Germany - home of the best road drivers

Germany - home of the best road drivers

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eAyeAddio

Original Poster:

71 posts

87 months

Thursday 15th March 2018
quotequote all
This is just one example of why driving in Germany is so much more advanced than the UK...... Another glaring example of the difference between the UK and Germany regarding driving was that on the very same day that the 70mph speed limit was introduced in the UK many years ago, in Germany a law was passed ruling that if 5 or more cars were in line behind you on an autobahn then you had to move over to the inside lane to let them pass...... I was lucky enough to spend 10 happy years of my life living in Germany and driving fast cars on un-restricted autobahnen. It was a joy unlike driving in the UK where driving fast (competently) was frowned upon by the authorities and overtaking another driver was akin to insulting them and their family, and all their relations........ Germany is the true home of the petrolhead and has always been so...........

https://www.facebook.com/195766187858610/photos/a....





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RDMcG

19,519 posts

214 months

Thursday 15th March 2018
quotequote all
I have driven all over the world. and extensively in Germany with some very quick cars. I tend to agree with your assessment. The problem is than not all autobahn drivers are German................

eAyeAddio

Original Poster:

71 posts

87 months

Thursday 15th March 2018
quotequote all
There was a huge change for the worse after the wall came down and west Germany re-unified with the east.

Driving standards lowered considerably overnight and have never returned to the golden days of pre '89.

Still better than anywhere else though...... !

LeoSayer

7,388 posts

251 months

Thursday 15th March 2018
quotequote all
In that Facebook picture all the vehicles on the right are parked on the hard shoulder!?

eAyeAddio

Original Poster:

71 posts

87 months

Thursday 15th March 2018
quotequote all
Exactly.

Leaving a free lane in the center for emergency vehicles to use.

Wouldn't (couldn't) happen in the UK due to a total lack of understanding by the average motorist of the simplest driving standards required of them.

wst

3,503 posts

168 months

Thursday 15th March 2018
quotequote all
eAyeAddio said:
Exactly.

Leaving a free lane in the center for emergency vehicles to use.

Wouldn't (couldn't) happen in the UK due to a total lack of understanding by the average motorist of the simplest driving standards required of them.
In the UK, the hard shoulder is the free lane... even better, it doesn't require active thought to create it.

Reg Local

2,690 posts

215 months

Thursday 15th March 2018
quotequote all
The linked photograph doesn't show anything relating to driving skill. It shows drivers complying with relevant legislation.

I've driven in many other countries, but never - to date - in Germany, so I'll reserve judgement for now, but I've got a little trip over to the Nurburgring booked for June, so I'll find out for myself then.

watchnut

1,197 posts

136 months

Thursday 15th March 2018
quotequote all
Can't agree with OP, the driving in Germany is far worse than ours....look at he death rate over there for a start far more than our average of 5 a day. They have nearly 9

I have driven extensively in Germany, they love tail gating at very high speeds. Hence when it goes wrong it goes wrong bad!

Like already said they have far more eastern europeans on their roads than we do whose general standard of driving is far lower than the Germans/Dutch/UK .

The worst drivers I experience in in Western Europe are Belgium's... hate driving through there!

The carnage will only get worse the more the "easties" flood to the west of Europe. For example a Romanian guy I chatted to the other day, had recently exchanged his Romanian licence for a GB one, and said that when he took his test in Romania the examiner wanted to save time, so 4 of them were in his car, and swapped into the driving seat after about a km of driving in a loop. !!! Same Romanian loves driving in the UK because we are all so polite, and safe! His driving was shocking.....he failed his "Taxi" assessment.....but was not overly worried as he was an "Amazon" delivery driver, but wanted to drive Taxi's as the money and hours are better....he was going to practice and try again!

All over Europe the death rate is creeping up, I suspect in part to the standards of driving from the new EU members being able to drive on their licence without having to take a driving test that is not effected by corruption, and at a higher standard.

Len Woodman

168 posts

120 months

Friday 16th March 2018
quotequote all
watchnut said:
Can't agree with OP, the driving in Germany is far worse than ours....look at he death rate over there for a start far more than our average of 5 a day. They have nearly 9

I have driven extensively in Germany, they love tail gating at very high speeds. Hence when it goes wrong it goes wrong bad!

Like already said they have far more eastern europeans on their roads than we do whose general standard of driving is far lower than the Germans/Dutch/UK .

The worst drivers I experience in in Western Europe are Belgium's... hate driving through there!

