WEBVTT - How the Autobahn Works 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.840 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:07.560 It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you should know 0:00:08.160 --> 0:00:16.479 from House Stuff Works dot Com? Hey, and welcome to 0:00:16.520 --> 0:00:20.080 the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W Chuck Bryant 0:00:21.000 --> 0:00:24.840 room a zoom zoom Chuck who gets psychnic care Clark 0:00:25.840 --> 0:00:28.479 sounds good, Chuck. I was hoping you bust out a 0:00:28.480 --> 0:00:33.400 lot of German Bill. We are going to do an 0:00:33.440 --> 0:00:36.519 episode on the Audubon, as you probably noticed when you 0:00:36.640 --> 0:00:41.920 clicked play right, Yes, um and uh, We're going to 0:00:41.920 --> 0:00:45.600 get to the bottom of the age old question. Who zooming? 0:00:45.600 --> 0:00:52.000 Who Chuck? Or me? Who was that? Aretha Franklin one 0:00:52.040 --> 0:00:56.639 of her late career pop um songs. She also did 0:00:56.680 --> 0:00:59.639 the Freeway of Love, so that's interesting. She took up 0:00:59.680 --> 0:01:03.520 like a you know, the highway theme later in her career. 0:01:03.960 --> 0:01:06.040 Although who zuiming? Who had nothing to do with Auto Bond? 0:01:06.040 --> 0:01:10.080 Did it? Uh? No? No? I think I think you 0:01:10.080 --> 0:01:12.120 could make a case they had to do with sc 0:01:12.600 --> 0:01:16.959 X Maybe interesting. Didn't every song in the eighties have 0:01:17.080 --> 0:01:20.480 to do with that or cocaine? Get Out of My Dreams, 0:01:20.480 --> 0:01:23.560 Get into My Car? What do you think the car 0:01:23.720 --> 0:01:27.040 is of course, get in the fast lane, baby. Yeah. Yeah, 0:01:28.560 --> 0:01:30.200 see this is already better than you thought it was 0:01:30.200 --> 0:01:35.120 gonna be. Let's begin the auto bon Chuck Fodd and 0:01:35.200 --> 0:01:37.800 Fodd and Botten on the at bond. So we'll get 0:01:37.840 --> 0:01:39.840 to that in a second. Does a matter of fact, 0:01:39.880 --> 0:01:41.840 let's get to it now. Who is that Chuck? That's 0:01:41.880 --> 0:01:45.640 craft work or craft work? Craft work? They you know, 0:01:45.680 --> 0:01:50.400 they're a German. I actually saw them at the Coachella Festival, 0:01:51.160 --> 0:01:53.920 and I'm not a fan, so I wasn't that big 0:01:53.960 --> 0:01:56.600 of a deal to me. I understand their place. It's 0:01:56.640 --> 0:02:00.080 like the biggest build their own instruments. No, trust me. 0:02:00.120 --> 0:02:01.800 They were so ahead of their time they had to 0:02:01.920 --> 0:02:05.520 build their own instrument. The early seventies they were doing 0:02:05.760 --> 0:02:08.520 techno music. But yeah, I'm just not a fan of 0:02:08.520 --> 0:02:10.120 that kind of music, so I didn't dig it. But 0:02:10.360 --> 0:02:14.200 I get it. They're great guys. They seemed like it. 0:02:14.800 --> 0:02:17.960 Nice dudes. And they had a song called Autobon Yeah, 0:02:18.320 --> 0:02:21.560 and which was eight in The Big Lebowski. Oh yeah, 0:02:21.639 --> 0:02:25.000 by the Nihilists. Now well they were Nihilists, but they 0:02:25.000 --> 0:02:27.840 were the name of the band in The Big Lebowski 0:02:27.960 --> 0:02:31.320 was Autobon. The name of their album was naggle Beet, 0:02:31.880 --> 0:02:37.400 which I looked up today. That is the perion perionum, 0:02:38.000 --> 0:02:40.679 which is the tissue surrounding the fingernail and toe nail. 0:02:41.360 --> 0:02:44.480 And that was the name of their album. Which eight 0:02:45.480 --> 0:02:52.280 craft Works album cover The Man Machine. Oh there's some 0:02:52.360 --> 0:02:56.519 kid whose head just exploded. Yeah, exactly. Um. Also, kraft 0:02:56.520 --> 0:02:59.480 Work has a play since the Simpsons Pantheon. They made 0:02:59.480 --> 0:03:04.200 an appear. It's verbally uh in the Fighting Hellfish episode, 0:03:04.400 --> 0:03:07.519 remember the the German air shows up to claim the 0:03:07.639 --> 0:03:10.040 artwork and he tells the farm boys to get a room. 0:03:10.480 --> 