I must disagree with reader Robert D. Watts Jr. (Voice, Dec. 29) about the German autobahns. I have driven them at speeds of up to 210 k.p.h. (127 m.p.h.), and I have to say I felt safer at those speeds on those roads than I do at 55 on the Eisenhower.
The autobahns were engineered for high-speed driving. No substandard materials were tolerated, so the roads do not need to be rebuilt more often than every 15 to 20 years. The left lane is for passing, and whatever the speed, when autobahn drivers pass, they get back into one of the right lanes as soon as it’s safe. That is courtesy, consideration and safety–concepts that seem to have no place on the Eisenhower Expressway.
The first time I drove the autobahn, I ran into a fog so thick you could not see two car-lengths ahead. I was doing about 35 m.p.h. when a driver passed me doing about 80–that was foolish, and foolishness kills. But that was an exception; on the Eisenhower, foolishness seems to be the norm.
And it is not just on our expressways. How many times have you started through an intersection when some fool comes past on the right at 50 to 60 m.p.h. and cuts you off because there are cars parked along the curb up ahead? I learned to drive in New York, and that kind of action would get you a citation every time.
It is not speed that kills, but rather the mind-set of the drivers. For what it is worth, Germany now has speed limits on the autobahns. As was pointed out in the Bundestag discussions, the speed limits were necessary because “they get so many foreign drivers.”
