Time for an autobahn speed limit?

An old debate has resurfaced thanks to the Iran oil shock

Dear Reader,

An everyday occurrence on the autobahn.

It’s nighttime on a two-lane highway just north of Frankfurt. An SUV driver pulls out to overtake a slower vehicle. Far behind, a car starts to flash its headlights, signalling that she should move back over. The vehicle zooms up behind her, still flashing furiously. She switches back into the right lane. He overtakes, then slows right down, forcing her to put her foot on the brake. After half a minute of this strange act of posturing, he accelerates off into the distance.

There is a whole German vocabulary for awful drivers. This person was a Drängler – a tailgater – someone who thinks that the lack of a speed limit means that everyone else has to get out of their way.

It is not uncommon for these people to kill other road users through their egotistical behaviour. A few months ago, an impatient Drängler tried to overtake a slower vehicle by using the right lane, but crashed on his way around, causing a pile-up that killed three people…