • jillesvangurp 7y ago
      I can vouch for the ahole thing. The German autobahn brings out the worst in people. Road rage is a thing and you'll see plenty of of people putting themselves and others at risk by basically doing all the things this article points out you shouldn't be doing like passing on the right, driving close behind your bumper (while flashing lights), etc. Idiots are of course a thing in any country but the increased speeds just makes things a lot more noticeable. While most German drivers are very disciplined, not all of them are and there are plenty of irresponsible people treating the autobahn as their personal racing circuit. Also, not all drivers are actually German or necessarily that experienced driving very fast. The combination of idiots and fast cars is kind of predictably bad. Accidents at high speeds tend to be fatal. Despite this, it's not as dangerous as you might think: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-related_death_rate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-r.... Germany is doing better than e.g. the US or my home country (Netherlands). The reason is very simply that people on the autobahn tend to pay attention to what's happening. Situational awareness is not optional and paying attention becomes second nature quickly. If you've ever been overtaken by someone in a Porsche flooring the pedal, you'll think twice before moving in the left lane or outstaying your welcome there. Even though I'm Dutch, most of my driving experience is in France, Spain and Portugal. I've never actually owned a car and typically only drive on vacation (rentals). For me, Spain is by far the most relaxed country to drive around in Europe. Roads are good, people seem to mostly behave these days (they've gotten more strict over the past 20 years), and there are lots of interesting places to drive to and beautiful scenery to enjoy. I've driven tens out thousands of km in that country over the years. By comparison, the German autobahns are not in great shape. Like in the US federal funding for maintenance is not great. They're in a state of perpetual maintenance and you can't drive very far without encountering extensive road works. Being overtaken by traffic going twice your speed when you are basically flooring the pedal on your cheap rental is like crossing a highway on foot: very stressful. If you are renting a car in Germany, get an upgrade to something half decent. I once drove a rental Fiat panda that struggled to do 120 km/h on the autobahn and I don't recommend that. It's possible but you are basically going to be hugging the right lane and getting stuck behind slow trucks waiting for gaps in much faster traffic allowing you to overtake them. Merging left without the ability to accelerate quickly is stressful.
  • Krasnol 7y ago
    Disclaimer: been living in Germany for a few decades No, absolutely no. I've been all over Europe for my job and vacation throughout my life and there is no country with more order than Germany. I have no idea how you get the idea about Italy. Besides France it is the worst driving experience in western Europe. People there are even proud of it. Eastern Europe is a topic for itself. Seriously, there are assholes on the road everywhere but there is an overall flow of order in Germany you won't find anywhere.
• gdcohen 7y ago
  While the rules of the Autobahn are not that different to U.S. freeway rules, the practice of them is very different (e.g. the use of blinkers). U.S. drivers could learn a lot from this.
  • pedrocr 7y ago
    Absolutely. Having driven in a bunch of EU countries and then driving in the US what struck me the most was not that Americans were "laid-back" as the article claims. At least in California highways following distances are very small and everyone seems to think it's natural to cut across into another lane with no safety margins at highway speeds. That combined with very poor lane discipline, with overtakes on the right and left, made me fell much less safe than in highways across the EU. As with anything you end up getting used to it but there's something to be said for simple rules well followed. These Autobahn rules are fairly normal practice across the EU. The Autobahn just makes obeying much more important as the speed differences are deadlier.
• Patrick_Devine 7y ago
  I've driven in Germany many times and thought it was a lot less stressful than driving in the US. Autobahns are typically only 2 or 3 lanes per direction vs the 4 to 6 lane monstrosities that we get here. They are also very well marked, designed, and paved.
  • Scoundreller 7y ago
    Also with a lot fewer interchanges. Even a large German city may only have 1 or 2 exits.
  • tty2300 7y ago
    If you go over 3 lanes per direction you have absolutely failed at designing a road.
    • jcranmer 7y ago
      Or you have the traffic density required to move that many cars. The George Washington Bridge, which essentially carries all traffic that travels through New York City that isn't going to/from Manhattan and some parts of Long Island, carries 9 lanes in each direction on two levels, and absolutely needs that many lanes.
