Let's Talk About The Autobahn!
I always thought it was some specific stretch of highway somewhere in Germany where everything was perfectly streamlined and there were no speed limits. People would bring it up like it's some beautiful place where only fun is had because you can go as fast as you want, and only the coolest sport cars drive it. But it turns out "autobahn" is just the German word for highway. And let me tell you, it's not fun... for multiple reasons...
If you're an American reading this, just think about the times you've been on the highway driving in the right lane, and some maniac speeds past you at 95mph, and then basically cuts you off as he moves dangerously close in front of you into your lane and continues speeding down the highway. If you're like me, usually when that happens, it's stressful because you don't like being that close to another car at highway speeds. Plus, they have all this space on the highway, but they choose to cut you off... (maybe you're usually the maniac, and so you won't share my feelings here, hehe) But now imagine that happening every minute: every car in the left lane is just as aggressive as the one before except they are going at a dizzying 140mph (225kmph). The lane is narrow enough that you can feel the wind pushing your car as they pass you, and then they cut you off so close, you might have a measly 4 feet of leeway for a few seconds. They are driving insanely fast and getting aggressively close to you.
THEN imagine the next car in front of you in the slow lane is only going 37mph. It's unbelievable; the unwritten minimum is only 60kmph! That's technically 37mph, and people actually go that slow on the highway! But the mid-tier speed is 95mph! MID-TIER! The soccer moms are driving 95! The stress is unimaginable, people. So your choices are: 1) not getting to your destination in a reasonable amount of time, or 2) try to keep up with the speed-demon maniacs just to pass anyone, and imagining yourself in a fatality crash with the next slowpoke up ahead. You really start trusting your breaks (hope they are in good working order!)... The fastest I've ever driven in my life has been here in Germany and that was somewhere around 96-100mph (155-160kmph). That's as fast as I could stomach...
I borrowed my neighbor's van to drive a group of teens 4 hours northwest to a festival, and he was like, "oh, that's the best thing about the van; you can get up to 225kmph." At the moment, I didn't have any idea what that speed was because I am still not the best at converting, so I was like, "oh cool..." When I finally figured out how fast that is, I thought to myself, "you expect me to drive that fast with a van full of teens?!" I couldn't go more than 145kmph, which is already 90, and horrifying! It didn't help that I'd recently learned to drive manual... Besides, that 4-hour drive was full of traffic jams and construction sites, and only a few stretches of speed-less highway. For a good 30 minutes, we were barely moving.
Here's a few facts about driving in Germany: the autobahn does have speed limits in and around towns, and construction sites. Once you're in town, off the highway, the speeds are painfully slow (by my standards) and they like to hide speed cameras and send you tickets in the mail. You can get a point on your license for being only a fraction of a second too late at a yellow light, many of which are also camera-recorded, and after 3 points, your license is suspended for a number of weeks. It's only when you get outside of town on the highway that the speed limits are removed and you can step on the gas. Then that might be for maybe 10-15 minutes before you get to the next town or find yourself slowed by a construction site or traffic. And some of those construction sites draw their lane lines so narrow, the cars have to stagger (at that point, it's useless and even dangerous to have two lanes). Driving at normal speeds in an incredibly tight construction lane alongside semi trucks is one of the most stressful things... Only if you're driving further distances will you find bigger stretches of speed-less highway, but maybe for an hour, maybe more. Germany isn't that big. It takes 10 hours to span it north to south, and 7 east to west. And it's peppered with small towns and villages. I once found myself on a 4-lane (4 lanes on each side), mostly empty highway, and I felt somewhat comfortable going 100mph, but after an hour it was back to a 2-lane, narrow highway where I had to intimately contend with the slowpokes and the speed demons again. And then it was back to areas that range in speed between 80 -120kmph (50 - 75mph).
My cousin Elyse and I were joking about how you can look behind you to pass into the left lane and see no one, but by the time you get into that lane there's suddenly someone in your rearview mirror, right on your tail. Oh, I haven't even mentioned the tailgating... ugh...
So, it's not like you're speeding down the vast open road for hours at a time. I'd feel safer illegally speeding down highway 55 through Nevada on the, "loneliest highway in the US," than I would anywhere here in Deutschland, because at least the lanes are wider, and the shoulders fit a full car, and if you veer off, you're not crashing into anything but maybe a road sign or some bushes! I guess the danger there is, if you crash, no one is coming, lol. In Germany, when you want to be a speed demon, you're usually in close proximity to other cars going painfully slow. You can only be a speed demon for a little while and then you have to deal with slowing down and speeding up, and slowing down and speeding up... They are also much more intent about staying in the right lane when you're not passing, so the fast people are constantly weaving in and out of the right lane like frogger... it's so dangerous. People will pull out right in front of you at the last second to pass a slow vehicle, and this is normal. You have to be ready to stop at a dime. I would have expected at least a higher minimum speed, but it's not so!
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| Highway 55 in Nevada is called "the loneliest road." Make sure your tank is full, because you won't see a gas station for hours and hours... |
My neighbor told me that some politicians have tried to remove the non-speed limit areas in Germany, but that's political suicide. Hah!
Over the last few years, I'd developed a bit of a driving anxiety. Once I got married, we shared a car and I only drove half as often. Then I lived in Israel for 3 years where I was more or less immobile: I walked everywhere, and only drove maybe once every two months. When I did, we never drove for more than 4 hours at a time, and the speed limits were closer to what I was used to. When we moved back to the States, we decided to take a 2-month vacation where we basically lived in our van, driving 8-16 hours from one place to the next (this is when we drove the loneliest road). It was a fun adventure, but I obviously had to face that anxiety, and came to a place where I could cope. But I would still feel mildly uncomfortable, and after a number of hours, the feeling would creep back. It would really surface when we drove at night.
Speaking of coping with anxiety during our 2-month vacation... Dustin had a thing at the beginning where every few hours on the road he would scream at the top of his lungs, and I would almost have a heart attack, and he would laugh so hard... after a few times, I just started bursting into tears... let's just say he realized quickly that it wasn't worth the laughs...
Last month, I traveled back home to attend my sister's wedding and drove 8 of the easiest, most relaxing hours through Detroit and then Toronto, where there was actual space between me and the cars around me, I wasn't getting cut off every few minutes, and could go at my own speed without worry. I didn't even have to think about shifting gears in traffic jams. It was especially easy to navigate rural roads. City drivers are aggressive, don't get me wrong; around Chicago, Detroit, and Toronto, they cut you off and speed and weave... but they are nothing in comparison to German drivers. Nowadays when I'm back home, I feel like I'm going at a snail's pace. Needless to say, after facing autobahn hell, I no longer have anxiety when I'm driving in North America.
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| Here's a photo of a highway in Israel we used to drive on the way to go snorkeling at the Red sea in Eilat, a 4-hour drive from Jerusalem. We usually made our pit stop halfway, at a ranch where we rode camels through the desert. |
Highway in Germany Photo by Patrick Federi on Unsplash
Highway in Nevada Photo by Abhi Verma on Unsplash
Highway in Israel Photo by Benny Rotlevy on Unsplash
