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Grass is always greener on the other side.

Yea, in the show I watched, they said that the autobahn is one of the worst, if not the worst, expressways in the world for traffice jams. People sit for hours on it, everyday.

TechTMW wrote: Also, you can rent a car in Germany and drive on the Autobahn. Though I think both Germany and Austria tax you when you enter the country if you want to do it.

I did a quick check on that. Found a place that would rent a porche boxster for 1,100 USD for 3 days. That's a little to high for me.

t_bonee wrote:Yea, in the show I watched, they said that the autobahn is one of the worst, if not the worst, expressways in the world for traffice jams. People sit for hours on it, everyday.

Hours, eh? You ever driven on I95 between CT and NJ?

MetricRider wrote:

t_bonee wrote:Yea, in the show I watched, they said that the autobahn is one of the worst, if not the worst, expressways in the world for traffice jams. People sit for hours on it, everyday.

Hours, eh? You ever driven on I95 between CT and NJ?

I have driven that road...smooth sailing when I was there. Of course I wasn't there long... maybe it is a holiday thing.

Everywhere I go, the local news and the local people talk about how bad the traffic is... and I go driving and I scratch my head wondering where. I drove through the much of the northeastern US (VT, CT, NJ, PA, NY, RI, MA, NH) in the spring of '05... 2300 miles and 19 days in a rental car... and the only traffic I saw at all was going through the fringes of NYC... even there at least things were moving. Otherwise.. you could get on an interstate at 7:45AM or any other time and at least be moving.

I thought it was a pleasant change from SoCal, where trying to use an interchange ramp (between two freeways) can cost 40 minutes to go maybe 1/8th of a mile... and that's not unusual, that's just rush hour every morning. I once tried to bypass onto surface streets and go around one of the interchanges... and discovered that the onramps had cars backed up two or three miles back on the surface streets with people trying to crowd their way onto the freeway. Wound up stopping and having breakfast because I didn't have the patience to get back on the freeway...never made that mistake again.

I am on the verge of taking anger-management classes due to this traffic in Socal. I sometimes pretend i'm on the Autobahn when the traffic magically disappears.

Bachstrad37 wrote:Not that I disagree, but I would think Autobahn drivers are a lot more attentive and higher skilled than say an average U.S. interstate drivers. I think lack of focus contributes to accidents more than speed. It's hard to guage ignorance or lack of attention. Determining speed is very easy, so it's an easy target during an investigation. It's much more tangible.

you hit the nail on the head here.

German drivers are much better trained and more attentive than US drivers. Cellphone use while driving is also verboten and strictly enforced, as are all german traffic laws.

t_bonee wrote:Yea, in the show I watched, they said that the autobahn is one of the worst, if not the worst, expressways in the world for traffice jams. People sit for hours on it, everyday.

this is why there about a dozen words in the german language for traffic jam.

I believe the most popular one is "Stau". The german word for bumper to bumper traffic.

on a nice note. should you be stuck in a Stau alternate routes are always clearly marked.

Don't forget that Germans pay a few grand for licensing fees, tests and practices. That way people there see driving as a privilege while the US gives out licenses as if they were toilet paper (compared to Europe). Its prolly because our public transit sucks and so cars are a necessity or something.

Something I really LOVE about the German system is that you must pass a test on Automobile Mechanics (How does a car work) in order to get a license.

now THAT is definitely something we should do in the states.