      • tty2300 7y ago
        If you ever fill 3 lanes than you need to seriously invest in public transport. More than 3 lanes is never a sane idea. 9 lanes is an absolute atrocity.
        • 0x54D5 7y ago
          Or you live in a megalopolis. I-95 between NYC and Philadelphia is 4 or 5 lanes wide at times and that's in the middle of nowhere New Jersey. Even if you build public transportation people won't use it. You'll just be shifting the problem. Now instead of wider highways you need more trains and bigger parking lots at the train stations. Going further south I-95 between Philadelphia and Wilmington is 4 lanes wide near major interchanges. Approaching Baltimore it reaches 6 lanes wide at times. In DC the Beltway is itself 4-6 lanes wide and always packed. Your off the cuff "just do this" comments are not helpful.
• marktangotango 7y ago
  The autobahn is a glorious thing. When I lived in Germany I bought a Honda Civic hatchback, 1.6L, 5 speed manual through AAFES car sales (cars sales to US military personnel in Europe). I drove that car all over Europe from where I lived near Frankfurt. I’d drive it on the autobahn regularly. That little car had 120 mph on the speedometer. I had to really push the accelerator into the carpet but it could do it, easily on a down slope a bit harder on a flat, not at all up hill. Invariably I’d be in the left lane building up speed to get around someone going 110 or so, only to have a big bmw or Mercedes to pull up behind me and flash their lights. Then I’d have slow down, move over, let them pass then try again. Note this was out in the countryside far from major cities. People here are amazed when I tell that story, 120 in a Honda? Is that safe? All I know is it felt rock steady, and the autobahn was so smooth and sweeping it, was nothing to drive at those speeds. I brought that car back to the states and drove it till 2010. A lady backed into it in a store parking lot. Dented the left rear quarter, totaled the car because it wasn’t worth much at that time. Somewhere there’s Honda with a German owners manual in the US. Edit typo
  • Moru 7y ago
    Did it really have mph on the speedometer?
    • filoleg 7y ago
      Considering it was a civic hatch (which is a model that isn’t sold in the US iirc), i bet it was in kmh and the parent just conerted it to mph for the HN audience.
      • marktangotango 7y ago
        I assumed it was a US market car since it was sold through AAFES to US service members. It was mph and kph though. And there were a fair numbere in the US, I haven’t seen any newish ones lately though.
    • teh_klev 7y ago
      European cars, or those built for the European market generally have both MPH and KPH on their speedometers. My '92 imported (from Japan) Legacy Turbo Estate (man I loved that machine) had both sets of speeds.
• mattferderer 7y ago
  > If you remain a typical, more laid-back American driver, you could have problems. You also need to be alert and pay even more attention to the road than required in the US. I've driven around the US & Germany. There is no "typical" US driver. They vary based upon what kind of area in the US they live in, the time of day & the amount of traffic. I do prefer the semi's & large trucks on the far right rule & the pass only on the left rule. This is sometimes applied around the US but plenty of cities have people passing in every lane which seems to slow down traffic overall.
  • 0x54D5 7y ago
    This Driving in the United States is very region dependent. In cities it's everyone for themselves. Lots of speeding and general shenanigans. Especially Boston, Philly, NYC, Baltimore, SF, LA, DC, and Miami. In the mid west drivers are generally more laid back and follow the speed limits more. In rural parts of the Northeast like upstate NY and PA you'll find drivers a lot like Germans. Stay right, pass left. PA turnpike has a speed limit of 70 but it's normal to see people doing 80-85 especially on I-80. But I-95 near Philly is even worse. Posted speed limit of 55. People doing 80 regularly in the left lane. This is basically almost autobahn speeds. For the non-mericans: 80 MPH ~= 128.748 KPH American roads are all over the place as far as maintenance goes. The interstate road between NYC and Philadelphia is extremely high quality and you can easily hit 120 MPH (193.121 KPH).
• axiom92 7y ago
  Ah the no speed limit sign! I rented a 5-series and drove from Frankfurt to Schwangau via Munich last December. I've been driving in the US for 4 years now, and can tell that the Autobahn is only as stressful as you want it to be. There are multiple lanes, and if you're in the leftmost lane, you'll be tailgated by those with better cars even while doing 230 kmph. If you're not into that kind of stuff, just stay in one of the right lanes and enjoy the view (otherwise you better stay extremely focused on the road!). Driving on the Autobahn also made me realize that buying a car for its speed is extremely pointless in the Bay Area (or any place that imposes speed limits), because one would never be able to experience the thrill that comes out of pushing the gas pedal for 30 seconds straight.
