Roads : Germany

There are more cars on Germany’s roads than ever before. In 1996 there were approximately 48.3 million registered vehicles, including 41 million cars. (In 1950 there were only two million cars in the old Federal Republic, in 1986 about 31.7 million.) The network of trunk roads has a total length of about 231,000 km (1996), including more than 11,000 km of autobahns (motorways).

In size, therefore, it is second only to that of the United States. Aside from the situation in the new federal states, the main concern at present is not so much to build new roads as to remove bottlenecks and accident black spots and to provide more links with regions with little transport infrastructure. On nearly all of Germany’s roads there is a graduated speed limit. On federal highways, for instance, it is 100 km/h, in built-up areas 50 km/h, and in many residential areas just 30 km/h. Only parts of the autobahn network have no speed limit. There are also speed limits for certain types of vehicles (trucks, buses, vehicles with trailers).

For many people, the car remains an indispensable means of getting to and from work and of enjoying leisure-time pursuits. Rapid goods transport from door to door would not be possible without the use of trucks. The motor vehicle will therefore continue to be one of the principal means of transport.