Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site imsvax.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxt!houxm!whuxl!whuxlm!akgua!gatech!ut-sally!seismo!elsie!imsvax!ted From: ted@imsvax.UUCP (Ted Holden) Newsgroups: net.auto Subject: freedom Message-ID: <483@imsvax.UUCP> Date: Fri, 20-Dec-85 08:23:45 EST Article-I.D.: imsvax.483 Posted: Fri Dec 20 08:23:45 1985 Date-Received: Sun, 22-Dec-85 00:49:08 EST Organization: IMS Inc, Rockville MD Lines: 64 As Americans, we hear so much noise about "freedom" and "living in a free country" from the day we're born, that I honestly think every American should pay a visit to West Germany at least once in his life to see what a country which actually IS more or less free looks like. West Germans do not write their traffic laws for the most dufless nerd in the land as we do; that person is directed to the train station (Bahnhof) and the traffic laws are written for normal, intelligent, competant people. There are no seat-belt or air-bag laws in Germany, no speed limits on the autobahns outside major city limits, and minimal restrictions elsewhere. Traffic normally moves THROUGH cities at 45 - 55 mph or so. There are amber lights on RED at intersections so that there are no 15 second lags after a light turns green before anybody moves. Surprisingly given all of this, there are very few wrecks and mishaps by American Standards, and about 1/10 the number of cops driving around that we are used to. As a general rule, it is damned hard to tell the used from the new cars at German car lots. Laws require true competance of drivers before they MAY drive, as well as true performance from vehicles. Cars such as the American muscle cars of the 60's (with engines made for 140 mph and the entire rest of the car made for about 50) would be limited to 50 mph by German laws and, hence, nobody would buy them. German roads are unbelievable by our standards; aside from the obvious lack of bumps and potholes, the composition is made for maximum grip by tires in rain. Driving at 80 or 100 mph there in rain is SAFE. But the biggest single reason for the lack of grief on the roads may be something which has been totally overlooked in all the arguements over speed limits which I have ever heard; WHEN YOU ARE DRIVING AT 100 MPH AS OPPOSED TO 50, YOU ARE ON THE ROAD HALF AS LONG, SO IS EVERYBODY ELSE, AND THERE ARE ONLY HALF THE NUMBER OF CARS ON THE ROAD AT ONE TIME. I claim no copyright on this idea; feel free to use it when shouting down the next idiot you hear spouting "55/ a law we can live with". And one last thing I should mention is the basic level of tolerance for drunk driving in Germany: zero. The first offense is six months of hard labor. I don't think anybody's ever found out what the second offense would involve. Drunks there walk around or run or swim or wrestle or DO SOMETHING until they're sober and THEN drive home. You see women walking around by themselves in major cities at night in West Germany, as if there was nothing to be afraid of, even in Frankfurt which everybody else calls "Kleine Chicago" because of all the crime there; probably 2 or 3 sets of hubcaps get stolen there every year. Cities in Germany are there for middle-class people, and the basic contest is to see who can have the MOST ATTRACTIVE one, not the funkiest. Also in a more or less free country, you see little wine and liquor stands and sometimes "sex shops" in the shopping streets (the central street of any major city is set aside for pedestrians and stores and shopping), often next to the cathedrals. Germans can't believe me when I tell them they'd get thrown in jail forever for such activities in America. It's almost enough to make you cry, isn't it? I mean, especially you poor slobs in Massachussetts.