0:03:12.560 He's tells everybody to hurry up because he has to 0:03:12.560 --> 0:03:17.480 go see Kroft. Stop. We should just end it, wrap 0:03:17.480 --> 0:03:20.440 it up right here, all right, thank you everybody, Um Chuck, 0:03:20.560 --> 0:03:23.760 let's begin all Uh. You know my brother Bill, I 0:03:23.800 --> 0:03:26.200 don't know if you've ever met him or not. Okay, 0:03:26.240 --> 0:03:29.360 Well Bill um got into Porsches for a little while 0:03:31.000 --> 0:03:35.080 and he got himself a brand new nine eleven Carrera 0:03:35.360 --> 0:03:39.160 set in like the late nineties. It was sweet. It 0:03:39.240 --> 0:03:42.120 was silver. The moment it hit fifty five, a spoiler 0:03:42.160 --> 0:03:45.720 automatically came up. It was just nice, sweet cars and 0:03:45.760 --> 0:03:47.840 it had like a little sticker on the front and 0:03:47.880 --> 0:03:49.800 it said it had like a guy's signature on it, 0:03:49.800 --> 0:03:51.680 and it was like a pen in hand signature. It's 0:03:51.720 --> 0:03:54.280 a real thing, um And basically it was like I've 0:03:54.680 --> 0:03:57.560 I've driven this car and this thing is a okay. 0:03:57.600 --> 0:03:59.839 And he said, you see that that's a German race 0:04:00.000 --> 0:04:03.520 car driver's signature. This car had like fifteen miles on 0:04:03.600 --> 0:04:05.800 it when I got it, because they've taken it out 0:04:05.840 --> 0:04:08.160 on the auto bonn they do that to every single one. 0:04:09.040 --> 0:04:11.480 So I did a little research. This is the late 0:04:11.560 --> 0:04:18.159 nineties and from six to today, I thought that Porsche 0:04:18.200 --> 0:04:21.080 did that with every car. Doing a little research, I 0:04:21.120 --> 0:04:23.919 figured out that that's not the case. Bill may have 0:04:23.960 --> 0:04:27.000 been mistaken. It's a myth, or he could have just 0:04:27.040 --> 0:04:29.760 gotten lucky and just happened to get the car that somebody, 0:04:30.000 --> 0:04:32.400 uh test drove on the auto bon I think I've 0:04:32.440 --> 0:04:35.039 heard that before, actually, that Porsche does every single one 0:04:35.520 --> 0:04:38.440 or yeah, or that they they test, you know, test 0:04:38.520 --> 0:04:42.159 drive their fleet. Yeah, maybe not all of them. But 0:04:42.480 --> 0:04:46.240 I didn't see any evidence whatsoever that they do anything. 0:04:46.279 --> 0:04:48.280 But they do use the auto bon this is the 0:04:48.320 --> 0:04:53.720 cool part to road test like new models. Or they'll say, hey, 0:04:53.760 --> 0:04:57.120 you're you're a auto journalist. Why don't you come on 0:04:57.160 --> 0:04:59.320 over to Germany and drive this thing? And they use 0:04:59.480 --> 0:05:03.800 would be like us taking a car out on I 0:05:03.960 --> 0:05:07.400 eighty five or seventy five or probably more appropriately to 0:05:07.600 --> 0:05:09.960 eight five and just going as fast as we can 0:05:10.000 --> 0:05:11.960 and then going home and writing about it. I just 0:05:12.000 --> 0:05:15.400 read an article, like you said, the auto writers. It 0:05:15.440 --> 0:05:17.440 was car and Driver. I think some dude got a 0:05:17.520 --> 0:05:22.120 Lamborghini Aventa door and drove and wrote an article about 0:05:22.160 --> 0:05:27.320 driving two miles an hour on there's a stretch outside 0:05:27.320 --> 0:05:34.719 of Garmish. Oh yes, garmisht miles of of awesome roadway 0:05:34.760 --> 0:05:37.480 and it's not like flattened straight, it's curvy and mountainous 0:05:37.480 --> 0:05:39.240 and apparently that's like one of the great places to 0:05:39.279 --> 0:05:44.160 go drive fast. Yes, okay, well look for stuff you 0:05:44.160 --> 0:05:47.760 should know quiz in the future with the answer of Garmish. Yeah, 0:05:47.800 --> 0:05:51.000 all right, I've been I've been coming up with questions 0:05:51.000 --> 0:05:54.200 in my head. I can write these. Well yeah, okay, no, 0:05:54.320 --> 0:05:57.760 I'm gonna I'm going to telepathically beam the quiz to 0:05:57.839 --> 0:06:01.560 everybody who listens to be should I was writing those 0:06:01.600 --> 0:06:03.839 quizzes for a while. