Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works, Hey, brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: Lauren Vogelbaum. Here. Germany is known for several awesome things,
Speaker 1: including beer brats, and of course, the autobon Bund. This autobon,
Speaker 1: as it's known in Germany, is really just a federal
Speaker 1: highway system there, but to visitors, the allure of the
Speaker 1: auto bon is the speed limit or lack of one.
Speaker 1: Cars can top two per hour during normal conditions on
Speaker 1: this famed freeway. That's about a hundred and fifty miles
Speaker 1: per hour. And now a California legislator is proposing a
Speaker 1: bill that could make the state home to what is
Speaker 1: being called the American auto bon. John Morlock, the Republican
Speaker 1: state senator from Orange County, introduced State Bill three nineteen
Speaker 1: in February of twenty nineteen to relieve traffic congestion along
Speaker 1: Interstate five and State Route ninety nine. According to the
Speaker 1: proposed plan, both roadways would get new lanes, one northbound
Speaker 1: and one southbound. Drivers in the new lanes would not
Speaker 1: have to abide by a speed limit, though the existing
Speaker 1: sixty five miles per hour limit would remain in effect
Speaker 1: in the existing lanes. That's about a hundred and five
Speaker 1: kilometers per hour. The idea also could provide an alternative
Speaker 1: to California's controversial, long delayed, and possibly canceled high speed
Speaker 1: rail project. The proposal comes on the heels of California
Speaker 1: Governor Gavin Newsom's announcement that the Bullet Train as planned
Speaker 1: is too expensive at an estimated cost of seventy seven
Speaker 1: billion dollars, and would take too long to build. There
Speaker 1: are no official cost estimates for the Audubon bill, but
Speaker 1: in February, Senator Morlock told The Los Angeles Times it
Speaker 1: could cost about three billion dollars. He also said the
Speaker 1: money would come from the state's cap and trade program,
Speaker 1: which requires companies to offset pollution by purchasing credits. If
Speaker 1: plans move forward, the American Audubon would be constructed along
Speaker 1: major freeways, with the Labock area, which is about eighty
Speaker 1: miles or a hundred and twenty nine kilometers north of
Speaker 1: Los Angeles at the southern point, and Sacramento or Stockton
Speaker 1: at the northern end. That means theoretically, vehicles traveling north
Speaker 1: at one miles per hour in the unrestricted lane could
Speaker 1: make the trip from Sacramento to Lubec in about three hours. Currently,
Speaker 1: that drive takes over four hours well over depending on traffic.
Speaker 1: Aside from improving drive times for those along that route,
Speaker 1: the authors of the bill claim it would also help
Speaker 1: reduce congestion, which would in turn decrease greenhouse gas emissions
Speaker 1: from vehicle stuck idling. For that reason, the bill specifies
Speaker 1: that funding should come from California's Greenhouse Gas Production Fund,
Speaker 1: which regularly supports transportation and transit projects that reduce pollution.
Speaker 1: Critics point out, however, the emissions go up at high speeds,
Speaker 1: so encouraging people to drive faster means there wouldn't be
Speaker 1: any net reduction in pollution. In fact, Bill Magivern, a
Speaker 1: spokesperson for the Coalition for Clean Air, told s F
Speaker 1: Gate that the net reduction in emissions theory is ridiculous.
Speaker 1: In addition to the pollution concerns, critics are also worried
Speaker 1: about the risks to drivers. Marine Vogel, a spokeswoman for
Speaker 1: the National Safety Council, told USA Today that numerous studies
Speaker 1: demonstrate that when states raise speed limits, they can expect
Speaker 1: an increase in traffic fatalities. Statistics from the U s
Speaker 1: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration show that in speeding was
Speaker 1: a factor in twenty six percent of all traffic fatalities.
Speaker 1: That accounts for nearly ten thousand deaths. Several states across
Speaker 1: the US have increased speed limits. For instance, Idaho, Montana, Nevada,
Speaker 1: South Dakota, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming allow drivers to travel
Speaker 1: eighty miles per hour on certain highways, and Texas allows
Speaker 1: eighty five miles per hour along a specific stretch of
Speaker 1: State Highway one thirty. That's up to about a hundred
Speaker 1: and thirty seven kilometers per hour. However, the current maximum
Speaker 1: speed limit in California is still seventy miles per hour
Speaker 1: about a hundred thirteen kilometers per hour, with some stretches
Speaker 1: along the proposed Audubon route a little bit lower. Californians
Speaker 1: shouldn't get too excited, though, yet. The bill has a
Speaker 1: long way before ever becoming law and may never get there.
Speaker 1: If it passes the vote in the state's House and Senate,
Speaker 1: it must then be approved by Governor Newsom. For contrast,
Speaker 1: Germany's Autobon covers seven thousand, five hundred miles that's about
Speaker 1: twelve th kiometers, and there are some sections with speed limits.
Speaker 1: New drivers in Germany are actually trained on the autobon
Speaker 1: to learn how to handle the high speeds, and the
Speaker 1: country's licensing process is a lot more difficult, time consuming,
Speaker 1: and expensive than it is in the United States. If
Speaker 1: California's autobon gets approved, this three D some mile stretch
Speaker 1: of road might only be a start to a larger system.
Speaker 1: Today's episode was written by Shari's three Wit and produced
Speaker 1: by Tyler Clang for iHeart Media and How Stuff Works.
Speaker 1: For more in this and lots of other topics, visit
Speaker 1: our home planet, how stuff Works dot com.