No More ‘Fun Fun Fun on the Autobahn’ Under Proposed German Laws

Tax carbon more. Then, if people want to pay more for the externalities of their adventures, they can still have them rather than sucking all of the cool out of the world with a "Culture of No."

"Anything fun in life is illegal, immoral or fattening." - Anonymous

cortesoft• 8 years ago

Yeah, I wish this was the approach for more things. There is something in between "free for all" and "no one is allowed to do it".

savanaly• 8 years ago

I agree; it is not the goverment's role, much less is it actually possible for them, to decide whether the needed cuts in carbon emission come from cars going slower on the roadways, from car buyers favoring hybrid cars or public transportation, from less goods being bought that require carbon to be made, or any of literally a million other options for carbon reduction. They should impose a pigovian tax on carbon, steadily increasing until they have achieved the level of carbon reduction desired, and let the free market sort out the particulars of where the carbon reduction happens.

Wowfunhappy3• 8 years ago

In an ideal world, I'd be in favor of increased carbon taxes instead of blanket bans. The tax would need to be both high and broadly enforced, and should preferably offer some sort of subsidy to lower-income individuals to ensure they aren't decimated by the changes.

In practice, I'm so desperate for countries to do anything about climate change that I'm disinclined to complain about implementation. Climate change is an existential threat to humanity, and we need to actually treat it as such.

toufiqbarhamov• 8 years ago

Carbon taxes do seem regressive and problematic. On the other hand if we wait for an ideal world, it will only be ideal for plants, insects, rodents, and pathogens. Truthfully though, taxing consumers seems half-asses in the extreme. Of course what we need is something the average person is terrified of, which is to say we need nuclear power en masse, and we needed it yesterday. That can give us some breathing room to push hard on solar as wind, as well as using nuclear power to produce hydrogen through electrolysis.

It’s not perfect, it’s expensive, it produces waste we need to deal with, but the alternative is going to be waiting for too-slow progress on the renewable end, only to realize it’s too late. That’s when the desperate geoengineering attempts will be made, likely kicking off some very unintended consequences.

yholio2• 8 years ago

It's really not about ideal vs. non-ideal, it's about how to get the largest reduction in the fastest way, for the same public effort, political cost etc.

CO2 in automobile fuel is already heavily taxed in EU. Fuel used for aviation - guzzled by definition by the rich - is not taxed at all: https://www.greenaironline.com/news.php?viewStory=2453

The massive industrial CO2 outputs of cement or steel factories is taxed at negligible levels compared to fuel, EU could easily reduce emissions by increasing the tax while applying a similar levy on imported products. The revenue these taxes could generates could be reinvested in electric transport infrastructure to benefit all, or industrial and technological upgrades for housing, manufacturing etc.

These crap policies like speed limits have a single purpose, to avoid tackling the real issues of carbon emissions in the context of international trade, with the largest emitters getting a massive subsidy by destroying the planet.

mr_toad• 8 years ago

Towards the end of the article they mention the possibility of increasing petrol taxes, but that the government is wary of the political impact (hardly surprising, seeing all those riotous Frenchmen).

Unsurprising, the unions favour speed limits over taxes (I doubt many trucks are travelling at 80mph).

mnm1• 8 years ago

Why not limit just fossil fuel vehicles then? That would encourage adoption of electric vehicles while keeping the freedom of the autobahn and reducing emissions just as much.

mc324• 8 years ago

Can you imagine the traffic hazard when electrics going 200 come up on ICEs at 120? That’ll not be fun to see in action.

kurthr• 8 years ago

It can happen on the Autobahn today. Stay out of the passing lane.

watwut2• 8 years ago

It up to faster car to not hit slower one.

paganel• 8 years ago

200 come up on ICEs at 120?

This happens to me regularly, and I'm not even living in Germany and driving on the Autobahn, I'm just living a little further to the East where the police is less rigorous in pursuing this type of traffic infractions. As long as you use the passing lane only when needed you're fine, nothing bad happens.

stefan_• 8 years ago

Going 200 in an electric car will be a great learning experience for the relationship of drag and speed.

b1r6• 8 years ago

Have you driven the Autobahn before? This is quite normal Delta in speeds. Everyone is generally aware and slow vehicles promptly move to the right.

Wowfunhappy3• 8 years ago

I think for this to work, non-electric vehicles would need to be banned from the Autobahn completely.

That's not something I'd necessarily be opposed to in the future, but we need to get WAY more electric cars into use first.

ArchD• 8 years ago

Maybe that will create different classes of vehicles traveling at vastly different speeds sharing the same road. The benefit to the electric car driver may not outweigh the additional cognitive load and risk of collision from the presence of slower vehicles.

