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Comment by randomNumber7 | Hacker News Reader

In Germany a speed limit doesn't mean it's always reasonable to drive at maximum speed.

E.g. there are narrow streets in citys with cars parking on both sides. The official speed limit is 50 km/h. If you drive at this speed you straight up murder any pedestrian coming out behind of a car. If you do this you'll be pleaded guilty, because your speed was not appropriate to the situation. You even have to learn this exact situation when you make your drivers license.

An other funny example. Where i lived was road with a bend, where an ordinary person should maybe drive 50 km/h. It was borderline questionable to drive through there with 70 km/h and a good car. Directly before the bend the speedlimit changed from 70 km/h to 100 km/h. There where a lot of accidents, because even germans don't understand the meaning of german speed limits.

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I’ve noticed this on Polish vs Czech roads (I’ve driven mostly in the mountains border regions of Czechia so this maybe local). Polish roads have gazillion of signs and usually you’ll see a lower speed limit sign just before the curve or a bend if it’s not supposed to be driven at the speed limit of the main road. In my opinion there are way too many signs and I feel—as another poster commented here—like a robot. On the other hand in Czechia on a small mountain road there’s a general limit say 90kmh or 70kmh and there’s no way you make the bends with that speed— it’s your responsibility to slow down.

I’ve seen a similar differences in another border regions, e.g. Switzerland-France or France-Germany. It almost seems like there are two schools of thoughts that different countries subscribe to.

I Drive much and Usually I and others get curves etc more intuitively. One has to be a really bad driver to not have a Instinkt for the speed necessary in curves. Btw German driver here and I find German has a good equilibrium of signs . I have to drive to Paris and Milano for work . Those places are pure mayhem of signs and confusion. I can’t imagine a self driving car mastering some of those places.

The borderlands are like that, yes.

Prague, on the other hand, is oversaturated with signs. I guess someone makes money on them, because some are clearly superfluous (Segway bans in distant neighbourhoods where no one ever drove a Segway; Segways were only a bane of the touristy center).

The reason why Polish roads have so many signs is because producing and installing them is an opportunity to make money :) And usually that opportunity goes to a company owned by a relative of some local politician ;)

> In Germany a speed limit doesn't mean it's always reasonable to drive at maximum speed.

I didn't want to imply this. I was just talking about the task of finding the speed limit. Getting from there to a reasonable speed to drive at is a different issue and much more complicated, yes ;)

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