In the coalition negotiations, the parties argue about many important issues, a rigid speed limit on the highways is not one of them. It can be introduced with a stroke of the pen, but we hope that at least the Free Democrats will not let themselves be fooled by the bogus arguments that supposedly speak for it.
Their first: Everyone else already has it. This is the weakest, because nothing can be derived from it. If all states get into debt to their ears, does that make it right?
Some also suspect that it is more about the revenue. What they all have in common is that the speed restrictions date back to a time when the cars were unsafe and intelligent traffic control was unknown. Today, there are variable regulations that take traffic volumes and weather into account, and the permitted speed is then often well below the rigid restriction discussed. This serves safety on our safest roads more than inflexible regulations. On the other hand, it is not clear why, for example, a sales representative, who is so far in the morning on the open track at 160 km / h, should be gag through a limit.
Time is money, even a high travel average has saved us quite a few hotel nights. So the claim that a speed limit costs nothing is wrong. The majority is in favor in polls, it continues. This is at least dishonest, because it is always easy to forbid something that you do not need yourself. The question should be asked of those who often drive long distances on motorways, and who are, as far as is known, the majority against.
Taken from the coffee grounds
But isn’t the speed limit an important building block in the fight against climate change? According to the Federal Environment Agency, Tempo 130 could save almost 2 million tons of CO2 annually. That sounds like a lot, until they are put in relation to the approximately 700 million tons that Germany emits in total, it is pure climate cosmetics. The possible saving is also taken from the coffee grounds, even if the number comes from officials. There are a lot of assumptions in the report, the realism of which is questionable, it is not enough just to read the summary. Above all, one would have to know how fast the cars actually drive in order to calculate the possible savings, preferably anywhere and at any time. Nobody knows, the investigation is based on old data from a few measuring points.
The Institute of German Business has just presented a new evaluation, according to which only a few drive faster than 130, and if so, then at night – at least in North Rhine-Westphalia. Now it can not be denied that the faster a car drives, the more it consumes. That would speak for zero speed. But beware, electric cars by definition emit no pollutants at all; the idea of excluding them from a limit would then only be logical. Such a thing could even boost sluggish sales.
