Yeah, per my brother they're setting up portable speed cameras on smaller roads in Austria in the turns where you only see it once it flashes behind you. He apparently has managed not to get hit with one of those in his NSX, but just got a ticket for doing 50% over the speed limit - uh, 45km in a 30km zone - and the 30km zone is new and just set up for revenue. Sweet indeed.

It really is just a matter of time. Instead of raising limits since cars are safer now (better handling, better protection), I'm sure we can expect more and more enforcement of ridiculously low limits and more speed traps - or arial surveillance that will monitor many square miles at the same time. Easy mass monitoring and plenty of revenue for the police / municipalities pretty much guarantees it. I mean "safety" guarantees it.

And never mind that Germany has a lower fatality rate per mile/km travelled on their highways than we do here... Boredom kills more people than speed.

(The regulations for higher gas mileage fall into the crazy camp as well - if you want to improve average mpg, get rid of some of the speed humps, make 4 way stops 2 way or put in roundabouts, and time lights on main roads to NOT let you start with a fresh green at one and hit red at the next. Hey look - I just reduced US gas consumption by 20%!)

 

I guess US just still don't get it... it's not driving fast or having a fast car that would cause an accident. It's the slow drivers and drivers who don't follow the rules (or have no common sense). We should enforce tickets on drivers who riding on the passing lane (left lane)... Germany has lower rate not just because they have better built highway but the drivers actually obey the "left lane is for passing only... and no matter how fast you are going, there is always someone is going faster than you." Fatal accidents on the highway often caused by drivers avoiding traffic or slow moving vehicles. If the left is always clear/open for "fast" driver, there would be far less accidents compare to some idiots trying to pass and zig zag through the highway. I hate people doing 60mph on the left lane and think they are going fast and casue everyone else behind either slam on the brake or force to pass on the right!!!!

 

Amen, brother.

But we can't change the ethic of entitlement that people feel a it is their RIGHT to have a license, and the people administering tests are jokes themselves.

The whole system is flawed in the US. It costs money, limbs, and lives everyday. Nobody cares until it affects them. By then, it's too late.