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. About that. 0:06:03.880 --> 0:06:05.880 I'm a little testy about this one. I'm not a 0:06:05.880 --> 0:06:09.200 car guy. You've seen my car. I'm not a car 0:06:09.240 --> 0:06:13.960 guy either. So I drove a truck, that's true. So 0:06:14.000 --> 0:06:17.520 are you a truck guy? No, I mean it's just handy. 0:06:17.560 --> 0:06:20.840 You drive really fast though, and you're old, old beater. Yeah, 0:06:20.880 --> 0:06:24.120 so I thought you might appreciate this. Uh yeah, No, 0:06:24.200 --> 0:06:26.080 I'm not like a break a hundred miles an hour 0:06:26.200 --> 0:06:28.719 kind of guy at all. You're just a break eight 0:06:29.080 --> 0:06:32.479 within neighborhoods of Atlanta. No. I I've slowed down quite 0:06:32.480 --> 0:06:35.200 a bit in my old age in residential areas. But yeah, no, 0:06:35.279 --> 0:06:36.839 I still like to get from point A to point 0:06:36.839 --> 0:06:39.000 But like being on the Highway, to me, is not 0:06:39.240 --> 0:06:42.960 a lug street. It's not like a great experience. It's like, Okay, 0:06:42.960 --> 0:06:45.320 now I can get there as fast as I possibly can. Sure, 0:06:45.680 --> 0:06:49.000 because that's like an interruption of life, having to drive 0:06:49.120 --> 0:06:51.800 from one place to know, teleportation, to me would be 0:06:52.000 --> 0:06:54.200 one of the greatest inventions of all time. I could 0:06:54.240 --> 0:06:58.000 dig that. Yeah. So, uh, you mentioned the myth that 0:06:58.160 --> 0:07:02.000 Porsche does that. There's another myth was that Adolf Hitler 0:07:02.040 --> 0:07:05.080 invented the auto bon Yeah, it's not really true. No, 0:07:05.279 --> 0:07:07.240 he gets a lot of credit for that. And oh, 0:07:07.440 --> 0:07:10.560 by the way, we should say to anybody who isn't 0:07:10.560 --> 0:07:14.160 from Germany or America or any other country in the world, 0:07:14.200 --> 0:07:16.360 if you don't know what the auto bon is, it 0:07:16.480 --> 0:07:20.280 is the German UM federal highway system, the boonts auto 0:07:20.360 --> 0:07:27.520 bon right, bunds thanks UM. That means in English federal highway, 0:07:27.680 --> 0:07:31.840 motor federal motorway, right, that's yeah, And bond means track, 0:07:32.920 --> 0:07:40.400 so federal motor track. Okay, strictly translated um and so yeah, 0:07:40.600 --> 0:07:43.240 Adolf Hitler gets the the lion's share of the credit 0:07:43.720 --> 0:07:47.119 as the father of the auto bon, but it's it's 0:07:47.160 --> 0:07:50.680 not correct right now. I mean, the rise of the 0:07:51.400 --> 0:07:53.960 Nazi war machine definitely had a lot to do with 0:07:54.600 --> 0:07:57.680 the rise of the auto bon and the how extensive 0:07:57.680 --> 0:08:02.720 it became. But it's began construction in n and I 0:08:02.720 --> 0:08:09.320 think the first stretch between Colne, Cologne and Bono. Yeah, 0:08:09.440 --> 0:08:13.280 but he apparently also gets credit as like the father 0:08:13.520 --> 0:08:17.120 of the highway system in general. Uh, you know, the 0:08:17.200 --> 0:08:21.400 U S highway system is UM is modeled after the Autobahn. 0:08:21.720 --> 0:08:26.680 Most highway most federal interstate systems are UM and Hitler 0:08:26.840 --> 0:08:29.280 gets the credit, but really, if you go back even 0:08:29.320 --> 0:08:33.920 further to I think UM nineteen, there was this um 0:08:34.040 --> 0:08:37.320 high this experimental highway called the avas A v U 0:08:37.520 --> 0:08:41.360 S Highway in Berlin, right, so that was like arguably 0:08:41.400 --> 0:08:44.160 the world's first highway because you know, Germans were the 0:08:44.160 --> 0:08:47.199 world's first auto manufacturers, so they're the first ones to 0:08:47.360 --> 0:08:50.160 need a highway and they do it right still. And 0:08:50.200 --> 0:08:54.000 then also there is the Auto Strata in Italy that 0:08:54.160 --> 0:08:57.040 was built um in the twenties that linked Milan to 0:08:57.360 --> 0:09:02.120 the lakes in northern Italy. So Hitler may have been inspired, 