  • dreamcompiler 7y ago
    I was similarly impressed by the autostrada in Italy. They do have speed limits, but the cops don't seem to enforce them unless you're driving a truck.
    • g4k 7y ago
      They do enforce the limits and they will even seize your car if you are going far over the speed limit.
      • dreamcompiler 7y ago
        Ouch. Guess I got lucky.
  • ajmurmann 7y ago
    Regardless of how much "stress" you want, you should always stay in the left-most lane that you can be in unless you are overtaking somebody. I used to go 220km/h or 130mp/h in a modified Golf 2 back in the day and even at that speed you should always move over if you can. If someone is tailgating you, you are in the wrong lane.
    • atq2119 7y ago
• weinzierl 7y ago
  One of the signs is labeled incorrectly. The clear white circle with the four diagonal lines is actually kind of a combination of the other two white circle signs. It means end of any speed limits and end of any passing restrictions. There is no need for a "No speed limit" sign because this is the default.
• athenot 7y ago
  > GW Autobahn Rule 3: Slower traffic stays to the right! As in the US, whenever possible, move into the right lane. Most German drivers are good about this, but some non-German drivers are not. Having driven both in Europe and the US, this is one of my pet peeves in the US. This causes so much unnecessary risk. I used to chalk this up to the super light driving test in the US (at least compared to Europe). But recently I realized it's not just driver education: the road UX is different between Europe and the US on main highways. Here in the US, the right lane very often "disappears", i.e. becomes an "exit only" lane. The result is if you're going straight for a while, you find it easier to not stay on the right and then have to change lanes. In Europe, the road design tries to minimize the "vanishing right lane" syndrome: exits ramps are separated; and if need be, it's the left lane that goes.
  • yesiamyourdad 7y ago
    Also in the US they'll use left side exits, which pushes exiting traffic to the "fast" lane. Drives me crazy when road designers do this. I think this also varies state-to-state, I recently drove from Colorado to Texas and it really seemed to me that in general TX drivers observe the "stay right except to pass" rule much more than CO drivers.
    • cliffy 7y ago
      Maybe it's worse in CO, but as a native Texan I have to say that there are plenty of slow drivers who sit in the left hand lane on major highways seemingly oblivious to the drivers wanting to go faster stacking up behind them.
      • bradlys 7y ago
        This is abundant all over the USA. I've driven all around the USA and hugging the left lane is a universal trait among the incompetent and oblivious drivers we have. (And we have many!)
    • dreamcompiler 7y ago
      A few years ago it seemed like CO drivers were strictly obeying "keep right except to pass" because cops were enforcing it. Now they apparently don't any more because it seems like CO drivers hog the left lane jist like everybody else. I guess enforcement matters.
• yakshaving_jgt 7y ago
  "The Autobahn is great! There are no speed limits!" The first speeding ticket I ever received was from doing 270km/h in my old 2003 Porsche Boxster S I had back in 2013. They took a photo of me, and said that I am "accused" of speeding, and would I very kindly like to send them my personal details to some office in North Germany. I didn't bother, and they also didn't care to follow up.
  • wongarsu 7y ago
    There are speed limits on about half the autobahn, mostly for noise control, to improve traffic flow and around construction zones.
    • Tepix 7y ago
      The figure is around 70% [1] [1] https://de.statista.com/infografik/16725/tempolimitregelungen-auf-bundesautobahnen/ https://de.statista.com/infografik/16725/tempolimitregelunge...
• aequitas 7y ago
  > When driving in Germany, you need to drive like a German – at least like the good German drivers. Or you can get a Dutch car (with a yellow licence plate, compared to the German which is white) and German drives will immediately recognise you as a danger on the road and give 'friendly' reminders with blinking lights to stay on the right side of the autobahn. Disclaimer, I'm Dutch.
