Driving the Autobahn
Expect to be Sadly Disappointed
By D.W.

Most Americans who have never been to Europe are under the impression that the AutoBahn is an international racecar track where everyone can go crazy. In reality, the AutoBahn is just another series of highways located in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland that are not much different then the U.S. interstate highway system.

If you are a speed demon with the need to drive fast and if you have enough money for a trip to Germany, perhaps a Mercedes rental might be worth it. However, you should limit your expectations as the AutoBahn is not the Texas Motor Speedway so doesn’t expect a NASCAR race unless you are suicidal.

First of all, there are parts of the AutoBahn that have no maximum speed limit so you can legally drive your personally vehicle as fast as it can go, although the recommended speed is 130 km/h or 80 mph.

Meanwhile, larger vehicles do have established maximum speed limits that they can never exceed. Passenger busses and motorcycles pulling trailers can on go a mere 37mph, while big rigs can only go 50 mph. But more to the point, all types of vehicles instead of turbo-charged roadsters use the AutoBahn so not all of them are capable of exceeding 80 mph. And in reality, these bulky vehicles and normal cars regulate the flow of traffic.

Incidentally, most of the AutoBahn consists of two lanes in either direction, although a few places have three lanes.

All the slow vehicles creep along on the right lane and the faster vehicles use the left lane. The catch is that many cars in the left lane are going much faster than the vehicles in the right, but they tend to cruise at about 80 mph. Thus, the average flow of traffic is about 80-90 mph, which is better than on U.S. highways but nowhere near as fast as one might expect for a road that was designed for no speed limits.

To really accelerate and put the pedal to the metal you need a fairly deserted stretch of AutoBahn. And that is the case even when there are three lanes on the highway. The problem is that the AutoBahn is rarely ever that deserted.

Another common misconception is that the entire AutoBahn has no speed limit, which is false.

Many parts of the AutoBahn are regulated by maximum speed limits and they are usually not very generous since many of them are around 60 mph. These speed limits are placed in restricted areas, more challenging terrain, and for a host of other common sense reasons.

And these speed limit areas may be quite long or very short but they are frequent enough to annoy the hell out of you if you expecting to cruise 150 mph.

In fact, it is very common to have an area of no speed limits for a stretch of about 15 kilometers followed by a short stretch of a controlled area with speed limits followed by another 10 km stretch no limit area and then by another brief but regulated stretch. Get the picture? You have to constantly accelerate and decelerate which gets very frustrating if you are traveling at high speeds.

Furthermore, the police do give out speeding tickets on the AutoBahn for exceeding the speed limit in regulated areas.

The Germans are often less friendly than the U.S. Highway patrol, especially for foreigners so don’t expect to talk your way out of a ticket even if you are a beautiful young scantily clad female.

What is even more insidious is that the Germans have unmanned highway cameras attached to radar stations throughout the AutoBahn and on regular roads. If you exceed the limit, which you will often do if you are new to the country, you may not always see a bright flash meaning that they got you. Law enforcement will then send you a ticket in the mail with a photo of your car. I have received many tickets in the mail and I never really knew I had gotten caught.

And appealing these tickets as a foreigner is damn near impossible.

Another factor to take into account when you are planning an AutoBahn vacation is that all three countries with the AutoBahn have cold wet climates with long harsh winters. Black ice on the this highway is a problem and it kills many careless drivers every year.

When the weather is bad almost everyone on the will drive slower out of necessity thus, even if you do get a long clear stretch of road on the AutoBahn but the conditions are bad, you would be foolish to floor your vehicle. Summer and early fall are the only sensible times to take an AutoBahn vacation as far as weather is concerned, but another consideration to take is that a lot more people are also on the road during that time.

So when you are planning your AutoBahn vacation make sure you also have a lot cash on hand to pay for the exorbitant fuel cost, which can be up to four times the cost per gallon that you would pay in the U.S. The Germans have to pay for their welfare state somehow. And what better way to punish the evil gasoline consumers for not using public transportation than a ridiculous gas tax.

Hopefully, I haven’t crushed the dreams of too many aspiring Formula One drivers but the reality is that the AutoBahn is not the fairytale racetrack of your fantasies. Luckily accidents on this superhighway have been scientifically proven to be no more prevalent than on any other highway in the world. Your AutoBahn vacation money might be better spent lobbying your state legislatures for a higher speed limit, say the 80 mph average cruising speed that is the norm on the AutoBahn.  

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