This is something I rant about on a regular basis. I recently saw statistics that show that US highway deathrates are HIGHER than those on the Autobahn. Something like 0.84 deaths per 100,000 miles driven on US highways versus 0.71 on the German Autobahn.
What does this mean? They enforce the laws that more strongly affect safety than we do, which is to say that enforcing proper lane usage, signalling changes, never passing on the right, driving without distraction and other 'driving discipline' laws will do more to reduce accidents/fatalities than hanging it all on speed, alone. Makes sense, doesn't it? Amazing thing, common sense.
It's simple, and it really pisses me off when I see our officers flipping through traffic while making illegal lane changes, and then preaching safety as they fill out a citation for speeding. Those of us willing to accept any bullshit we are handed always respond by saying, "Well you were speeding, and you knew it. It's the law and you can't fault them for enforcing it." Well so is cutting across acceleration lanes, putting on lipstick, failing to signal a change, and driving slow in the left lane mo' fo'! And they're more dangerous so don't preach safety to me!
So why is it that they are worried about us in our cars going fast? Easy. It's easy to prove a law has been violated, and they know the citation will stand up in court virtually every time (read this $$$$$). I just wish they would grow some big hairy balls and say it like it is. I might not like the answer, but I could respect it far more if they would admit it and quit talking out of both sides of their mouths about 'safety'. Damn!
Edit -
Here are the actual statititics: "In fact, the annual fatality rate (3.2 per billion km in 2004) is consistently lower than that of most other superhighway systems, including the US Interstates (5.0 in 2003)."
http://gettingaroundgermany.home.att.net/autobahn.htm
