August 19, 2024

Sociology on the Autobahn

Karen sternheimer 72523By Karen Sternheimer

The German autobahn is the subject of much lore in the United States. Images of an open road with no speed limits, allowing high-end performance sports cars to drive as fast as their engineering can take them permeate popular imagination.

The reality is rather different from the fantasy, as I found out while on a few short road trips in Germany recently. While just mention of the word autobahn suggests something exciting, possibly scary, and exotic to a foreigner, it literally translates to “highway.” Here are some realities of driving on the autobahn for my fellow American visitors (with some sociology thrown in, of course).

There are speed limits—most of the time.

The speed limit was subject to change (or disappear) based on traffic conditions. Just like when you are driving at home, most people are driving to get from point A to point B, not to break any speed records. And like here in the United States, traffic congestion near cities keeps speeds down.

As you can see from the image below, electronic signs indicate the current speed limit (in kilometers per hour) and changed in real time based on road conditions. (It was raining when this photo was taken; you might notice some droplets on the right side of the photo.)

speed limit signsOur rental car’s dashboard included the current speed limit, which would flash when it changed. The image under “Traffic signs” indicates that there was no speed limit when the photo was taken, and we were traveling at approximately 83 miles per hour, with the flow of traffic and keeping road conditions in mind.dashboard of a moving vehicleThere are rules for driving on the autobahn, despite the perception that some might have that it is a racecourse with no consequences. Some of the rules are formal, but some are informal norms that people regularly abide by.

Slower drivers keep to the right, and the left lane is for passing only.

This was a practice I knew about before traveling to Germany, one I learned about in driver’s ed back when I got my driver’s license decades ago.

And yet in every major U.S. city where I have driven people often hang out in the left lane no matter their speed, whether they are passing another car or not. My street is effectively a four-lane highway for a few miles, and I regularly see cars driving at the same speed next to each other with no regard for cars that might want to pass.

The difference on the German autobahn—and in France, Italy and Austria, where we also drove--is dramatic. I observed an orderly process where the slowest cars stayed in the right lane, and then moved over to the left when other cars entered to merge before returning to the right lane. The lanes on the left were for passing until reaching a speed equilibrium.

cars driving on the German autobahnThis all seemed to happen without incident. I didn’t notice any acts of aggression towards other drivers: no tailgating, honking, obscene gestures, or even flashing lights at a car in front to “encourage” them to move into the right lane so that they could pass.

What I did notice was that not only were drivers expected to gauge which lane they should travel in based on their speed, but they also needed to be aware of the speed of the drivers behind them and were expected to change lanes to accommodate other drivers. This is a relatively foreign concept for most of us in the U.S., where our driving reflects our notion of individualism, the philosophy that guides Americans to think about their personal rights first and foremost.

This translates on highways as: “I have the right to drive in this lane if I got here first” and “if you don’t like how fast I’m driving, then you can change lanes.” I admit that this is typically my perspective when driving too. Even a sociologist is a product of their social environment.

This is not to say that drivers are rude everywhere in the U.S. (this Forbes list ranks states with the most confrontational drivers, and I live in state #1), but because we are less likely to follow the passing lane rules, we might find ourselves having more confrontations.

cars on a highwayIronically, while we in the U.S. may think that the lack of speed limits means “no rules” on the German autobahn, it seemed more orderly than driving at home. Drivers actually slowed down when speed limit signs indicated lower limits. Other drivers’ actions were more predictable; I didn’t see any weaving or sudden moves that could be risky at high speeds. Yes, sometimes cars entered the passing lane at speeds that caused drivers in that lane to slow down for a few moments, but they then typically transitioned back to the right after passing the slower vehicle.

Green means being environmentally conscious on the road

A quick YouTube search of “Autobahn speed” will yield plenty of videos of people driving high performance sports cars at seriously high speeds. But most people aren’t driving high-end sports cars, even outside of Stuttgart (home of Porsche and Mercedes-Benz) or Munich (home of BMW).

In fact, the first thing an American might notice about driving in Germany or other European countries is how small and fuel efficient most cars are.  As I wrote about in 2022, while traveling in Italy our small rental car ran on compressed natural gas. The make and/or model of many cars on the road might be unfamiliar to Americans; our rental this year was a Ford Puma, a hybrid model I had never heard of because it is not currently sold in the U.S.

picture of a Ford Puma hybridWe didn’t realize it was a hybrid for days, nor did we notice the green sticker on the lower right corner of the windshield until we were headed back to Munich. Only cars with green badges can enter the city center, and we were relieved to discover that our car had one.

A few months ago, I blogged about a Pew Research Center study that found that 42 percent of Americans thought reducing climate change was part of being a good citizen. By contrast, 65 percent of Germans, 64 percent of French, and 76 percent of Italians felt this way. Driving is a big part of German culture, but so is taking steps to reduce climate change. Our rental car invoice even included our carbon footprint per kilometer traveled.

Their cars reflect this concern about climate change, as does the price of gas in countries around Europe. Despite having a hybrid, it typically cost about 70€ for a tank of gas, or about 2€ per liter, which translates to nearly $8 per gallon. (Gas costs less than half as much on average in the U.S.) Putting the pedal to the medal isn’t very green, and it can be expensive, which at least partly explains why we didn’t see the mythical sports car enthusiast opening it up on the autobahn.

What sociological lessons can we take away? First, understanding should be based on observation rather than assumptions or myths often perpetuated in popular culture. Second, the absence of a central rule that is enforced in one society doesn’t mean that other rules don’t exist. And third—and most importantly—travel is an opportunity for us to better understand norms, patterns and practices, both of where we visit and where we are from.

Photos courtesy of the author

Comments

Good day, Karen.

Most of your commentary sounds similar to stories I tell others about driving in the USA compared to Europe, and that includes an emphasis on driver attitude; in the US we, indeed, are self-centered and perhaps can be defined as territorial when it comes, seemingly, owning our little piece of the road, thus doing our best to protect it at all costs. But a good deal of this behavior, I suggest, is due to the overall poor driving (those lacking basic driving rules/techniques, like the one you and most of us learned decades ago) which infuriate drivers' more keen sense (and ability) to perform properly on our highways.

The only way this (driver attitudes) will change is to create a more diverse Driver Education program that actually speaks about what you wrote here (if I am not mistaken such dialogue is rarely part of most US Driver-Ed programs). Perhaps in the future, a new generation of well - driver-educated - citizens will begin to behave in a more orderly (and less selfish manner) while traveling across our cities and across the nation.

Thank you!!

Lance A. Lewin
International Visual Sociology Association (IVSA)
North American-Canada Region Think Tank

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