Bad news for Germany’s famous Autobahn this week, as the Green party has begun a new attempt to impose a speed limit on the German motorways.

Proposal for 130-kmph speed limit on German Autobahn

If your favourite thing about Germany is speeding unrestricted down the Autobahn with the wind in your hair, you won’t be pleased to hear that the Greens have submitted a motion to the Bundestag to have a 130 kilometre-per-hour speed limit imposed on all motorways in Germany from 2020.

Speaking with the Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND), Green Party leader Anton Hofreiter said that a speed limit would make driving on the motorway safer and improve traffic conditions: “It prevents accidents and significantly increases the capacity of motorways. In addition, it protects the purses of motorists and lowers both traffic noise and greenhouse gas emissions.”

Local speed limits successful in Germany

Hofreiter went on to say that a general speed limit on Germany’s motorways is long overdue. “The federal government is the last government in Europe which shuts down any logical arguments for speed limits [...] They must give up their dogmatic racer-ideology.”

So far, Minister for Transport Andreas Scheuer has rejected any proposal for a general speed limit. However, where they have been adopted locally they have led to indisputably positive effects. For instance, after a local speed limit was introduced on the A24 motorway between Havelland and Wittstock / Dosse in 2002, the number of injuries and fatalities almost halved. “The results are clear,” said the Greens.