

My knowledge about driving in the U.S. is also second-hand, but I think I can
correct your statements about our Autobahn:


Oh yeah, that would be paradise... in fact, you can forget it. From all I've
heard from my U.S. relatives, drivers esp. here in Germany are much more agg-
ressive, but not disciplined. One of my relatives, a L.A. resident, hired a car
at the Nuernberg airport and went about 18 miles to our home. He said then that
he grew about 1 year older during this ride and swore he'd never drive a car in
Germany again (this was in 1982 and he kept his promise - the situation now is
even worse as effect of the increased volume of traffic).
What you mean by `better disciplined' should perhaps be considered `cautious due
to fear': 
When driving around here, you always *have* to take into consideration that the
majority of the other drivers absolutely relies on you: They expect that nobody
fails or sleeps; many of them exploit this by driving as fast as their car can
go (of course only where that is allowed, you might think - dream on :).
So any mistake you make is a very high risk to your health - and if you're ex-
posed to such a situation from your very first day as a driver, you learn to
handle it - or you lose... 
That's the way I and most people I know experience our traffic situation - 
whether you think this is pleasant or efficient is up to you; I think we handle
a very high volume of traffic and that at high speeds with modest (compared to
the volume) and decreasing rates of lethal accidents - OTOH, more and more
people (esp. women) dislike driving (because they feel overtaxed and threatened)
and each accident is one accident too much.


Better designed and maintained, may be - but animal fences are very rare. Auto-
bahnen and many other streets have guard-rails (I hope that's the right word - 
a plank made from thick steel sheet fixed on uprights; it's about 2 feet high);
those guard-rails are designed for keeping vehicles on the road. Smaller animals
can crawl under the plank, bigger ones can easily jump over it. The point is
that esp. larger animals are very rare in Germany; they tend also to be very
timid. Accidents caused by animals are a neglegible danger.


You're right (there are speed linits even on the major part of the Autobahn) -
but the attitude towards driving (see above) seems to be very similar to that
in Germany (I've been in France, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Spain, Belgium,
the Netherlands) - besides that, you really can't rely on the residents abiding
the local speed limits. I've got quite a lot of practise (~120k miles) and I'm
used to travel at 130 mph (FYI, with a car even smaller than a rabbit), but I
consider driving on the highways round Paris or Milano really a thrill...


Sorry, but you'll find quite a lot rabbit-class-car (or even smaller, mine is a
Peugeot 205) owners going that fast; small cars with much HP are very `hip' over
here - and most people buying such cars aren't afraid to let them run.


I disagree; the size or weight of a car is rather irrelevant. Formula-1 cars
weigh less than 700 kg and the drivers have a chance to survive accidents at
130 mph or higher - OTOH when crashing against a solid object at 130 mph,
it makes no difference whether you sit in a Porsche, a Mercedes, a tank or on
a bicycle: Your're dead.

Bye,
Stefan
---
Stefan Dalibor (dalibor@immd3.uni-erlangen.de)