No More Fun on the Autobahn?

[-Akshay-]

You could almost hear the brakes being slammed on across Germany. If there is anything Germans love more than their luxury cars, it's driving those cars fast. So the proposal by one of Germany's governing parties to introduce a speed limit on Germany's famous , the only highways in the developed world (outside the Isle of Man) that don't restrict speed, is meeting with serious resistance. Under the proposal, approved by the Social Democratic Party (SPD) at a convention this weekend, Germans would be required to keep to within a 130 kph (about 80 mph) on the regional highways in order to save the planet — "a fast and unbureaucratic path to climate protection," according to a statement from the party. The party elders reasoned that driving slower uses less gas and therefore contributes less CO2 to the atmosphere. But many Germans are not impressed. The idea of a speed limit left Franz Joseph Wagner, a columnist in the daily Bild, a mass circulation paper, frankly fuming. After musing in German fashion on the virtues of automobiles generally as "the horses of modern times, "the best horse that ever was," the commentator wrote: "Leave me my car that I can fly in." In order to become law the proposal requires the approval of the Bundestag, or Parliament, and the conservative Christian Democratic Party (CDU), which governs in coalition with the SPD, are opposed. Angela Merkel, the otherwise environment-friendly German Chancellor and a member of the CDU, said that no such change would take place on her watch. She said that Germany would be better off improving traffic circulation in order to reduce the amount of time cars spent in traffic jams. Other parliamentarians said Germany should push technical fixes such as more fuel efficient cars.

http://www.time.com/time/world/artic...677432,00.html