0:09:02.640 --> 0:09:06.000 um to to get this plan out the door, but 0:09:06.080 --> 0:09:09.000 he didn't even come up with the plan. There was 0:09:09.040 --> 0:09:12.920 another guy who was the pr head for the Berlin 0:09:13.640 --> 0:09:16.480 I think it was Berlin or maybe just Germany as 0:09:16.520 --> 0:09:19.200 a whole, the German Chamber of Commerce, and he coined 0:09:19.240 --> 0:09:24.199 the term auto bonn in like, and the German Chamber 0:09:24.200 --> 0:09:27.080 of Commerce came up with this plan for this whole thing, um, 0:09:27.160 --> 0:09:29.280 and then the Nazis stole it, so you had another 0:09:29.280 --> 0:09:32.640 reason to hate the Nazis. That's if we needed anymore. Yeah, 0:09:33.480 --> 0:09:36.000 uh so that is true, Josh. They um the initial 0:09:36.880 --> 0:09:42.240 first sections from Frankfurt to Darmstadt was very straight and 0:09:42.360 --> 0:09:45.959 they did test Grand Prix racing cars way back when 0:09:46.000 --> 0:09:48.560 on the stretch of road. Yea, that is true because 0:09:48.600 --> 0:09:54.240 one dude died. Barrent Rosemeyer died in nineteen thirty eight 0:09:54.280 --> 0:09:58.680 after setting the very brief record to sixty eight point 0:09:58.720 --> 0:10:03.880 four three two. His little buddy Rudolphila, that's miles per hour. 0:10:07.000 --> 0:10:10.640 Right after that, Rudolph Carraciola jumped in his car and 0:10:10.679 --> 0:10:14.000 went to sixty eight point eight and then Burnt said, 0:10:14.000 --> 0:10:17.040 oh yeah, let me try that again, and he got 0:10:17.080 --> 0:10:20.280 in and he died. Yeah. His car lifted off the ground, 0:10:20.280 --> 0:10:22.640 he got caught a cross wind and he was killed. Um. 0:10:23.440 --> 0:10:26.960 What's interesting is those two speeds you just mentioned are 0:10:27.040 --> 0:10:29.840 still the fastest speeds ever clocked down the Auto Bonn 0:10:30.000 --> 0:10:33.640 in these old cars. Yeah, in one day. Um. And 0:10:33.679 --> 0:10:37.120 the first guy, Burnt Rosemeyer, he was driving an out 0:10:37.120 --> 0:10:43.719 of Auto Union V sixteen, which V sixteen Yeah, Um, 0:10:43.840 --> 0:10:49.679 he in Auto Union eventually became Audi and then um Caracciola, 0:10:49.880 --> 0:10:52.640 he was driving a Mercedes A V twelve Mercedes W 0:10:52.800 --> 0:10:56.880 one and he'd beat he'd beat Rosemeyer by like four 0:10:57.160 --> 0:10:59.240 hundreds of a second or four tenths of a second. 0:10:59.480 --> 0:11:01.920 Did you see the scars. I mean they look sort 0:11:01.960 --> 0:11:04.560 of like smaller versions of Chitty Chitty Bank Bank, Yeah, 0:11:04.640 --> 0:11:06.840 kind of, and they're going two hundred and sixty miles 0:11:06.840 --> 0:11:09.439 an hour. They look like old timey race cars driven 0:11:09.440 --> 0:11:12.880 by like old timey race car drivers who died. The 0:11:12.960 --> 0:11:18.160 guy died that day. That weird, it's weirdly, it's weirdly sad. 0:11:18.440 --> 0:11:23.000 So um Hitler again, um, father of the auto bonn 0:11:23.360 --> 0:11:28.120 in some respect, he definitely Um, he took road building 0:11:28.200 --> 0:11:33.160 to new heights or two new extremes. Um. Apparently you 0:11:33.160 --> 0:11:37.120 know the Cologne Bond stretch from ninety two, that was 0:11:37.160 --> 0:11:40.200 the first stretch of highway in Germany, supposedly the first 0:11:40.200 --> 0:11:44.880 real one. UM. Six years later, under Nazi rule, UM, 0:11:45.080 --> 0:11:47.920 eighteen hundred and sixty miles of roadway had been completed. 