UNCLASSIFIED
Jerry
The anomaly you identified between US and European roads/speed limits can be, IMHO, primarily explained by one word: congestion.
I have driven on US roads since 1968 and have been deployed to/driven on roads of Germany from 1980-84 and then again from 1993-2003. Even within those two decade-separated time periods I noted a significant change in vehicle volume. In some stretches of autobahn it was so bad that regardless of the posted limit you can only maintain 50-60 MPH (100 KPH). The opening of East Germany occurred between my two visits/deployments in Germany and the number of trucks on the autobahn, very often only two lanes in each direction, seemed to expand geometrically.
Ironically – IMHO, the construction of roads and maintenance of same is MUCH BETTER in Germany (western European) than ANYWHERE in the US. I was continually impressed with the smoothness, lack of potholes, smooth expansion joints, and persistent maintenance being done on German autobahns. In fact, the high level of maintenance sometimes adds to the congestion: the Germans line the thin (by US standards) medians with bushes / trees to act as shields for headlights coming from the opposite direction. They plan gaps in the foliage to allow traffic on one side of the median to be shifted to the opposite lanes. That turns a 4-lane autobahn into a 2-lane very-speed-restricted stretch of autobahn. Add the vehicle / truck(!) congestion and it really slows down speeds.
My last 5 years in Germany my play thing was a ’92 850i BMW. I could regularly cruise at 150-170 KPH (90-100 MPH) – but only in limited areas (between cities) and at select times (Sundays NO trucks are allowed on the autobahn). I did hit 250 KPH (once) = 150 MPH.
Craig
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