James Charles Ruwaldt wrote:
> Why, if speed laws are so well-thought out, is the speed unlimited on the
> Autobahnen, where the country is so much smaller than ours?
> Jim Ruwaldt
> '72 TR6 CC79338U
> Bloomington, IN
Jim,
I would like to say that Germany may be smaller than the U.S., but that
dosen't change the fact that American drivers aren't as skilled as European
drivers are. I don't know this firsthand, but I've heard it enough to beleive
it. I know, you drive well, I drive well, and everyone on this list is an
excellent driver- hell, one guy here even is an International Race Car Driver!
The problem lies in the fact that overall, it is not very safe to drive
much faster than the majority of traffic on a crowdwed highway. I don't care
what you can prove that highways are designed for 70 mph speeds, I'll even
agree with you on that point. But the reason I stated "> Good luck, it's a
jungle
out there, and just don't speed..;^)", was that when someone is travelling
20-30 mph faster than the rest of the traffic, a hazarous situation evolves.
The faster mortorist, IF he is conscientious enough, MAY begin flashing passing
light signals. Most people on the highway these days don't know what the
heck is going on- or if they do, they might say "I'm going fast enough. This
guy is a maniac" and refuse to move out of the way. This would NEVER
occur in Germany. As soon as a car is passed (the ONLY time the left lane
is used in Germany) the left lane is left open again for faster traffic.
So back to our speeding motorist- seeing that the person "parked" in the
left lane won't move, he begins to think of ways to get around him. Will he
use the middle lane? Will he use the right lane? Or will he just "intimidate"
the left lane bandit, by tailgating him into submission? You don't know
do you?, and neither do I- or any of the nearby motorist (now nervously wasting
our time watching the rearview mirrors) know what this speeder will do next...
I beleive that is what Tom Tweed meant when he said "> Now that any half-wit
> can buy a RADAR detector and make believe that he can drive just like the
>Dukes
>of Hazzard on your crowded freeway, I see a conflict..."
All this being said, I do make allowances for- 1)other peoples emergencies,
causing
a normally law abiding person to "have to" drive at a high rate of speed, 2)a
person
driving fast on an uncrowded road, 3)the general rate of traffic flow being
faster
than posted limits (which I agree most times are too low), and 4)actually
liking to
watch re-runs of "The Dukes of Hazard" (I like '69 Chargers & girls in
shorts...).
JOE IV
TR 250
WALLINGFORD, CT. USA
OCCASIONAL SPEEDER
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