0:11:48.760 --> 0:11:52.320 So they were like roadmaking machines. Well they were, and 0:11:52.320 --> 0:11:54.839 that kind of well, he didn't like backfire. But it 0:11:55.400 --> 0:11:59.240 went into disrepair in a lot of places after the 0:11:59.280 --> 0:12:02.960 war because the German citizens weren't in such great shape 0:12:03.080 --> 0:12:05.600 financially after the war. No, and they didn't even get 0:12:05.640 --> 0:12:07.640 used during the war, which is the whole reason Hitler 0:12:07.720 --> 0:12:10.240 was building and was for military transport. But a lot 0:12:10.280 --> 0:12:13.040 of the roads were like two steep, two mountainous, so 0:12:13.080 --> 0:12:15.520 they didn't use them. So they fell in disrepair and 0:12:16.760 --> 0:12:18.800 it took a long time. You know, some points were 0:12:18.800 --> 0:12:20.719 even impassable, and it took a long time before they 0:12:20.760 --> 0:12:23.920 really got on a campaign to reconstruct them and build 0:12:23.960 --> 0:12:27.480 them back up to the Great Road. Yes, great road. 0:12:28.040 --> 0:12:33.080 That's uh, that's the road. This is our second Holy boy, 0:12:33.960 --> 0:12:36.560 that's shameful. We both just realized that at the same 0:12:36.600 --> 0:12:41.360 exact podcasts on the Road. Okay, I think this will 0:12:41.360 --> 0:12:44.480 be the last. Um, yeah, chuck it. It wasn't until 0:12:44.559 --> 0:12:49.920 the nineties, after East Germany and West Germany got back together, um, 0:12:49.960 --> 0:12:54.440 that the autobon really started to take the take the 0:12:54.559 --> 0:12:57.400 legendary form. I think that that we have now that 0:12:57.480 --> 0:13:00.280 we have of it now, which is now see I 0:13:00.320 --> 0:13:04.480 got the fourth largest behind America, China and India. Oh 0:13:04.559 --> 0:13:06.559 is that right? But it says the third. But I'm 0:13:06.559 --> 0:13:09.560 not sure which one is more recent or or it. 0:13:09.600 --> 0:13:11.600 Maybe there may have to do with how to how 0:13:11.640 --> 0:13:14.440 to do with how Indy accounts the road. They count 0:13:14.480 --> 0:13:17.280 it all twice. Well, if it's like a major expressway 0:13:17.360 --> 0:13:20.000 or what because India's is way bigger than any of them, 0:13:20.000 --> 0:13:22.800 I think, but that they might Germans might say like no, no, no, 0:13:22.840 --> 0:13:26.160 we're talking highways only. Um well look look how about 0:13:26.200 --> 0:13:29.320 some stats man, it's it's your time to shine. How 0:13:29.360 --> 0:13:35.319 big is this thing? Uh? I have as of two 0:13:35.400 --> 0:13:39.400 thousand ten, this pretty recent well thousand, eight hundred and 0:13:39.480 --> 0:13:45.160 thirteen clicks? Wow? Really yeah, that's the kilometers. Okay, it's 0:13:45.160 --> 0:13:48.560 actually decreased in size then, because this article has it 0:13:48.600 --> 0:13:53.240 as twelve thou d kios. But when was that? Maybe 0:13:53.280 --> 0:13:57.440 that's newer or else it's shrinking and might be actually 0:13:57.480 --> 0:14:00.240 it's shrinking and it's age. It's it's got sarcopenia. And 0:14:00.280 --> 0:14:04.560 we should say for our American friends, that's eight thousand 0:14:04.640 --> 0:14:09.400 miles of right roadway. Very nice. There'll be more stats 0:14:10.040 --> 0:14:14.440 scatter amount okaysisting exciting. What's another myth? Josh, you can 0:14:14.480 --> 0:14:16.000 just drive as fast as you want on this thing 0:14:16.040 --> 0:14:19.040 all over the place? Right? Well, um, no you you can't. 0:14:19.280 --> 0:14:22.760 You can. But the Germans are very sensible people. They're 0:14:22.840 --> 0:14:27.440 very efficient. Uh, they're very um really as sensible is 0:14:27.440 --> 0:14:30.400 a really good word to describe the German people. What 0:14:30.520 --> 0:14:34.480 might even say rigid, you could say that, UM, and 0:14:35.200 --> 0:14:38.560 they are well aware that you should not be driving 0:14:39.320 --> 0:14:43.720 unfettered speed limit wise through congested areas, like through a 0:14:43.760 --> 0:14:46.240 city or something like that. So in a lot of 0:14:46.320 --> 0:14:49.000 parts of the Audubon you're going to find speed limits 0:14:49.080 --> 0:14:53.480 which are called tempo limits UM in German tempo limits 0:14:53.560 --> 0:14:57.520 tempo limits that which is of course one word. Yeah. 0:14:57.720 --> 0:15:01.160 So congested areas, areas where like the the terrain is 0:15:01.200 --> 0:15:06.520 really rough um during certain types of weather. Uh. There's 0:15:06.640 --> 0:15:09.400 a lot of UM factors that go into it, but 0:15:09.520 --> 0:15:13.240 it's not unlimited. For