Speed ​​limit on German autobahns: expert opinion reveals hidden costs

The introduction of a speed limit is seen as a cost-effective tool for more climate protection.

A report by the University of Magdeburg has now revealed hidden costs.

Magdeburg - The election campaign is in the final phase.

This Sunday the citizens of the Federal Republic will elect a new government for the next four years.

This could then initiate groundbreaking decisions to combat climate change.

For example, the Greens and the SPD are in favor of a speed limit on German motorways and want no more cars with internal combustion engines to be allowed from 2030.

The speed limit in particular is often used as an inexpensive means that would have an immediate effect on CO2 pollution.

However, representatives of the CDU, FDP and AfD are bracing themselves against a speed limit and doubt the advantages in reality.

The FDP has therefore commissioned a brief report from the University of Magdeburg, which has now been published.

Speed ​​limit on German autobahns: Expert opinion reveals hidden costs upon introduction

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An expert report by the University of Magdeburg describes the hidden economic costs that a speed limit could entail.

© Jens Büttner / dpa

This speaks of the fact that government intervention in the market would entail hidden costs that would be significantly higher than the costs of a market-based CO2 pricing. The reports

welt.de

. "Regulatory law is not only notoriously opaque and creates hidden, high burdens, but it also tends to lead to a high degree of injustice," explains Professor Joachim Weimann, the author of the report. Above all, higher-income earners would benefit from subsidies - for example for electric cars - which would contribute to a considerable redistribution.

But even with supposedly inexpensive speed limits, hidden costs, so-called “implicit CO2 prices”, would arise.

These are calculated in the report as follows: A commuter who covers his daily distance of 60 kilometers at 150 km / h on the motorway would lose 40 hours of time over the whole year due to a speed limit of 120 km / h.

Speed ​​limit on German autobahns: Hidden costs - 1200 euros per year per commuter

At an hourly rate of 30 euros, the company would lose work worth 1200 euros per year.

The report calculates that this would result in costs of EUR 1,346 per tonne of CO₂ saved.

"That is almost 30 times the avoidance costs that currently have to be paid in European emissions trading."

But there are also critical voices with regard to the report.

For example, the economist Christian Traxler told the

Süddeutsche Zeitung

with regard to this type of calculation that it was “completely exaggerated and unusual in the specialist literature” to use the full gross wage for these hours.

It is also criticized that a possible reduction in the risk of congestion through a speed limit is not taken into account.

(fd)

List of rubric lists: © Jens Büttner / dpa