At this speed, I was passing most Germans who are very sensible drivers. I didn’t see 1 accident the whole trip and the only traffic jams / holdups were caused by road works. I can’t say that for England’s roads.

As for the greenies and their CO2 emissions c*** – My car actually used less fuel cruising at 140km/h than it does stopping and starting on the British roads. I’m proud of Frau Merkel for standing up to these idiots and saying enough’s enough.

The developing world is more of an issue for CO2 with China devouring coal and other resources quicker than the rest of the world put together. Small beans, this one, no doubt to appeal to greenies who haven’t a clue about the real issues but are looking for a low-emission bandwagon to jump on.

There was a documentary on BBC four the other week about the introduction of a blanket speed limit on UK motorways in the late 1960s. The main reason in those days was that a series of horrible accidents with considerable fatalities had occurred. But as I said in my previous post, even without a speed limit, our road safety statistics unarguably rival those of almost all other developed countries with a fixed limit.

Luckily, stiff opposition within the federal government is being voiced as we speak, and there is hope yet that the issue will be shelved again – much to the dismay of the leftist environmentalists who kicked off the current debate.

However, if you wish to do so, make sure to plan your next trip to Germany for the near future, because even if the speed limit will be fought off for now, it is likely to be imposed after all within, say, the next five years.

Consider: Despite the lack of a speed limit on two percent – yes, a mere two percent – of German roads in total, statistics show that the German Autobahn is no less safe than similar road networks in other European countries, and even most of the developed world.

Well over two thirds of all Autobahn stretches already have either a fixed speed limit (a measure that has been notably on the increase in recent years!) or computer controlled traffic guiding systems with variable limits depending on current traffic, weather, and overall road conditions. On top of that, except for a few remote rural areas, the Autobahn is so crowded most of the time that speeds in excess of 140 kph (86 mph) are virtually impossible, speed limit or not. All in all, given these conditions, projections indicate that CO2 emission can be reduced by no more than .5 to 5 percent, depending on which study you quote. There is even much reason to believe that slowing down traffic like this will produce even more CO2 because it would make traffic jams more frequent.

Looking at these facts, leaving everything the way it is should be a non-issue. Imposing a general speed limit, however, has great symbolic value and would have left-wing environmentalists jeering gleefully over yet another successful assault on their declared enemy that is motorists and the German car lobby. It’s a feather in their cap they have been longing to have.