about three quarters of the eight 0:15:13.280 --> 0:15:17.360 thousand miles you'll find speed limits. But then there's about 0:15:17.440 --> 0:15:21.040 two thousand miles of autobon, about a quarter of the 0:15:21.040 --> 0:15:24.800 whole thing, where there really isn't any speed limit. Not bad. 0:15:24.920 --> 0:15:26.920 You can drive as fast as you want, but there 0:15:26.960 --> 0:15:31.640 is a suggested uh speed limit of UM. I believe 0:15:31.680 --> 0:15:34.200 a hundred and thirty kilometers per hour, which is eighty 0:15:34.240 --> 0:15:38.520 miles an hour, But that's suggested. Nobody's gonna pull you 0:15:38.560 --> 0:15:42.120 over for that. Uh. There is a minimum speed limit 0:15:42.160 --> 0:15:44.640 of thirty seven miles per hour, which is about sixty 0:15:44.680 --> 0:15:48.120 kilometers per hour, and that just keeps the riff raff 0:15:48.280 --> 0:15:52.160 off the road that will get blown away, including mopeds 0:15:52.160 --> 0:15:56.440 and stuff like that, and well horses, horses which were 0:15:56.520 --> 0:16:00.800 banned outright from the beginning German highways early on that 0:16:00.880 --> 0:16:04.240 they wanted this thing to cook, or at least it 0:16:04.280 --> 0:16:07.080 seems like. But even if it is unlimited, they still can. 0:16:07.200 --> 0:16:10.640 You can still get a fine if you're driving too 0:16:10.680 --> 0:16:14.000 fast for like weather conditions. You can also, I mean, 0:16:14.080 --> 0:16:17.360 if you're going to pass um an autobon cop which 0:16:17.400 --> 0:16:21.280 are called the auto bon politze. Again one long wordlitz, 0:16:23.640 --> 0:16:27.240 you you don't want to taunt him, especially if you're 0:16:27.240 --> 0:16:31.600 holding like a big mac. Yeah, because the Germans consider 0:16:31.800 --> 0:16:37.040 um driving while eating or drinking a distracted drivers state, 0:16:37.280 --> 0:16:39.960 and they will pull you over in a heartbeat and 0:16:40.000 --> 0:16:42.680 find you, and they do it routinely. Yeah. Can I 0:16:42.760 --> 0:16:44.920 just go ahead and take my hat off to the 0:16:44.960 --> 0:16:49.400 German people for their sensible and common sense rules when 0:16:49.440 --> 0:16:52.720 it comes to driving, Sure, chuck, because that is one 0:16:53.920 --> 0:16:57.480 All of these rules to me should be worldwide because 0:16:57.520 --> 0:17:01.920 they just make sense. For instance, the two second rule. 0:17:02.320 --> 0:17:04.080 If you don't follow the two second rule, which means 0:17:04.119 --> 0:17:06.960 you give yourself two seconds worth of stopping time for 0:17:07.119 --> 0:17:08.760 the car in front of you. Then you can get 0:17:08.760 --> 0:17:13.719 a ticket and that's suspended license. Yeah, we should explain 0:17:13.720 --> 0:17:16.920 that to our younger listeners, maybe ones who don't drive yet. Uh. 0:17:17.040 --> 0:17:20.600 Say you're following a car and a car passes a 0:17:20.880 --> 0:17:25.040 street lamp, right, Uh, if you should be able to 0:17:25.080 --> 0:17:28.040 count off two seconds before you pass that street lamp. 0:17:28.520 --> 0:17:31.159 That means there's two seconds of space between two seconds 0:17:31.160 --> 0:17:33.120 of reaction time between you and the car in front 0:17:33.160 --> 0:17:35.359 of you. That's the two second rule. Yeah, that's a 0:17:35.400 --> 0:17:38.639 great way to do it. Nice suggestion. Another rule, Josh, 0:17:38.680 --> 0:17:42.760 which should be adhered here in the United States, travel 0:17:42.760 --> 0:17:45.800 fast in the left lane only pass on the right only. 0:17:46.880 --> 0:17:50.400 It just makes sense. Well, so apparently the Germans are 0:17:50.720 --> 0:17:56.600 extremely well instructed in the art of passing and respecting 0:17:56.680 --> 0:18:01.240 the passing lane. So, um, I've met so many people 0:18:01.320 --> 0:18:05.240 on the highway that I really genuinely wanted to take 0:18:05.280 --> 0:18:08.480 the lives of you've met them. I met him by 0:18:08.520 --> 0:18:14.440 making eye contact, really angry, vicious eye contact, waiting at