Driving, a new perspective.

Hello All,

Now that I've been at my new place for over 2 weeks which requires a 35-45 minute commute each way, I have a new perspective on driving in Germany.

It's not that I mind driving but it is not something I look forward to either. Seems like there is moderate to heavy traffic everywhere I go and every time I am commuting. I am happy to say though, it is surprisingly orderly. Yellow light means the car ahead of you will try and stop and a blinker means someone will let you in (or you will let them in).

You see, there are lots of laws that govern driving, but, more importantly, people see them as rules. Laws are something the government comes up with and then enforces. Rules are commonly accepted way of doing something that (most) everyone abides by. In fact, as a pedestrian, I have seen people cross at a cross walk with out a "green walking guy" and get scolded or get dirty looks. No traffic was coming but it is customary to wait for the green, remember to be patient.

I have not seen an incident of road rage and the number of times someone did something really stupid or aggressive could be counted on one had. Quite the contrary in the US where people don't seem to be so friendly or accomodating.

I don't think the US could handle parts of the highway that had no speed limit. The Germans follow the rules and make things predictable on the streets. When traveling at 120+ mph, the last thing you want is someone doing something unpredictable. Too few American drivers follow the rules to make this a safe undertaking and lots of people would end up killed. Maybe when we master the concept of stay to the right unless overtaking, then we can turn it up a notch.

Found out some other interesting things about cars and driving in Germany. Turns out that Germans pay a lot of taxes (20% is added to the price of almost everything you buy. It is built into the price that is displayed and the displayed price is what you pay. Not like in the US where you see a price and then sales tax is added at the registar. Think about that, 20%!)

One of the taxes they pay is personal property tax like the good readers in VA pay on their cars every year. The tax in VA is based on the cars value so it goes down every year. The Germans found a way around this and their tax is based on engine displacement, which never changes. This explains why I have seen a lot of cars with engine sizes of 1.5L to 2.2L. That is the most common engine size range and I suspect that moving beyond that results in a much bigger tax burden.

Turbo charging and super charging is also more much more common out here and the engines come that way from the factory. Turbo/supercharging increases power with out increasing displacement and lower displacement keeps taxes down. By the way, the car insurance companies also base premiums on engine displacement so your insurance is also more expensive.

The diesel engines are also very common out here. One of the most popular combos is the turbo-diesel engine. Turbo charging keeps taxes down and diesel fuel is cheaper then gasoline. A gallon of unleaded gasoline is around USD $6.75 a gallon based on current exchange rates and a gallon of diesel cost USD $5.40. So, at $1.30 per gallon difference in price, sign me up for diesel. Diesel also gets better gas mileage so the gap is even bigger in favor of diesel.

Of course this in not the case in the US where many stations don't offer diesel unless you want to get in line with the 18 wheelers. Not many cars have a diesel engine option and diesel is more expensive than unleaded. It is hard to make a case for diesel in the US taking those things into consideration. Diesel is clearly the future (vs gasoline or electric hybrid) and you will see the trend towards diesel continue in the US.

Taking all these things into consideration, you can see that owning a car and driving it in Europe is a very expensive proposition. Therefore, many people, especially in the cities, don't own cars. This is an easy decision to make because of the well thought out and very efficient public transportation system. Train and bus networks are far reaching and never late.

I should also point out that if you can find a parking spot, it is fairly expensive to park your car. A lot of the cars you and I drive would not even fit into most parking spots or have the tight turning radius to maneuver in a parking garage.

So, for many Germans, they learn the train schedule/train network, keep their bike tires properly inflated, or buy a motorcycle or scooter. I think I would own a motorcycle as my daily driver here if I lived here long term. Motorcycles can also split lanes (go between cars which is great when traffic is down to a crawl, get great mileage, and I would probably look pretty good in my leather riding gear. I can see Jodi riding a bike or Vespa for sure.

Hope everyone has a great week. In another week or two, I will be at the halfway mark. Check back during the week, I am going to try to get something out about a castle I visited last week and one I went to today.

Cheers,
Michael