  • dasKrokodil 7y ago
    There is a joke in Germany about this: Q: In the Netherlands, what happens to people who fail their driving test for the third time? A: They get a yellow license plate.
    • deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
• Tomte 7y ago
  Re: the recommended limit of 130 km/h: Exceeding that soft limit does not put you at risk of a fine or a criminal penalty, but courts will increase your civil liability in case of an accident. Meaning that it gets more expensive.
• zepearl 7y ago
  My additional rules: - if I'm driving on the right lane and I'm approaching a car in front of me while some other car approaches me on the left lane to overtake me (or even if it's on the right lane but quickly approaching) then I usually slightly break even if I wouldn't need it. This way the car approaching from the back will see my break lights and will know that I don't intend to suddenly change to the left lane to overtake the car in front of me. This is nice for the other person and makes the traffic more fluid. - the faster I drive the more I have to force myself to look more in the distance to be prepared for anything unexpected (sudden traffic jam, animals, debris, etc...). Sounds obvious but in other countries I usually drive up to max 140 km/h but with 200km/h I need a lot more space to react. - I try to anticipate and modulate the speed more than in other countries. E.g. even if the pavement is dry where I am driving, if I see a dark cloud in the distance I usually start slowing down as it could be that a few km ahead even, if it's not raining, there might still be a lot of water if a heavy cloud just did a pass-by. All in all I usually loved driving in Germany, with the exception of during the hours when people go or come back from work (can be quite hectic).
  • kaybe 7y ago
    Here's some more random rules: - Any maneuvering should be done with the gas pedal only. If you have to brake you are too fast. (Unless there was one single(!) idiot.) - In general, it's good to track every car you see and extrapolate their intentions. There is a lot of communication going on. The range extends more if there are less cars. - Pay close attention to cars trying to enter the Autobahn. Either move a lane to the left if there is space or speed up/slow down obviously enough they can adapt and get up to speed properly. When entering, speed up to ~60 kph and watch the others to see which space they offer you. You can mostly rely on them making space if you adapt a little. (Slow down if they speed up and vice versa.) It's extremely hard and dangerous to re-enter from a stop, so be confident and trust it will work out. - About the distance thing: They started checking this, so pay attention. You can pay a high fine or lose your license! - Going fast is really bad for your fuel economy. You'll have to get gas more often. - Before and while travelling, keep close track of sudden 'Vollsperrung', which means the whole road is blocked (eg caused by accident, or eg quite recently they found an unexploded bomb from WWII under one of the main autobahns). If you drive into it and are unlucky you can get stuck all day. Be prepared for this to happen on longer journeys, so keep enough water and things to keep you warm in the car. 'Stau' is unpleasant, but 'Vollsperrung' can be a nightmare. - There are two kinds of rest stops. The comfortable ones now all have toilets where you have to pay. If you stop at the small ones the toilets are free (but also a lot dirtier), so if you're stingy, stop there.
• dmode 7y ago
  I love the Autobahn, less so because of the driving experience and more so because it represents the Pinnacle of road engineering. Every inch of lane is striped properly, every sign is informative and bright, every Gore point is painted, every inch of road is paved with high quality materials, no potholes, all exit and entry ramps are separated and predictable, with long merges, highway facilities are in excellent condition. I don't know why we can't have these things in the US
  • scottlocklin 7y ago
    The same reason our cars are shittier, and our water faucets don't make most excellent whooshing sounds: insufficient German engineers and craftsmanship. American engineering is always over engineering, but lazy over engineering without any Teutonic perfectionism. Except maybe the various moon shots. Oh, wait.
    • Patrick_Devine 7y ago
      Just don't bring up the Berlin Brandenburg Airport. Never, ever do this.
      • wongarsu 7y ago
        There are plenty of countries that would have opened BER in the state it was in 5 years ago, either sweeping problems under the rug or fixing them during operation. The airport is as much a testament to bad construction as it is to safety inspections and rules trumping economic interest.
        • Patrick_Devine 7y ago
          When you kill 17 people and have to reconstruct multiple airport terminals due to fire (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%BCsseldorf_Airport#D%C3%BCsseldorf_Airport_fire https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%BCsseldorf_Airport#D%C3%B...), you want to make certain you don't have a repeat.
