Autobahn pleasure and displeasure
Discussion
A fast drive to the Innsbruck area and back in on a Wednesday and Friday respectively in early May revealed an autobahn environment more like the UK than I have remembered for a few years.
People in the fast lane were less inclined to move over when you came zooming up behind them. Since the beauty of the derestricted autobahn sections is that I'll move over for you if you're going faster, and you move over for me if I'm going faster, then drivers who won't move over, especially with the strong German antipathy to undertaking are really frustrating, and the only way to deal with them if you want to make progress is to acytually undertake.
The autobahns in certain areas were as crowded as the M1 and M25; such as going round Munich, driving westwards along a totally rammed A8 south of Stuttgart, the dreadful Heilbron A81/A6 junction area, and the A6 by Sinstein. Of course it was worse on Friday but this was a work trip and the days were fixed.
Once across the Rhine and heading NW to Aachen in the mid-afternoon things improved a lot traffic-wise, apart from the fast lane hogs with resort to undertaking again.
Another thing I noticed was the sheer amount of roadworks with bridges and other areas of the network getting upgraded. I think Sunday with its truck ban would be a much better way to travel.
About ten years ago I drove to Vienna in a day from London, and then back again a few days later; weekday driving too. I don't think this would be possible now, the autobahns being so much busier and with free-flowing traffic interrupted by roadworks and the fast lane hoggers. Pity.
Having said these things the autobahns were still much better than UK motorways, and French autoroutes, with the opportunity to cruise readily at 100-110mph or faster still, and touch 150, even 160 sometimes; thrilling stuff, made even sweeter by thinking of the foaming-at-the-mouth crap spoken by UK magistrates and judges hearing speeding cases at such speeds, and the mad Brake lobbyists; a plague on them all.
To my mind one of the greatest driving pleasures still available is to be able to cover 600 mile-plus distances in a day heading south to the Alps from the Channel tunnel across the autobahn network. Zoom-zoom!
People in the fast lane were less inclined to move over when you came zooming up behind them. Since the beauty of the derestricted autobahn sections is that I'll move over for you if you're going faster, and you move over for me if I'm going faster, then drivers who won't move over, especially with the strong German antipathy to undertaking are really frustrating, and the only way to deal with them if you want to make progress is to acytually undertake.
The autobahns in certain areas were as crowded as the M1 and M25; such as going round Munich, driving westwards along a totally rammed A8 south of Stuttgart, the dreadful Heilbron A81/A6 junction area, and the A6 by Sinstein. Of course it was worse on Friday but this was a work trip and the days were fixed.
Once across the Rhine and heading NW to Aachen in the mid-afternoon things improved a lot traffic-wise, apart from the fast lane hogs with resort to undertaking again.
Another thing I noticed was the sheer amount of roadworks with bridges and other areas of the network getting upgraded. I think Sunday with its truck ban would be a much better way to travel.
About ten years ago I drove to Vienna in a day from London, and then back again a few days later; weekday driving too. I don't think this would be possible now, the autobahns being so much busier and with free-flowing traffic interrupted by roadworks and the fast lane hoggers. Pity.
Having said these things the autobahns were still much better than UK motorways, and French autoroutes, with the opportunity to cruise readily at 100-110mph or faster still, and touch 150, even 160 sometimes; thrilling stuff, made even sweeter by thinking of the foaming-at-the-mouth crap spoken by UK magistrates and judges hearing speeding cases at such speeds, and the mad Brake lobbyists; a plague on them all.
To my mind one of the greatest driving pleasures still available is to be able to cover 600 mile-plus distances in a day heading south to the Alps from the Channel tunnel across the autobahn network. Zoom-zoom!
It has become much worse in the recent years. Because there are statistics on everything in Germany, lets see the overall length of all traffic jams on German autobahns over the years:
2010: 400.000 kilometers
2011: 450.000 kilometers
2015: 1.130.000 kilometers
2016: 1.378.000 kilometers
Of couse, most of this focuses on densely populated areas. You travelled through many of them. The federal state of northrhine-westphalia is one of the most populated areas in Germany, and the traffic jams develop accordingly. Also, the infrastructure (bridges especially) is becoming weak due to the immense increase of traffic and has to be updated, resulting in disruptions of traffic sometimes for years.
The idea of sustained high-speed travel is becoming less tempting. What you still can do on the continent is travel long distances at reasonable average speeds. Just avoid fridays and sundays. I used to love those 15 hour drives into the centre of Italy...
2010: 400.000 kilometers
2011: 450.000 kilometers
2015: 1.130.000 kilometers
2016: 1.378.000 kilometers
Of couse, most of this focuses on densely populated areas. You travelled through many of them. The federal state of northrhine-westphalia is one of the most populated areas in Germany, and the traffic jams develop accordingly. Also, the infrastructure (bridges especially) is becoming weak due to the immense increase of traffic and has to be updated, resulting in disruptions of traffic sometimes for years.
The idea of sustained high-speed travel is becoming less tempting. What you still can do on the continent is travel long distances at reasonable average speeds. Just avoid fridays and sundays. I used to love those 15 hour drives into the centre of Italy...
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