Driving safely / the German Autobahn
 

Title says it all.

Last time drove a car on the autobahn was summer of 96' so it had been a decade. This time I spent only about 24hours (total 2000km+) on the road but have not encountered any major problem, especially traffic accidents.

Wonder... The German Autobahn has become safer? Or am I missing something?

Come to think of it... In fact, there is neither broken guardrails nor black tyre marks. The road surface doesn't show its age and the μ appears pretty high. Believe it or not, at least I've had no problem with doing 230km/h+ on a wet surface(special thanks to Michelin).

As for local driver's behavior, everyone seems to have fun with accelerating to at 210km/h+@ rather than crusing at 220~260Km/h+. (For the record: I'm used to seeing in the past is the latter). So, exceeding 220Km/h have been rare. The only time I got smoked is, a silver AUDI RS-4 driven by a man(mid 50's) comes up from my behind and no sooner he floors the gas pedal than figured out that I am playing with the governor. Although he is gone without saying 'See Ya, it's good to know that 'they' still exist. Maybe I'm feeing a bit nostalgic.

An interesting thing is that Dollar shuttle bus hit 180Km/h on the motorway. We were not in a hurry though, seems that this is one of their courtesy services.



:Edit to add (Here's 2 unsolved mysteries. Any information would be appreciated)

-As I'm heading East on A4, all of a sudden everyone started to slow down at around Rothschönberg. IIRC, it was a slightly inclined area. At first, thought it is just a traffic jam. I however had no guts to ignore it so synchronized my speed with the other's to see what happens. I saw a police officer wearing a yellow jacket wandering the roadside but not sure he's been doing a job or looking for an Euro coin. Anyway.. What was that, actually?

-As I'm about to approach an intersection, all of a sudden a taxi in front of me hit the brake and pulled over to drop off the passenger. A train is running the next lane so I'm forced to stop my car in the intersection. 3-5 seconds later, the taxi started to move and I followed it. So what? Well... the very next moment, a traffic camera on the roadside gave us a yellow flash, respectively. Looks like I got caught on the camera(yellow light running?). My mistake!

1. Gas prices are high and many people drive a little slower.
2. If you "got blitzed" running a yellow/red light, you'll get a ticket ... even if you give them your "taxi story".... and even if they have both, you and the taxi on the photo. Sorry about this.

achtung!
 

-As I'm about to approach an intersection, all of a sudden a taxi in front of me hit the brake and pulled over to drop off the passenger. A train is running the next lane so I'm forced to stop my car in the intersection. 3-5 seconds later, the taxi started to move and I followed it. So what? Well... the very next moment, a traffic camera on the roadside gave us a yellow flash, respectively. Looks like I got caught on the camera(yellow light running?). My mistake!

here's the deal; if this was a rental, the car rental company will pass the fine on to you, the fine is determined by the elapsed time when the light turnied red and when the camera flashed plus your speed. since your speed will be slow, it would be obvious you were stuck in the intersection. regardless you'll get hit with a fine, i'm guessing about 55 euros (or about $70 in "real money";) ) that's a fact. :(
but consider had you ran the light 14 seconds after turning red and speeding thru it, you'd lose your license in Germany, only can guess what they would have done with a rental. :confused:

I was not aware, that you can even loose your license. But it's true! I search with Google for "Rotlichtsünder", and yes, you can loose your license. I assume, however, all you get is a fine as outlined by ZCini, which is actually bad enough.

"...ran the light 14 seconds after turning red..." I guess it should read "...after turning yellow..."
I would recommend to bring some old license plates for the rental car and wear a mask ...:D

I should've been more specific.
1: "Pace down" was temporary, cruising speed on the left lane is 130Km/h or so and then decelerated to 60km/h as approaching the area and then resumed the original speed. "Temporary creeping" might be suitable. My first impression was speed trap.

2: The velocity should be 10-15km/h when I got flashed, right after that I glanced the signal in the rear view mirror shows yellow.

So can someone explain the police officer on the side of the road?

I thought Autobahn is famous for having no speed limit :confused:

A note on the cameras:

Some of them don't have film in them (due to budgetary constraints). Not every flash equals a ticket. Sometimes the polizei put them out for a deterrent factor. But, more have film in them than don't.

Not on all of them.. and the certainly have speed limits on
several streatches.

BS... they're all digital and linked to a central monitoring station.

Don't want to be quite as harsh as you were and I really don't know tons about it, however...

BS. Not all are linked. Some use CF-memory cards or other storage and are not network linked, and most mobile cams are set up and the data is taken for evaluation after breaking down the cam trap.

It's a big industry involving lots of states and companies, so it's not as cut-and-dried as any of us might think.

I'd suggest to ask some locals. :rolleyes:

Some of them ARE fake, some of them blitz without taking pictures, most are real.

Sounds familiar! I bet we're living on the same planet.

Honestly though, I don't want to spend my luck with not paying just a 55 Euros. Besides, this is completely my mistake.(Should've stopped before enter the intersection) Thanks anyway!

Thank you ^

This is what black electrical tape is for. !!! Make an 8 out of a 3, or an E out of an F. Works great on a rental car, especially if you only have it for less than a week. They'll never trace it back to you

Not that I would ever do that, but it has been done before....:eek:

Not possible anymore with the "new" German plates. The fonts are designed so you can't change one letter into another one...

SmilingBoy.