Germany’s safe roads offer lesson
There is no speed limit in Germany, but in recent years the country has managed to modernize its road network in the east and to cut the number of traffic-related deaths in half. One reason is that the Germans adhere to strict specifications when constructing their roads. If such a system of strictly specified construction were applied to Greece, it would have offered similar results here, traffic experts say. In contrast to Greece, where the law puts all the responsibility on the driver, German laws set the rights of road users, indicating areas such as passing lanes and driving speed, and road construction and maintenance. The number of traffic accidents dropped in Germany primarily because of the detailed specifications for road construction. «These specifications set basic things such as inclines, as well as things such as how much distance there should be between trees or street lights,» said Psarianos, who heads the Observatory for Driving Safety. «This systematic study of [road construction] resulted in a 50 percent decrease in traffic accidents in one decade.» In 1990, after Germany’s east and west portions were united, the country began modernizing the old and poorly designed network in what was formerly East Germany. «In 1991, Germany had 20 deaths per 1 billion vehicle-kilometers of travel because of the road network in the former East Germany,» Psarianos said. «In 2004, that number went down to 10 deaths per 1 billion vehicle kilometers of travel. They took a network that was much worse off than that of Greece and brought it up to the highest quality.»