    • 7y ago
• zsim 7y ago
  I drive on average 25K miles (40K km) per year, mostly intercity and done so for the last 12 years, 10 of them in UK and the last two in the West of Germany. I used to think autobahn and specifically the lack of speed limits was a great design and that British top speed of 70mph (110km/h) was somewhat dated. Now, having driven about 50K miles (80K km) in Germany, mostly on autobahns, I prefer the design of British motorways. First the signage. On German autobahns it is extremely easy to miss a speed limit sign. The signs are the same size as regular "slow" road signs and often displayed only on the left side of the autobahn, they are very difficult to spot from afar, can be blocked from view by other vehicles and easy to miss when momentarily concentrating on the situation developing on the road. The speed signs are almost never repeated. On the contrary in UK the signage is done with much better understanding of how humans operate: motorway signs are bigger than their regular road counterparts, easy to spot from afar, installed in clear view on the both sides of the motorway, often repeated a few hundred meters later. Then the speed limits themselves. They are far from thought through. For example a no speed limit stretch can suddenly, without any apparent reason, have a 80km/h (50mph) limit sign, then 300 or 400 meters later (quarter mile) another sign removing any speed limit. This leads to quite a lot of sudden breaking and many drivers ignore the limit slowing down only to 120km/h or so. Another example would be a "end of all limits" sign after a long 130km/h stretch in the beginning of an steep ascending stretch, followed with the 100km/h limit a mile or later on the top of the hill. Literally encouraging unaware drivers to pointlessly burn fuel accelerating up the hill. The top speeds can rarely be attained in Germany unless at night. Traffic and roadworks leave a few short stretches where one can go faster than 130km/h. But this leads to constant acceleration and breaking and many many emergency breaking. Chain accidents are very common. Cruise control is pointless due to constant speed adjustments. Adaptive cruise control doesn't work well either as it requires a certain distance to the car in front to operate safely, but overtaking from the right is very common and most German drivers hence leave a very short distance, essentially tailgating. I find that the UK system, there traffic progresses steadily at a constant pace of around 70..80mph to be safer and less tiring. German roadworks, including non-essential, are scheduled with little or no regard to the expected amount of traffic (e.g. public holidays, peak traffic hours etc). In UK system this type of planning gets a lot of consideration. Diversions on Ferman autobahns are cryptic, signage is very scarce and they are practically impossible to follow without supplemental info (i.e. satnav). Diversions in UK are clearly marked and much easier to follow. UK rest areas (services) are head and shoulders above their German counterparts and include free toilets. All in all, I believe, German autobahn network is great, but UK motorway network had much more consideration for how humans work put into its design.
• FabHK 7y ago
  A few things the article might have added: * When getting on the Autobahn, there will always be a "Beschleunigungsstreifen" or acceleration lane. Use it to get to speed while watching the traffic on your left (while signalling, needless to say), then merge in. * When getting off the Autobahn ("Ausfahrt", ha, always on the right (with < 5 exceptions)), there will be 3 beacons with 3, 2, 1 white stripes on a blue background indicating 300, 200, 100 metres to the beginning of the deceleration lane. Start signalling at the 300m sign, and do not slow down until you've changed onto the deceleration lane (as otherwise you'd force those behind you to slow down & reaccelerate). * As mentioned, do not overtake on the right. However, if the highway splits (or at an exit), the broken white line dividing the lanes will change: wider and with shorter gaps. Here, one may overtake on the right.
  • maxxxxx 7y ago
    "When getting on the Autobahn, there will always be a "Beschleunigungsstreifen" or acceleration lane. Use it to get to speed while watching the traffic on your left (while signalling, needless to say), then merge in." And use it to actually accelerate. A lot of people are very reluctant to step on the throttle. I always try to match speed of traffic or go even a little faster before I merge. Much easier to look forward than having to worry about people behind.
    • zaarn 7y ago
      Reluctance doesn't do it justice. During my driving exam I had to dodge someone merging on the Autobahn with less than 30 kph. Almost suicidal.
    • MrMember 7y ago
      I'm in the US, but it's terrifying trailing behind someone doing 30mph in the acceleration lane trying to merge into 70mph+ highway traffic. I don't understand their mindset, or if they realize how dangerous that is.
