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Comment by rdl | Hacker News Reader

The nice thing is most US states have reciprocity with Germany, so you don't actually have to take the tests.

I noticed a fair number of "bad" (by German standards) drivers on the southern Autobahnen over the past few weeks, but they were mainly non-Germans; I'm 99% sure the drunk guys in the 15 year old Honda were US military, and by the plates, most of the other bad drivers were also not German. So it's not foolproof, but still the standard is far higher, and the roads are well maintained.

What I noticed most acutely was the lack of objects-in-road, vs. California. Not sure if that's due to the general lack of pickup trucks, people hauling junk, etc., or due to laws/training/maintenance.

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It's also because people in Germany have manners. In California, or the rest of US, people just throw garbage on the side of the road. It's so infuriating! I once saw a guy throw a cigaret pack on the ground literally, and I kid you not, literally 3 feet away from a garbage can. I had to "kindly" insist that he picks it up and disposes of it properly. It's like some people here were raised by fucking wolves or something. I see people throw fast food bags, half way full drink cups, and plastic bags out of their cars on the freeway all the time.

Pretty sure he meant debris, not trash. Stuff that falls off trucks because it hasn't been properly secured. I've had a number of close calls due to large items blocking entire lanes on the freeways.

Yeah, I mean like a sofa, bumper, etc. I leave a larger-than-usual amount of space between me and the car in front of me, but in heavy traffic, you can't always evade, particularly if the car in front is a high-clearance truck, and the object clears that car, but not necessarily my normal-height sedan. Within hours of being back in SFBA I'd run over a boot, then another shoe (possibly the boot or another shoe), in separate directions of 101. It struck the front bumper and didn't seem to catch on anything underneath, but I was worried.

Roadside trash sucks, too, for different reasons.

(I call 911/CHP to report this stuff frequently, on average once a week or more. They send a CHP car or two out to road-break and remove it, or CHP+Caltrans if it's big.)

Worth noting that US military that are stationed in Germany must take a test before receiving a US Army Europe license (they run the program for all US military in Germany) in order to drive in Germany. Based on my experience (got there in 2004), the test was not that easy and did require a bit of studying, especially for road signs and the rules at intersections, which are a little bit different than US rules, from what I can remember.

The US military is semi-enlightened with regard to traffic safety in that they often insist on extra training even for domestically stationed personnel. For example some branches and some bases require all enlisted personnel to undertake basic motorcycle safety training before they are permitted to ride motorcycles, even though most states do not require such training. There are also branches and/or bases where servicemen returning from overseas deployments are required to take refresher driving courses before they are permitted to drive their cars again. On any installation the local regulations are up to the post commander; some of them are more strict than others.

It is amusing that the US military is in some ways the most highly regulated and the most European-like in their regulations, due to the fact that commanders have broad authority and the services provide universal health care and housing for enlisted men and their families. They have good incentives to establish standards of vehicle safety.

A lot of that is that losing your forces due to non-combat accidents can hurt your mission. In addition to broad authority to regulate lives, they're given responsibility for accomplishing a mission; that doesn't really exist in the wider world (what is the "mission" of the USA, or really any country, w.r.t. its citizens? This becomes a philosophical debate rapidly.)

IIRC, more junior enlisted Marines were dying from motorcycle accidents, per capita, back at their home bases (it might have been specific to San Diego), than in combat in Fallujah.

(OTOH, they went overboard with things like the PT belts...)

The USAFE/USAREUR driving test is way more difficult than any test in the states. But still far easier than the tests the Germans themselves have to pass.

The priority road concept, with unmarked intersections, is one that wouldn't work all that well in the US.

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