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<p>[quote user="charlie hebdo"]</p> <p> </p> <div class="quote-header"> </div> <blockquote class="quote"> <div class="quote-user">CMStPnP</div> <div class="quote-content"> <p> </p> <div class="quote-header"> </div> <blockquote class="quote"> <div class="quote-user">Colorado_Mac</div> <div class="quote-content">Many of our trains paralleled nice highways, but they were not crowded like American ones, though the trains were.</div> </blockquote> <div class="quote-footer"> </div> <p> </p> <p>European Driving compared to United States:</p> <p>1. Gas priced per Litre and a gallon in Germany was approx twice the cost per gallon as the United States, if not more.</p> <p>2. Insurance Costs much more in Europe.   Cummulatively you pay more in tolls as well.</p> <p>3. Parking meters not everywhere but you had to carry a paper parking meter in your car and set it visible on your dash when you parked so the meter maid could see when you parked your car and how long it had been sitting there, steep fine if you kept running out to adjust the paper meter and got caught.    Timed parking everywhere, you don't pay for it if you use a paper meter obviously but still a pain.</p> <p>4. Parking in intermediate to large cities for cars is scarce.</p> <p>5.  I seem to remember that membership in auto clubs resembling AAA was either mandatory or heavily encouraged.</p> <p>6.  Drivers License exam in Germany is much tougher than the show up and pass United States system.   I passed the first time but had to study to pass.   The failure rate runs almost 40% for Americans taking the test that have American Licenses already (you need to pass a German test to drive any kind of military vehicle on German streets....Germans won't accept the lower American standard if your in the military or NATO, they will if your a tourist though).</p> <p>7. Very narrow streets and tiny parking spots encourage the use of smaller cars not to mention other costs like fuel and insurance.</p> <p>8. One nice item when I lived there was Octane levels of German gas were higher than U.S. levels and you could tell the difference between performance of a German Mercedes in Germany vs American Mercedes in the United States in acceleration and engine performance.</p> <p>So there are a few reasons why you saw less cars on the freeways and more people on the train in Europe.</p> <div style="clear:both;"> </div> <p> </p> </div> </blockquote> <div class="quote-footer"> </div> <p> </p> <p>Although much of what you observed is still true, all of those observations are 30 years old and much has changed, obviously. One example, auto/truck traffic is often very bad on many Autobahn stretches.</p> <div style="clear:both;"> </div> <p>[/quote]</p> <p>A few comments about driving in Germany.</p> <p>1) Gasoline (95 Octane) costs $5.25 per gallon today</p> <p>2) Yes insurance costs might be higher, e.g. $365 per year for a Toyota RAV4 with $115 flat coverage for personal injury and property damage.</p> <p>3) The parking disk allows to park free for a limited time to avoid long-term parking. It is cheaper to overrun the time than to adjust the disk.</p> <p>5) there is no requirement for auto club membership. Many people are members because of the benefits like free breakdown and towing service.</p> <p>7) Street width depends on use and traffic density. Next year about one third of new cars will be SUVs. So there doesn't seem to be a problemwith small street. You need to get used to it. In small streets there almost always a sidewalk on can use to pass. Parking spots are getting a problem on parking decks. Here rules need to get adjusted to wider cars.</p> <p>Charlie Hebdo is right about traffic. Here some photos of congestion on German highways: <a href="https://www.rundschau-online.de/image/22777868/2x1/940/470/b21c73f80eb6b4023ec734f35c36c4f2/SN/148604001021c796-jpg2.jpg">https://www.rundschau-online.de/image/22777868/2x1/940/470/b21c73f80eb6b4023ec734f35c36c4f2/SN/148604001021c796-jpg2.jpg</a><br /><a href="https://p5.focus.de/img/fotos/origs7369864/7668512644-w630-h472-o-q75-p5/urn-newsml-dpa-com-20090101-170718-99-291423-large-4-3.jpg">https://p5.focus.de/img/fotos/origs7369864/7668512644-w630-h472-o-q75-p5/urn-newsml-dpa-com-20090101-170718-99-291423-large-4-3.jpg</a><br /><a href="https://aisrtl-a.akamaihd.net/masters/1071102/800x450/lebensader-unfallschwerpunkt-die-a2-soll-sicherer-werden.jpg">https://aisrtl-a.akamaihd.net/masters/1071102/800x450/lebensader-unfallschwerpunkt-die-a2-soll-sicherer-werden.jpg</a></p> <p>I drive regularly from Essen to Stuttgart, 433 km (270 miles) by car. I get seldom below 5 hours while the fastest ICE-train needs 3:06 hours. So I changed to the train.</p> <p>I said in another thread: <em>Compared to the NEC (457 miles) the relation Hamburg to Munich (about 450 miles by train) is a corridor train, not a LD train. So we have more or less corridor service in Germany.</em></p> <p>I don't know how far this applies to other European countries.<br />Regards, Volker</p>
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