      • maxxxxx 7y ago
        The crazy thing is that often these people have 150+ hp cars that can accelerate really well if you push the throttle just a little bit.
• gamache 7y ago
  My one Autobahn experience was a blast. I drove from Frankfurt-am-Main into Switzerland in a rented Ford Focus wagon (5-speed diesel, thank you). There was a period of about an hour when I didn't go below 120mph, and there wasn't a single moment when I felt unsafe. Just stay to the right and keep it between the lines. It's striking what a well-built road the Autobahn is. You could put a full martini glass on the dashboard, and even above 100mph you wouldn't see it spill. Back in my younger days I went similar speeds on American roads, and the construction quality just isn't the same.
  • rootusrootus 7y ago
    To be fair, Germany is a tiny country and the autobahn spends a lot of time under construction. It's dug much deeper than typical American highways. Nobody in the US wants to pay that much for road construction.
    • DanBC 7y ago
      I had no idea how big Germany is, or how it compares to US states. Germany is a bit bigger than New Mexico, but a bit smaller than Montana. If it was a US state it'd be 5th by size.
      • sib 7y ago
        While Germany would be the 5th state by size, it is only 3.6% of the area of the United States. (Those of us who grew up when there were two Germanies knew it as even smaller - only 2.5% of the US' area...) I learned this when being berated by my German hosts about the fact that you could at that time mail a letter "anywhere in the country by 4pm" and have it delivered the very next day, as an example of how efficient the Deutsche Post was. We'd usually make up by drinking some good Weizenbier, so it was all good.
        • heeen2 7y ago
          Only 3.6% of area but 25% of population
• drchaos 7y ago
  It should be noted that not all Autobahns are equally well built and maintained. Even though they are called "Bundesautobahn" (federal highway), it's actually the states who are responsible for construction and maintenance. Some do a good job with that, others not so much. For the best driving experience I'd recommend Bavaria. They have well maintained roads and less congestion, also only few speed limits. Avoid Baden-Württemberg and especially the Stuttgart area, unless you really like traffic jams. Here's a map of Autobahn sections without speed limit: http://autobahnspeedhunter.de/routes_de/ http://autobahnspeedhunter.de/routes_de/
  • rurban 7y ago
    No, Bavaria is actually one of the worst. The best are by far in the east, Sachsen. When I have to go from Sachsen down to Bavaria all hell breaks loose. Crippled asphalt, broken concrete from the 30s, endless constructions, highway police enforcing 80km/h. It's the worst.
    • mbeex 7y ago
      > Crippled asphalt, broken concrete from the 30s Rather from the 90's and later. You surely remember the bike driver, jumping to dead over a heat-caused artificial surface ramp on the A93 two or three years ago.
    • drchaos 7y ago
      I drive A8 (Stuttgart - Munich) and A9 (Nuremberg - Munich) regularly and don't see much to complain about. Compare that to A5 here in southwest and you see what I mean... Anyway, if Saxony really has better Autobahns than Bavaria, I need to go there soon ;) Any specific recommendations?
• k__ 7y ago
  Driving on the Autobahn is actually quite relaxing when you got three lanes. On the right there are all the trucks, which aren't allowed more than 80km/h. On the left all the speeders going as fast as they like. In the middle you get along with 120-140km/h.
• kraftman 7y ago
  > GW Autobahn Rule 2: Double check your side-view mirror before moving into the left lane! This was the biggest difference I noticed while driving on the Autobahn; driving in UK and doing 80-90mph, you get used to looking in the mirror and judging how much time you have to overtake, cars in the distance probably won't be doing much more than 20mph more than you. On the Autobahn I found it much harder to judge how much time I had to overtake, as they could be doing 50+mph more than me, and they'd go from barely visible in the distance to very close much faster than expected.
  • NotPaidToPost 7y ago
    In the UK everyone's on the right lane anyway, with the other lanes mostly empty.
    • kraftman 7y ago
      Except on the M25!
