Autobahns wide open

Press, 9 January 1986, Page 19

Autobahns wide open

The West German Government has, quite realistically, decided not to impose speed limits on the country’s autobahns. Moves to apply a lOOkm/h limit have been rejected after an official report concluded that such a restriction would have a minimal effect on pollution from exhaust fumes.

The report stated that a lOOkm/h limit would reduce nitric oxide emission by 10 per cent. Motorway traffic is estimated to cause just 10 per cent of such pollution in Germany, so the improvement'would be one per cent only.

The official report

followed a year’s trial of lOOkm/h restrictions on certain stretches of autobahn.

Interestingly, critics of the study claimed that only 30 per cent of drivers kept to the trial limit, so it might be tentatively predicted that New Zealand’s lOOkm/h open road limit will be increasingly disregarded as drivers become more accustomed to driving faster and more annoyed by official threats of the consequences of doing so and the seemingly extravagant measures, such as “eyes in the sky” monitoring on which the road safety lobby has apparently bestowed its imprimatur.