West Penn "Orange"

[Fred W. Schneider III]

Hi Jim

No, I'm not encouraging.  Sad thing is that Americans always hear the wrong stories.
They claim they've heard about the high speeds on the German Autobahnen.  They never
seem to understand that the Germans and Swiss are some of the best trained, most
disciplined, self-regulated drivers around.  The Germans have a long history of being
regulated and obeying regulation.  A speed limit sign, a no left turn sign ... they
understand there is a reason for them and they obey.  Americans seem to operate
differently, on a philosophy that nothing wrong was done until they are caught. Quite
frankly, I never have bad experiences driving over there ... By now I probably have
30,000 to 40,000 miles under my belt on European roads (including left-side driving in
England and Ireland).  And I enjoy driving over there because the drivers are
predictable.  I know what is going to happen.  I don't find my self amazed at what
some idiot did 5 feet in front of my bumper.   They all understand that traffic moves
better if you queue up instead of cutting in front of someone.  And by the way,
express highways can only handle so much traffic and the German Autobahnen are now at
that stage.  The average speed has dropped about 15 miles per hour in the last ten
years, there are a whole lot of additional speed zones which are obeyed, and today the
German government has dropped their recommended safe speed from 90 mph to 75 mph and
probably only 5% of the drivers are now exceeding that recommendation.   By the way,
Germany (and most if not all European) requires that drivers go to driving schools to
be trained.  Parents and friends don't do the training.  Everyone is trained the same
way.  The cost of getting the initial license varies with the student and the country
... the range is between $1200 and $2000.  Personally I think you take it a lot more
seriously when shelling out that kind of money.

Then I get home to watching assholes speed by me in the passing lane and then dive
across three lanes onto an exit ramp because they have an inalienable right to be
ahead of the other cars.  And damnit, you see it every day on your bus, don't you?

With age goes cynicism.

Jim Holland wrote:

> Greetings!
>
> Fred W. Schneider III wrote:
>
> > But it remains an
> > American right to drive at high speeds even after we've proven that fatalities
> > increase.  Wars are a travesty.  Auto accidents are acceptable because we choose
> > to kill randomly.
>
>         Aren't we encouraging on our first day back!!::>>)))<Ultra-VBG>
>
>         Didn't see a postcard here - and in this day of instant messaging,
> wireless communications, etc!!::>>))<Another-Ultra-VBG>
>
> James B. Holland
>
>         Pittsburgh  Railways  Company  (PRCo),   1930  --  1950
>     To e-mail privately, please click here: mailto:pghpcc at pacbell.net
> N.M.R.A.  Life member #2190; http://www.mcs.net:80/~weyand/nmra/