A broad alliance of associations insists on a general speed limit on German autobahns soon after the general election.
Berlin - "Lower speeds massively reduce CO2 emissions and could save thousands of lives," said the federal chairman of the ecological traffic club VCD, Kerstin Haarmann, on Tuesday in Berlin, according to the announcement. Nonetheless, the “speeding lobby” is fighting against safer motorways and politicians are making it unnecessarily difficult for municipalities to introduce Tempo 30 by doing nothing. The alliance includes environmental associations, the NRW police union and traffic safety associations.
A general speed limit is politically highly controversial.
Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer had given demands a clear rejection.
"The argument for a general speed limit is a political instrument of warfare, for some even a fetish," said the CSU politician of the German press agency.
The German autobahns are the safest roads in the world.
The alliance, on the other hand, not only calls for a general speed limit on motorways but also for the maximum speed to be reduced to 80 kilometers per hour outside of the city and a regular speed of 30 kilometers per hour to be introduced in the city center.
All democratic parties would have to speak out in favor of introducing a general speed limit within the first 100 days of their possible government work.
The general election is at the end of September.
With a strictly controlled speed limit of 120 km / h on motorways, 80 km / h outside the city and 30 km / h in the city, a total of up to 100 million tons of CO2 could be saved by 2034, said Jürgen Resch, Federal Managing Director of Deutsche Umwelthilfe.
Michael Mertens from the NRW Police Union said that anyone who wanted to reduce the number of seriously injured and killed road accident victims could not avoid a speed limit on the autobahn.
The chairman of the environmental association BUND, Olaf Bandt, said that a reduction in speed would help to put cyclists on roads without a cycle path less at risk.
"This makes cycling in the country more attractive." (Dpa)