them. Um, yeah, 0:18:14.480 --> 0:18:18.040 on the road because they just not only won't get over, 0:18:18.480 --> 0:18:23.160 they maybe slow down a little bit when you try 0:18:23.160 --> 0:18:24.639 to pass them in the in the left lane and 0:18:24.640 --> 0:18:27.280 they're going too slow. Apparently the Germans do not have 0:18:27.320 --> 0:18:31.520 this problem. If you are not getting over, if you're 0:18:31.520 --> 0:18:33.000 in the left lane and you don't get over for 0:18:33.040 --> 0:18:35.920 a faster driver, you can be fined because they consider 0:18:36.000 --> 0:18:39.919 that coercion. You were coercing a driver who drives faster 0:18:39.960 --> 0:18:43.000 than you to drive slower, and that is messed up. 0:18:43.760 --> 0:18:46.280 And not only that, but if you're going a hundred 0:18:46.320 --> 0:18:48.280 and twenty miles an hour in that left lane and 0:18:48.359 --> 0:18:52.280 your Mercedes and going through behind you is in his 0:18:52.320 --> 0:18:54.720 force and he wants to go one ninety, you gotta 0:18:54.760 --> 0:18:59.080 get over because you're the slower driver. And also whether 0:18:59.480 --> 0:19:02.399 whether it's you orgoon turn the left lane, you're not 0:19:02.440 --> 0:19:05.840 supposed to be in there unless you're passing. The right 0:19:05.920 --> 0:19:09.040 lanes are for traveling, the left lane is for passing, 0:19:10.040 --> 0:19:12.679 and you don't drive in the left lane and you 0:19:12.720 --> 0:19:15.520 can get a fine for that. Um. You're you're allowed 0:19:15.560 --> 0:19:17.520 to flash your lights and honk your horn at somebody 0:19:17.520 --> 0:19:19.640 who's going slower to basically say, hey, I don't want 0:19:19.640 --> 0:19:22.720 to use up my brakes. Get over. If they don't 0:19:22.720 --> 0:19:25.720 get over, they can get a ticket if you UM, 0:19:25.760 --> 0:19:29.680 if you do it excessively, supposedly, that's coercient as well, 0:19:29.880 --> 0:19:31.480 so you can both get a ticket if you find 0:19:31.480 --> 0:19:39.439 a grumpy auto pullets. That's right, auto bomb pullets. I 0:19:39.480 --> 0:19:44.200 think anytime you're not sure, just like, do it quiet? Uh? 0:19:44.720 --> 0:19:46.119 And you mentioned that you know the left lane is 0:19:46.119 --> 0:19:49.120 for passing. You can also be stopped in fine if 0:19:49.160 --> 0:19:52.040 you pass on the right. If your excuse was but hey, 0:19:52.080 --> 0:19:54.680 the guy wouldn't get over, they can say, I'm sorry, 0:19:54.680 --> 0:19:56.960 you're still getting a ticket, but we'll give him a 0:19:57.000 --> 0:19:59.520 ticket to if we happen to see that you're you're 0:19:59.520 --> 0:20:04.040 both gonna get tickets, right, just likes, can it be 0:20:04.080 --> 0:20:07.160 any more fair than that? And women have to get 0:20:07.200 --> 0:20:12.879 a license to wear lipstick? What else? Uh? The emergency 0:20:12.960 --> 0:20:15.960 lane um is for emergencies only here in the United States. 0:20:16.040 --> 0:20:18.520 When traffic backs up in certain places like l A, 0:20:19.160 --> 0:20:24.800 people will drive in the emergency lane because they can't wait. Yeah, 0:20:24.960 --> 0:20:29.639 that's that makes me want to kill two. But they said, 0:20:29.720 --> 0:20:31.639 I love this part. Even if you run out of gas, 0:20:32.040 --> 0:20:35.000 that's no excuse because that's an avoidable thing. So that's 0:20:35.080 --> 0:20:37.040 very sensible as well. I get the feeling that you're 0:20:37.160 --> 0:20:39.640 it's very shameful as well. In Germany, to run out 0:20:39.640 --> 0:20:42.160 of gas because they're just so like on top of everything, 0:20:42.920 --> 0:20:45.640 they're like, you know, if you run out of gas, room, 0:20:45.720 --> 0:20:47.879 you're you're not worthy of being on the road. Like 0:20:47.920 --> 0:20:50.560 they have like like page eight of the local papers, 0:20:50.680 --> 0:20:52.600 just like mug shots of people who ran out of 0:20:52.600 --> 0:20:58.040 gas in the emergency yesterday. Uh, should we talk about 0:20:58.040 --> 0:20:59.400 some of these fines? And