NetNews Usenet Archive 1993 #3/NN_1993_3.iso/spool/nz/general/1869

Text File | 1993-01-21 | 3.4 KB | 70 lines

Newsgroups: nz.general
Path: sparky!uunet!comp.vuw.ac.nz!martine
From: [e-mail] (Martin Ehrenstein)
Subject: Re: Curve-Smoothing (was: Holiday Road Period)
Nntp-Posting-Host: debretts.comp.vuw.ac.nz
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Organization: Dept. of Comp. Sci., Victoria Uni. of Wellington, New Zealand.
Sender: [e-mail] (News Admin)
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1993 00:38:55 GMT
References: <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]>  <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]>
Lines: 57


In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Lawrence D'Oliveiro, Waikato University) writes:
|> In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Martin Ehrenstein) writes:
|> >
|> > You appear to assume that speeds on the Autobahns are unreasonably high.
|> > Do you say it is plainly unreasonable that the typical speed is higher
|> > than in other contries? Or do you have some of the spectacular pile-ups
|> > in mind involving vehicles traveling at say 80kph in fog? Or are you
|> > concerned about say drivers from the "New Federal States of Germany",
|> > or maybe Belgium having difficulties to judge relative speeds of following
|> > vehicles in the rear vision mirror at first?
|>
|> I don't know about the original poster, but I would say that traffic speeds
|> are too high if they don't give you enough time to react to unexpected
|> situations which might occur. Like a tyre blowout--not on your car (naturally),
|> but on the one in front of you.

There are also following distances, just longer. Hm, yep, you're right there
some case where you'd just like to have less kinetic energy, but mechanical
failures don't seem to be such a problem, I guess the WOF is tougher in Germany,
well I was refused one for "the distance between my registration plates and
fog tail light being less than 150mm."

|> Or somebody switching lanes without indicating.

The triple safe principle applies: They look before they change lanes, you
watch out for cars possibly intending that, and the lanes are two cars wide
each (otherwise there is a sign apologizing "100kph - narrow lanes").

|> Or a truck meandering across the median strip, right into your path.

The median barriers are usually difficult to miss and pretty heavy duty,
otherwise it's not an Autobahn.

Well before I get homesick, I'll better disentangle myself from this thread,
after all the Autobahns are there to stay especially now that the politicians
will be zooming back and forth between Bonn and Berlin (comparable to Russel,
Bay of Islands, and Wellington) in their Mercs, oops, was that between Bonn,
and Cologne-Bonn-Airport?

Anyway, Autobahns aren't any better than Motorways, or Freeways for that
matter, if you're bumper to bumper during rush hour, well except maybe
that when it gets really bad during the holidays, the ADAC (AA) sends out
psychologists on motorbikes to comfort distressed drivers.

(: Martin E -- NO, I don't know the top speed of my car.

Now wasn't there a rumour about an 'open' speed limit somestate in Australia?

Acknowledgement: Ta, Michael for mentioning Russel.

Silly: A qualified driver can drive safely
three: An experienced driver does compensate
liner: for the mistakes of others with a smile
--
[e-mail]      Martin Ehrenstein       [e-mail]
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