BERLIN: Germany is trying any range of measures to combat an energy crisis that is only expected to worsen this winter. Public buildings can be heated to just 66 degrees and most private pools not at all. Starting this month, billboards and other landmarks go dark at 10pm. The government has even extended the lives of two of the country’s last nuclear reactors. But the one thing that Germany will not do, apparently, is put ageneral speed limit on the fabled autobahns, a proposal raised — and shot down — even though it could save gasoline and cut carbon dioxide emissions.
The speed-limit issue has a special resonance in Germany. So sacrosanct is the absence of limits that when a Czech developer posted a video of himself on YouTube last year driving nearly 260 mph — or as fast as a prop plane flies — prosecutors could bring no charges. A vow of no general speed limits on autobahns was even part of the pact that allowed the current three-party coalitionto take power. In April, as Germany tried to reduce its energy dependence on Russia, Ricarda Lang, coleader of the Greens, proposed atemporary speed limit to help save gasoline. But idea was blocked by coalition partners.
The speed-limit issue has a special resonance in Germany. So sacrosanct is the absence of limits that when a Czech developer posted a video of himself on YouTube last year driving nearly 260 mph — or as fast as a prop plane flies — prosecutors could bring no charges. A vow of no general speed limits on autobahns was even part of the pact that allowed the current three-party coalitionto take power. In April, as Germany tried to reduce its energy dependence on Russia, Ricarda Lang, coleader of the Greens, proposed atemporary speed limit to help save gasoline. But idea was blocked by coalition partners.