Haga• 8 years ago

Yet another fun ruined by a aristocratic bigots who want to reeducate and control the unwashed masses while using jets and energy wasting hyper capitalism without shame.

yayr• 8 years ago

No worries, this isn‘t the first and also not the last time for such a proposal by a minority oppositional party. Politically this is not going to happen with most Germans relationship to their cars.

gaha• 8 years ago

While you are right with the conclusion that it's not going to happen, you are wrong about who made the proposal. I suppose by "minority oppositional party" you mean the german green party (btw: more than 20% in recent polls) had nothing to do with it. The proposal actually came from the "Verkehrskommission" (English: transport commission), which is a commission of the federal government.

sonnyblarney• 8 years ago

It's not fun it's utility.

For context, imagine if the US gov said 'no more 55mph' on the highway, instead, everyone has to go 45 mph max.

Imagine how people would react.

marpstar• 8 years ago

They tried it. It didn't work: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Maximum_Speed_Law

milansuk• 8 years ago

Having roads with no speed limit is one of the reasons why to make cars with high maximum speed. Without that next generation cars can have 300hp and 90mph maximum speed.

rdiddly3• 8 years ago

Very next article on my version of the page: "Europe’s Most Important River Is Running Dry" (because of climate change)

Grow up, could there maybe be an upside to limiting emissions? One this writer with his childlike and provincial worldview can't appreciate? (Provincial because it's FAHREN auf der Autobahn, and childlike because the chosen substitute-word is "fun.") This isn't about your shallow "fun fun fun," it's about everybody's "death death death." And I hate to break it to you, but driving 100MPH on a German highway (which I'm pretty sure he's never done, or else he might've seen one or two signs with the words Fahren or Fahrt on them somewhere) might not be the only thing he'll have to say goodbye to. You actually should probably STOP ALTOGETHER hauling 2 tons of dead weight around with you everywhere, and do it TODAY, or be overrun with migrant refugees of drought, war, famine, and fascism tomorrow. (Or maybe your place succeeds in keeping them out, in which case you're probably in the fascist place from which you'll be the refugee.) Gauge how likely that future is, by the number of shallow and petulant downvotes this comment gets. I've pretty much accepted it as a near-certainty. It will precede the much-needed, massive die-off of homo sapiens back to a more sustainable population size.

antisthenes• 8 years ago

It's unfortunate that US will have to deal with its 'legacy' infrastructure built for 2 ton chunks of metal flying at 70mph.

If cities were built up with appropriate density, we could all get by in compact 400-500kg battery vehicles limited to 35mph. And not have to deal with ridiculous landscape upkeep overhead as a bonus (I'd venture to say at least 60% of people in suburbia never really use their lawn).

petermcneeley4• 8 years ago

"the much-needed, massive die-off of homo sapiens back to a more sustainable population size."

Ah yes the Anti-human environmental movement! lets put those guys in charge!

RealityVoid• 8 years ago

I fail to understand this human-hating stance. It's very confusing to me especially seems it seems to be cheering the suffering and death of many people but the feeling seems to be prompted by the suffering and death of many people. It's simply confusing to me.

mimixco• 8 years ago

Which will be next? Gerexit or Frexit?

KozmoNau7• 8 years ago

Good, it really honestly needs to happen. Unlimited speed increases pollution massively, and other countries do fine with 110-130kph limits on motorways.

The car industry has managed to turn it into a national pride issue, and will fight tooth and nail to preserve the unlimited sections of the autobahn, because it lets them sell more expensive more powerful cars, and market them as "tested on the Autobahn".

In general, German driving culture needs a bit of a kick in the pants. While they're generally quite courteous on normal streets, and very good at making room for emergency vehicles, they still have some issues to deal with.

First of all, they drive way too close at high speeds on the motorways, and they brake very late when coming up on slower traffic, for instance a Porsche going 200+kph coming up on an Opel at ~120kph overtaking slow traffic. The guy in the Porsche will brake hard at the last possible moment. This often leads to huge pileups in foggy or otherwise inclement weather.

Secondly, there is a very definite sense of entitlement based on the size and price of your car. The bigger and more expensive your car is, the more you expect people to just get out of your way, because they drive a "lesser" vehicle. It's extremely obvious to compare reactions when you're driving a small Citroën compared to even just a BMW 1-series. People will pull right out in front of you if they deem your car "lesser" than theirs.

Abolishing unlimited speed will reduce the number of accidents, reduce pollution and somewhat even the playing field on the roads.

E: For clarification, my girlfriend is from Baden-Württemberg and we spend a lot of time on the roads when we visit her family, 2-3 times a year.

No More ‘Fun Fun Fun on the Autobahn’ Under Proposed German Laws

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