• omnibrain 7y ago
  I think it was better if there was a general speed limit at around 120km/h. Driving in Switzerland or Austria is in general more relaxing and needs much less fuel. But I have to admit there are things I like about being able to drive 200+km/h. First is acceleration. Being able to put the foot down and just accelerate (even in the end it‘s just accelerating to ~120) feels great. The second factor ist actually driving 200-220km/h. It‘s not really fun but it is a strange feeling. A mixture of of tension and relaxation and hyperfocus. You have Focus on your driving because you know an error (it does not have to be your error) can kill you but on the other hand you fell calm and feel you have control and through your focus everything slows down. It calms me. I would describe it as almost meditation, having never meditated. I know thinking about it I should not do it, and I should not praise it and I probably should have used a throw away, but it has some appeal and even just writing about it triggers some of those feelings.
  • wongarsu 7y ago
    > Driving in Switzerland or Austria is in general more relaxing and needs much less fuel Nobody is forcing you to drive that fast ;)
    • omnibrain 7y ago
      It makes a difference when overtaking a truck for example. In Germany it‘s possible that the right lane flows with about 85km/h whereas the left lane is used by “overtakers” with about 180+km/h.
      • sgift 7y ago
        One of the reasons I like three lane Autobahnen. You have the left lane for the racers. You have the right lane for the trucks. And you have the middle lane to overtake trucks. It all works fine until some beep beep beep beep decides that staying in the middle lane all the time is better cause they cannot be bothered to switch lanes every few kilometers.
• flexd 7y ago
  > "[...] Don’t be surprised if they flash their high beams. It’s common and only considered mildly rude. Just move over." According to the very angry and also very stereotypically German Police officer pulling over me and my friend back in 2017, flashing your lights is in-fact illegal. We were doing approximately 140km/h having just passed the police car in the left lane when someone pulled out ahead of us going much slower forcing us to slam the brakes to avoid hitting them. No blinkers were used on their part and we flashed our lights as we had seen and experienced countless times on our trip to let them know we were coming. We had driven all the way down from the top of Denmark, through Germany, France and Switzerland, down through parts of Italy and were then on the way back up through Germany when this happened so we had seen people flashing their high beams like that countless of times, and it seemed like a good practice if you were going much faster than the people ahead. My friend was driving at the time and luckily got no ticket and kept his license after getting scolded by the police officer for a good 15 minutes. No idea if it's actually illegal, but considering of angry the police officer was I'm assuming so. We were confused as to why they stopped us at first, and he kept yelling/asking "what is that? Why do you do that?" Other then that my experiences driving on the Autobahn (and that whole stretch of road) have been pretty good! Very straight roads of decent quality where they seem to use concrete or something instead of asphalt like they do here in Norway. Someone else mentioned the speed limits kept going up and down over short distances, which I remember as well. I think the most perplexing thing for us driving on the Autobahn is that you can purchase alcohol, even the stronger stuff, at the gas stations along the way, coming from having a strongly regulated alcohol monopoly system here in Norway where anything stronger than 4,7% alcohol is only available at Vinmonopolet, which is only open specific hours and dribks with a lower percentage are also only available in normal stores within certain hours. This is turning out to be a much longer comment than I intended.
  • wongarsu 7y ago
    The police officer probably had a bad day. Flashing the high beams or using your horn is allowed in two situations: to signal that you will overtake the car in front of you (or have the intention to do so) outside of a built-up area, or if you judge yourself or someone else to be in danger ($16 StVO). There are some additional provisions about not blinding oncoming traffic, but that shouldn't be a concern on the autobahn. Signaling something that they are driving unsafe and put you in danger is justified by the law.
• chki 7y ago
  >If you see a vehicle coming up from behind you at a higher rate of speed, signal and move over. Don’t be surprised if they flash their high beams. It’s common and only considered mildly rude. Just move over. While this is somewhat common this is a clear violation of Traffic Law and actually also a violation of the German criminal code ("Nötigung"). It's definitely not "only mildly rude" and the types of people who flash their headlights aggressively (often accompanied by driving way to close to the car in front of them) are those we could really do without on the Autobahn.
  • Faark 7y ago
    I thought so as well, but articles I've found (eg [0]) seem to indicate Lichthupe can actually kinda be used when overtaking. But I doubt most people on the road use it this way. Flashing your lights till the lane is clear certainly isn't legal. [0] https://www.adac.de/der-adac/rechtsberatung/verkehrsvorschriften/inland/lichthupe/ https://www.adac.de/der-adac/rechtsberatung/verkehrsvorschri...
