In Germany, attempts are once again being made to limit speed on German autobahns
In fact, as "Russkaya Germaniya" notes, of the total autobahn network length of 13,000 kilometers in Germany, sections where speed is not regulated account for about 40 percent; the rest (junctions, interchanges, bridges, construction zones, and other dangerous areas) are equipped with permanent or dynamically adjustable speed limit signs.
The downside of driver freedoms is increased environmental burden. Mass automobile transport in principle has a severe impact on the environment, and fast driving especially: at relatively low speeds, less fuel is consumed and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are reduced.
Attempts to limit speed on German autobahns are not being made for the first time. For example, back in 2008, the grand coalition, composed then as now of representatives of the conservative CDU/CSU bloc and the Social Democratic Party, rejected a proposal by the Left Party and the Greens to introduce a general speed limit in Germany, which would have been 130 kilometers per hour.
Interestingly, earlier, at the end of 2007, a decision on the need to push for the introduction of a speed limit was made at the party congress of the SPD itself, and later the "Reds" buried the project, apparently realizing its futility – after all, Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel had unequivocally rejected this idea of the coalition partners, promising: "As long as I am in office, there will be no limits."
Ten years later, the topic of a limit was raised again – but this time not in party circles. The initiator is the environmental organization "Deutsche Umwelthilfe" (DUH). It is DUH that is seeking through the courts to impose bans on diesel cars in German cities. The head of the organization, Jürgen Resch, said that his organization intends not to lobby politicians, but to take the same legal path as with the diesel bans.
If DUH lawyers consider that the attempt to achieve a speed limit is legally justified, the state, as the owner of the road transport infrastructure, will face a series of lawsuits. They will affect not only autobahns: environmentalists also intend to achieve a reduction in speed on federal highways (Bundesstraße) – today they have a limit of 100 kilometers per hour.
Interestingly, the opinions of German residents on the advisability of introducing limits are almost evenly divided. During the discussion, the Hamburg weekly Der Spiegel conducted a survey among its readers – non-representative but large-scale: over 125,000 users of the Spiegel Online internet portal took part. 46 percent of them believe that a speed limit is definitely needed, 47% think it should not be introduced under any circumstances. The remaining 7 percent were undecided.