The constitutional court has rejected a complaint about the speed limit on German roads: the federal government does not have to introduce the limit.
Karlsruhe – The Federal Constitutional Court has dismissed a constitutional complaint about a general speed limit on German autobahns as inadmissible.
The two plaintiffs, a man and a woman, believe that the legislator is violating the climate protection requirement and civil liberties by not introducing a speed limit.
The highest German court in Karlsruhe has now announced that they did not give sufficient reasons for this.
Speed limits on German autobahns have been disputed for years
A speed limit, which as a result of the Ukraine war also came into focus as an opportunity to save energy, has been the subject of repeated arguments for years.
In the traffic light coalition, the FDP opposes this.
An introduction is therefore not agreed in the coalition agreement.
In many other European countries, the maximum speed you can drive on motorways is 130 or 120 kilometers per hour.
In the spring of 2021, the constitutional judges laid down in a sensational decision that climate protection is also a question of intergenerational justice: If politicians act too hesitantly today, this will be at the expense of the freedom of young people, who will then have to restrict themselves even more later.
Constitutional Court: CO2 savings not necessarily through speed limits
The responsible chamber of the First Senate has now announced that the climate protection requirement in the Basic Law will continue to gain relative weight as climate change progresses.
This also has an impact on the legislature's weighing decisions.
However, the complainants did not provide any more detailed evidence that there would be considerable restrictions on freedom in the transport sector at the end of the decade because the emissions permitted in this area were currently being used up too quickly.
It is also not clear why further savings would have to be achieved through a speed limit.
Two-thirds of Germans support speed limits on motorways
According to calculations by the Federal Environment Agency from 2021, a nationwide general speed limit of 120 km/h on motorways would reduce total CO2 emissions from cars and light commercial vehicles by around 2.7 percent.
At 100 km/h, the reduction would even be 5.7 percent.
The number of road deaths and noise would also be significantly reduced.
Almost two-thirds of Germans are in favor of speed limits on motorways.
(AFP/dpa)
