Don't come between a German and the red zone on the speedometer. Speeding down the Autobahn (as immortalized by '70s synth band Kraftwerk) is a sacred rite and a badge of liberty in rule-bound Deutschland — which made EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas' proposal for Autobahn speed limits to fight CO2 a non-starter for many. Cries of "Free driving for free citizens!" mingled with German automakers' huffy retort that they needed "no coaching on efficient climate protection" — an notion with which Head Coach Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor and current EU President, might find reason to quibble. Even German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel called the proposal "a secondary front and a trivialization of the climate problem."
For his part, Dimas noted that "speed limits make a lot of sense for many reasons and are completely normal in most EU states, as in the U.S.A. Only in Germany, strangely, is it controversial."