that's kind of the least 0:20:59.440 --> 0:21:02.200 interesting part. Yeah, how about this? This will this will 0:21:02.280 --> 0:21:04.480 drive people on the website after this. If you want 0:21:04.480 --> 0:21:08.640 to see some fines, some some infractions and the corresponding 0:21:08.680 --> 0:21:12.320 finds in Euros, look up auto Bonn on how stuffworks 0:21:12.359 --> 0:21:15.280 dot com. We'll remind you again later at the end 0:21:15.280 --> 0:21:18.200 of this episode. Another cool thing I like about the system, Josh, 0:21:18.240 --> 0:21:21.720 it is it's all consistent with how they letter and 0:21:21.840 --> 0:21:25.399 number everything. Everything on the auto Bonn system has a 0:21:25.440 --> 0:21:29.399 capital A followed by a number. Even numbers go east west, 0:21:29.800 --> 0:21:32.520 odd numbers go north south. Same exact thing in the US, 0:21:33.080 --> 0:21:35.680 is that right? Yes? Seventy five north south, eighty five 0:21:35.720 --> 0:21:39.960 north south, ninety five north south twenty forty sixty eighty 0:21:40.040 --> 0:21:42.320 all east west. Same thing is it was modeled on 0:21:42.359 --> 0:21:45.119 the autobon Eisenhower is like, I love these Nazis. I 0:21:45.160 --> 0:21:47.480 don't think they're all like that, though, are they? It 0:21:47.480 --> 0:21:51.679 seems like California had some for interstate for federal highways only, 0:21:52.280 --> 0:21:56.359 So what about rings. I don't know, UM two eighty 0:21:56.440 --> 0:22:01.800 five probably larger, I want. I don't know this, but 0:22:01.880 --> 0:22:06.960 I would suspect that the larger orientation, whether it's east, 0:22:07.040 --> 0:22:11.560 west or north south, would guide the people naming it 0:22:11.680 --> 0:22:14.280 giving it a name. So like, I'll bet two eighty 0:22:14.320 --> 0:22:18.840 five it has longer stretches going east and west or 0:22:18.880 --> 0:22:21.000 north and south than east and west, which is why 0:22:21.040 --> 0:22:23.919 it has an odd number. But it's not a perfect circles. 0:22:24.280 --> 0:22:26.639 I tend to make stuff up, and that could be 0:22:26.680 --> 0:22:30.720 an example of uh You would think that because of 0:22:30.760 --> 0:22:33.639 the excessive speeds that the auto bon would be a 0:22:33.720 --> 0:22:37.119 death trap. I would, and for a while there it 0:22:37.200 --> 0:22:40.800 was pretty unsafe, like uh N. I think was the 0:22:40.880 --> 0:22:45.680 all time high when they had more than one deaths 0:22:46.000 --> 0:22:49.520 that year, which is staggering. It is, but it's less 0:22:49.520 --> 0:22:54.960 than the United States standard of about forty thousand a year. Yeah, 0:22:54.960 --> 0:22:58.679 but we have a lot more highway we we we 0:22:58.800 --> 0:23:02.879 do know. UM. In two thousand eight, though, that number 0:23:03.440 --> 0:23:07.960 fell to fewer than because of a few things, better 0:23:08.000 --> 0:23:12.199 engineering in the cars, safety obviously, better engineering of the 0:23:12.320 --> 0:23:15.240 roadway very much. My dad taught me this. My dad's 0:23:15.240 --> 0:23:18.840 a mechanical engineer, but engineers. Any type of engineer appreciates 0:23:18.880 --> 0:23:22.040 the work of any other type of engineer. Um And 0:23:22.280 --> 0:23:25.879 he taught me to really appreciate a curve where you 0:23:25.960 --> 0:23:28.199 don't have to move your steering wheel, You just you 0:23:28.280 --> 0:23:30.720 just tilted slightly and then you just hold it and 0:23:30.800 --> 0:23:33.680 placed for the whole curve. You don't have to turn 0:23:33.720 --> 0:23:36.639 it to stay into the curve is a perfectly engineered 0:23:36.640 --> 0:23:40.280 and perfectly constructed curve. I have driven on a race 0:23:40.480 --> 0:23:42.920 track and that's how it is. But you can you'll 0:23:43.240 --> 0:23:45.520 if you pay attention, you'll find that some curves on 0:23:45.560 --> 0:23:48.520 some highways are better than others, for sure. And every 0:23:48.320 --> 0:23:50.440 and when you when you're looking out for it, you 0:23:50.600 --> 0:23:53.320