Autobahn, my experience visiting from the USA

I lived in Germany from 87-91 and drove a Mercedes 190 D then. It had a top speed of 110 MPH, which I found that I could do on the autobahns.

The problem with driving that fast was that even in light traffic, you had to concentrate so much that it was exhausting. You couldn't relax at all. i found that driving about 85 MPH or 135 KPH was best, which allowed a less stressful drive.

Even then, on the two lane autobahns with slow truck traffic in the right lane, you had to be very diligent, shifting lanes.

Yes, if a Porsche, Marc or Audi came up behind you tooling along, you had to move over to the right with the 80 MPH trucks.

My memory of the Autobahn is having to pass a slow truck, did the due diligence, checked, and checked, no vehicles in sight sped up to passing speed, checked twice, nothing, wife had turned around to look as well, pulled out floored it more to 140-150 kmh, and ducked back in. Barely crossed the centerline...and a motorcycle zipped by like I was in park. The guy had to be doing 250 kmh minimum.

But to your general comment, yeah it is not the free-for-all many Americans picture.

Being a back-seat passenger at 140 mph in a BMW in the relatively empty Autobahn from Munich to Dingolfing was an...interesting experience, to say the least. Not sure I'll actively want to repeat it!

Europeans are so much better about using the left lanes for passing and especially yielding to overtaking traffic.

I think traffic flows better; even with fewer lanes.

Until you hit a stau, and the autobahn becomes a parking lot. I remember one that we encountered when driving back to O'gau from Heidelberg. We sat and crawled, and crawled and sat for about half an hour. I needed a cigarette break, so got out of the car and started walking forward, telling DH to pick me up as he passed by. Nope; I had to walk back to the car.

Under normal traffic conditions, we usually held to about 140 in the unlimited areas. But on most of our drives those were few and far between. Most were speed posted.

Some facts about German Autobahn.

• Only 30% of German Autobahn are speed limited.
• Although Germany has no general speed limit on Autobahn the numbers of death rates per km are far below other EU countries.
• Autobahnen have by far the lowest accident rate compared to city and land road traffic.
• Southern and western parts of Germany have a much higher traffic density than eastern and at least northern part of Germany.
• Most traffic jams on Autobahn happen on Wed and Thu (2019, ADAC).
• The majority of people drive speeds between 100 and 130 on Autobahn.
• The share of high-speeds is highest in daylight evening hours.
• Still be more careful when driving in the former GDR area (East-Germany) - they had other rules for entering an Autobahn than western Germany.
• Most Germans are not very gas price sensitive. Not the reason for diving moderate speed.

I still like driving fast on Autobahn. When nearly empty driving speeds around 150 mph / 240-250 kmh is a very relaxing thing if you are used to. I was raised with high-speed by both parents.

Golden rule: never drive faster than your guardian angels can fly.

I'm older and slower these days. My aggressive driving days are over. Changing summer tires every two years is behind me. With higher fuel cost and concern for the environment I generally keep it to the recommended speed of 130 kph. There are moments and situations where I will put the peddle to the metal. I go out of my way to avoid certain streches of the Autobahn prone to heavy traffic and Stau. Best to be safe. Honestly driving in the US on congested highways is more stressful to me me these days.