Many car drivers on German autobahns also adhere to the recommended speed limit without a permanent speed limit being in effect. Moreover, drivers on the highways in Germany are, on average, a bit slower than they were a few years ago.
This is revealed by a new analysis from the Institute of the German Economy (IW Cologne), which was reported by the Funke Media Group’s Sunday editions. According to the analysis, car drivers last averaged 113.5 kilometers per hour (km/h) and were 3 km/h slower than in a previous evaluation from 2021. The analysis incorporated data from automatic counting stations on the autobahns without a permanent speed limit in North Rhine-Westphalia, which were collected between mid-May and the end of August 2024.
North Rhine-Westphalia is the state with the most registered cars and the densest network of autobahns. “Our data clearly show that the majority of drivers try to adhere to the recommended speed limit. Most of them seem to have no desire to drive faster, even if they could” said Thomas Puls, the author of the analysis and a traffic expert at the IW, in an interview with the Funke newspapers.
The autobahn speed limit in Germany is 130 km/h. Adhering to this speed is recommended for vehicle drivers, at least on sections of the road where no separate speed restriction is in effect. According to the IW analysis, nearly 83% of the registered cars in the observed period adhered to this or drove even slower. Another 10.5% of the registered cars were measured at speeds between 130 and 140 km/h. Only about 7.5% of the cars drove faster than the recommended speed of 130 km/h and only 1% were faster than 160 km/h.
For the first time, the IW conducted this evaluation in 2021, in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. At that time, the average speed was still 3 km/h higher. In a further evaluation in 2022, the average speed sank to 115.2 km/h. The recent decline in the average speed can be explained by a renewed increase in traffic volume, according to Puls. “The average speed has decreased noticeably compared to the COVID-19 era. A possible explanation is that it has become busier again and more people are driving to work instead of working from home” he said.
Data from the Federal Ministry of Transport also showed that the average daily traffic volume on all German autobahns increased by about 10% in 2023 compared to 2021. The IW expert, however, sees little influence of the development of fuel prices on the traffic situation. This has already been shown in previous studies. “Between our different measurements, there were enormous price jumps, especially due to the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine” he said. The effect, however, was small. “The reasons for driving seem to weigh more heavily for people than the increased costs of refueling” he added.
According to the IW, a total of almost 1.9 billion observations of passing cars were documented during the measurement period, with almost 350 million vehicles classified as trucks and smaller transporters, which are not subject to a speed limit of 80 km/h, being recorded as well. The average speed of these vehicles was 86 km/h, as stated in the analysis.
The researchers found differences in the observed speed depending on individual weekdays and time of day. The measured speed was 116.5 km/h on weekends, which is 4.3 km/h higher than the average speed on weekdays. Surprisingly, drivers who were traveling at speeds between 170 km/h and 200 km/h were, on average, a bit slower on weekends than between Monday and Friday.
Looking at the traffic in the daily schedule, it was shown that there was no morning rush hour, but rather a stagnation of traffic until 10 am, followed by a linear increase until it reached its maximum between 4 pm and 5 pm. In this hour, 7.2% of all daily cars were recorded, according to the analysis. The traffic volume then decreased almost linearly until midnight, as stated in the analysis. “The absolute majority of cars drive between 100 and 130 km/h, even in times with largely free traffic and acceptable visibility” said Puls.
Recently, a coalition of 14 organizations, including Greenpeace, the Police Union and the German Association of the Automobile Club, again demanded a speed limit on autobahns. Less fuel consumption, fewer accidents and more benefits for the climate are often cited as reasons by proponents.
However, IW researcher Puls sees no need to discuss a comprehensive speed limit on autobahns: “In the traffic sector, there are much greater problems. The government must urgently provide an answer to the infrastructure crisis. The debate about a uniform speed limit is overblown in comparison to what it can achieve” he said.