The carnage will only get worse the more the "easties" flood to the west of Europe. For example a Romanian guy I chatted to the other day, had recently exchanged his Romanian licence for a GB one, and said that when he took his test in Romania the examiner wanted to save time, so 4 of them were in his car, and swapped into the driving seat after about a km of driving in a loop. !!! Same Romanian loves driving in the UK because we are all so polite, and safe! His driving was shocking.....he failed his "Taxi" assessment.....but was not overly worried as he was an "Amazon" delivery driver, but wanted to drive Taxi's as the money and hours are better....he was going to practice and try again!

All over Europe the death rate is creeping up, I suspect in part to the standards of driving from the new EU members being able to drive on their licence without having to take a driving test that is not effected by corruption, and at a higher standard.
I'm in full agreement with this. Last October I drove several '000 kms in UK, Belgium, Netherlands and Germany. But all better than here in Australia!


7mike

3,093 posts

200 months

Saturday 17th March 2018
quotequote all
eAyeAddio said:
Exactly.

Leaving a free lane in the center for emergency vehicles to use.

Wouldn't (couldn't) happen in the UK due to a total lack of understanding by the average motorist of the simplest driving standards required of them.
I was stuck in traffic last week because of an accident ahead. All the emergency services including a fire engine and a recovery truck got up the middle, no problem wink

Should add, this was a dual carriageway with no hard shoulder.

Edited by 7mike on Saturday 17th March 17:36

Len Woodman

168 posts

120 months

Sunday 18th March 2018
quotequote all
It's perhaps a few years old now but the experience of my recent trip to Europe supports this:

http://www.safespeed.org.uk/roadsafety.html

Len
Sydney

Pica-Pica

14,479 posts

91 months

Sunday 18th March 2018
quotequote all
Len Woodman said:
It's perhaps a few years old now but the experience of my recent trip to Europe supports this:

http://www.safespeed.org.uk/roadsafety.html

Len
Sydney
More up to date figures support this too.

http://etsc.eu/euroadsafetydata/
http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-17-675_e...

There are other sites and other analyses (e.g. fatalities per million miles travelled etc,) that support the same picture for individual countries.

aj520d

67 posts

147 months

Tuesday 17th April 2018
quotequote all
watchnut said:
Can't agree with OP, the driving in Germany is far worse than ours....look at he death rate over there for a start far more than our average of 5 a day. They have nearly 9

I have driven extensively in Germany, they love tail gating at very high speeds. Hence when it goes wrong it goes wrong bad!

Like already said they have far more eastern europeans on their roads than we do whose general standard of driving is far lower than the Germans/Dutch/UK .

The worst drivers I experience in in Western Europe are Belgium's... hate driving through there!

The carnage will only get worse the more the "easties" flood to the west of Europe. For example a Romanian guy I chatted to the other day, had recently exchanged his Romanian licence for a GB one, and said that when he took his test in Romania the examiner wanted to save time, so 4 of them were in his car, and swapped into the driving seat after about a km of driving in a loop. !!! Same Romanian loves driving in the UK because we are all so polite, and safe! His driving was shocking.....he failed his "Taxi" assessment.....but was not overly worried as he was an "Amazon" delivery driver, but wanted to drive Taxi's as the money and hours are better....he was going to practice and try again!

All over Europe the death rate is creeping up, I suspect in part to the standards of driving from the new EU members being able to drive on their licence without having to take a driving test that is not effected by corruption, and at a higher standard.
Agreed. I've been living in Germany for 5 years now. The Germans are such aggressive petty drivers, always trying to get one over on each other. Complete lack of manners as well.

I much prefer driving in the UK. Also agree that Belgium is the worst.

mko9

2,646 posts

219 months

Tuesday 17th April 2018
quotequote all
All I can say is they know how to get out of the passing lane. In 6 months of driving in Germany, I could probably count on one hand the number of times I undertook some clueless idiot on the autobahn. In the UK I probably undertook at least that many people EVERY TIME I was on a dual carriageway or motorway.

9xxNick

1,013 posts

221 months

Friday 27th April 2018
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In which case you may be part of the problem.

rsv gone!

11,288 posts

248 months

Sunday 6th May 2018
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aj520d said:
Agreed. I've been living in Germany for 5 years now. The Germans are such aggressive petty drivers, always trying to get one over on each other. Complete lack of manners as well.

I much prefer driving in the UK. Also agree that Belgium is the worst.
My experience on the autobahn was lots of people carriers tailgating each other at 110mph.

Andy665

3,806 posts

235 months

Wednesday 9th May 2018
quotequote all
Having lived in Germany and driven a lot on Autobahns I have to disagree with the OP for a number of reasons:

1. Very aggressive / lack of patience
2. Driving far too close to one another
3. Lack of courtesy
4. Lane discipline on 2 lane Autobahns is very good but on 3 lane Autobahns it's not much better than in the UK