In article >, Spike wrote:
> It's true, what you say, and yet, at the same time, it is a HUGE
> oversimplification.

No, it's not. lane discipline is very simple.

> The Autobahn has drivers everyday who risk heavy fines by not
> complying with lane discipline, and there are plenty of MAJOR
> accidents, and scores of citations which bear this out.

The autobahn has a lower death rate than the US interstate. It's safer.
Yeah, the speed kills morons who prefer letting people who drive as well
as their dog out on the road will point to a spectactular crash for the
emotional reaction, much like you are doing, but the facts are the facts,
disciplined driving is safe driving.

I feel safer driving 100+mph on the autobahn than at any speed on a US
interstate. The predictability and discipline of drivers makes it a good
environment to drive, the speed is irrelevant.

> Second, you fail to take into account the broad spectrum of traffic
> flow patterns; ranging from dense metro traffic to sparse rural
> traffic.

You think Germany doesn't have such varied conditions? think again.

> You fail to take into account that each requires a totally
> different approach to driving.

As far as lane discipline, not at all. I do it in conditions people say
it's supposedly impossible in. I do so frequently. The reason they find
it impossible is because they don't want to try or just use it as a
crutch to defend their poor driving.

> What works in the city does not work in
> the country, and vice versa.

Bull****. Only in places like the USA where disciplined driving is
practically unheard of is this true. In fact, the mentality of the USA is
to force non-scalable techniques that worked ok in rural Kansas in 1932 to
all conditions in the 21st century. This one of the reasons we have so
much congestion, especially on surface streets.

People are actually being taught to wait 2-3 seconds _after_ the car in
front of them gets moving to start moving themselves. So not only is
there a slinky effect from people not paying attention, it's actually
being encouraged to be made WORSE. This concept works in a town with 5
cars in it, but when there are 10s of vehicles that have to get through
each cycle, it fails miserably, people don't make it through and one
light starts backing up into the next.

In Germany, there is even heavier traffic using a road laid out in the
17th century, but with better flow because people are disciplined about
their driving and when the light turns green they all go practically at
the same moment, with near zero slinky effect.

> You fail to take into account the
> composition of the drivers; young, old, experience, new, etc.

As if the rest of the world doesn't have that.

> And you fail to note that the Autobahn is not without speed limits
> imposed as it approaches metropolitan zones. That 911 must slow down
> and comply with everyone else.

Did I mention speed limits? No. Some of it does have speed limits, but
you better still keep your ass to the right if you're not passing. The
speed is irrelevant, that's the point. The safety comes from disciplined
driving, not people driving willy-nilly and trying to make them go slow
enough so they don't hit each other too hard.

> Twenty years of law enforcement has shown me that there is a wide
> range of reasons for accidents. Lane discipline is only one factor.

Let me guess from the above, like most cops on revenue patrol you prefer
(because of what you've been taught) that we have a bunch of morons
driving around, hitting each other a lot, and trying to control the
degree of damage with a hopeless (but profitable) effort to make them go
slower.

This hasn't worked, it won't work, it will never work. Speed enforcement
with no effort paid towards disciplined driving just doesn't help
anything but the coffers of government. You cannot have safe
roadways where people are allowed to cut each other off, practice no lane
discipline, are unable to merge, accelerate, turn or brake but speed is
enforced sort-a-kinda-late-at-night etc.