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> The same link says the average in Germany is about 78mph. Ask someone living in the US if that's significantly faster than here. That's significantly higher
by loeg 3y ago
> The same link says the average in Germany is about 78mph. Ask someone living in the US if that's significantly faster than here.
That's significantly higher than average speed on highways in western Washington. The nominal speed limit is 60 and average speed is about 70 mph. Once you get east into the mountains where the limit goes up to 70, the average rises as well (during good conditions, anyway). Many more people drive around the western side of the state than on that rural section of I-90, though.
- BugsJustFindMe 3y agoIt's not clear to me that 70 is so very significantly slower than 78. That's a 10% difference. Both speeds are unsafe in inattentive or adverse conditions and safe in attentive nonadverse ones.
- loeg 3y agoFor a lot of reasons that is a significant difference (e.g., despite 70mph average, there are also many drivers going the speed limit and that is a speed differential of 10mph or 18mph, nearly twice as much) but I'm not sure it matters at all as far as Germany vs US automotive safety.
- BugsJustFindMe 3y agoCars in the US also tend to be much larger, to such a degree that the average US vehicle has equal or more kinetic energy at 70mph than its German counterpart at 78mph. Anyway, there are a lot of factors. My only objection in this thread is to the innumeracy of saying "autobahn mumble handwave".