    • pintxo 7y ago
      Yes, its actually perfectly legal, if you are indicating your intention to overtake, and you are still within the legally allowed distance from the other car. Doing this will riding in their trunk, not so much legal anymore. Problem is that this is barely known to anyone, even in Germany. So you will be seen as an asshole anyway.
    • chki 7y ago
      Yes you are correct. You are allowed to use the Lichthupe (or the normal horn as well) _once_ when indicating that you are going to overtake. But that's only for situations on single lane roads where there is already enough space to overtake. You are not allowed to push other drivers around it is only for signalling that your overtaking maneuver is about to happen.
• ddenisen 7y ago
  Tangentially related, but for some reason many Americans that I've talked to here in the US (I'm originally from Europe, and have lived in Germany for several years) have a collective misconception that "The Autobahn" is a particular designated, semi-mythical piece of highway somewhere in Germany that doesn't have speed limits. They don't understand that lack of speed limits is the default on any limited-access highway in the country (unless explicitly restricted).
• toadi 7y ago
  Love the German autobahn. Did regular trips to Munich which was about 600km in like 3 to 4 hours. Just foot down and see the fuel gauge move, because if the car was flat out I burned almost 30l of fuel per 100km.
• deng 7y ago
  I find driving on the Autobahn very stressful. The main problem is the width of the speed distribution. You have the trucks on the right lane, often struggling to even reach the required 60 km/h when going uphill, and you have people driving over 200 km/h on the left. When you're stuck behind a truck, you have to be very careful before switching lanes since you need time to accelerate. It's not easy to gauge the speed of an oncoming car in the rear mirror. Also, nobody wants to drive on the rightmost lane because you don't want to have a truck behind you when you suddenly encounter a traffic jam (especially when the end of it is behind a curve). So the left lane is usually pretty crowded, and often times the distance between cars is way too low for the speed that is driven there.
  • quincunx 7y ago
    Have you considered just adopting a faster cruising speed? Would this not solve all your problems by giving more room for error should someone behind you have to hit the brakes if you misjudge? Almost all cars can comfortably run 170 kph and it sounds like it would make you a lot less stressed (arguably stress and nervousness are more dangerous than the speed differential itself; the speed differential can be anticipated by others, whereas nervous driving is inherently unpredictable for everyone involved.) The not-wanting-a-truck-behind-you thing is new to me, didn't know that was a thing.
    • deng 7y ago
      The autobahn is usually too crowded for driving such high speeds continuously. You constantly have to break for slower cars overtaking trucks or who are simply "idling" on the left lane because they don't want to drive between trucks. This just creates another kind of stress (and will also reduce your mileage considerably).
  • pry86 7y ago
    If there is a big hill, I don't think there is not limit sign, rather 120 or even less. At least that's what I see around Munich and Stuttgart.
  • lazyjones 7y ago
• lukego 7y ago
  I rode a bicycle through a long stretch of German autobahn once. Took quite a while to reach a suitable exit. That was very late at night without much traffic though. That was a Schengen thing. I'd crossed from Switzerland into Germany without any visible border and I didn't know that the blue/green road designation has exactly the opposite meaning in Germany than in Switzerland...
  • leethargo 7y ago
    Similar thing happened to me in Italy. Wanted to ride from Perugia to Assisi, just following the signs and was suddenly on the ramp to the high way with cars and trucks behind me. Had to climb over the side rail to escape.
• tomohawk 7y ago
  Many of these laws are also laws in the US, but not in all states. Passing on the right (undertaking) is illegal in many states. Hanging out in the left lane while not actively passing cars to the right is similarly illegal in most states. In Germany, I noticed that they use camera enforcement for tailgating and undertaking - not just for speed. Since these activities seem much more dangerous than speeding, it seems strange that there is so little enforcement in the US.
• rconti 7y ago
  But don't obey the speed limits too closely. My first few times on the Autobahn, I'd cruise along at a great speed, then slow down to a reasonable approximation of the speed limit, only to have the cars I had passed over the previous 10 minutes blow by me on the left... wash, rinse, repeat.