Daydreaming of an American "Autobahn"

WHY DOES AMERICA NOT HAVE AN AUTOBAHN!!!

I have a few cars that I like to drive fast. My British Bulldog, Aston Martin Vanquish sings when punched and is by far my favorite.

There's an English acquaintance of mine who is married to a German girl and lives in Germany. Every time I visit him he takes me out on the autobahn and rubs my nose into his driving freedom and laughs at America's lacking. He's allowed to pick fun at Americans since half of his heritage is American. I see his meanness behind his shit eating grin which is barely concealed behind the real grin of the thrill of being able to "open her up" any time he damn well cares to "go for a spin." Full throttle sounds like an orchestra.

My only recourse are racing tracks that are open to the public for rent across the country. The cost of these things are tremendous. One of my favorite tracks is Road America, located in Wisconsin at a cost of about $20,000 for the weekend for a group of friends. It features a lot of straightaways compared to the competition and is a very fast track.

Road Atlanta is also a nice track and has the advantage of being much closer to me, though I don't like its track as much as Road America.

The last track I actually rented was in New York at about $16,000. Nice track as well, but quite popular. You tend to have to schedule your trip around its availability.

The very first track I rented and got a taste of the joys of driving like a bat out of hell was in California, straight out of college when I relocated to Silicon Valley. I put my Porsche spaceship to the test. It passed its test while yawning. I like that track because they don't mind renting it out to single individuals for around $8,000. Back when I was fresh out of college I was getting it for 5,000 grand a day.

There are lots of people like myself paying out the yazoo to enjoy the master craftsmanship of their ultimate driving machines. In auto clubs the question of why America does not have its own stretches of autobahn always comes up. It would prove to be a very lucrative enterprise if a fee was charged to drive on those roads at break neck speeds at a premium cost for admittance to drive from one city or state to another. I'd be willing to pay 10 grand per 1000 miles. About $30,000 dollars to drive from the east coast to California. A cool $60,000 round trip. I have several friends who shell out over a quarter mil yearly driving on private tracks. It is addicting. Easy to do when you live right around the corner from one. People spend upwards of a cool million on vehicles that they can't enjoy at least once. I'm thinking that a fee oriented American type of autobahn could rake in lotsa loot, and get you to your destination quickly and on time.

It would give the affluent something to spend their money on. It would even draw many a lesser financially secure driver wanting bragging rights or simply to enjoy the quickness of the wind at those speeds in his or her hair who also own an ultimate driving machine. Even if only by the mile. If the roads are federally built and owned it would take a big bite out of the National Debt.

I am not alone.

cthia wrote:WHY DOES AMERICA NOT HAVE AN AUTOBAHN!!!

Construction costs mostly. Building to the high standard of an Autobahn is expensive (MINIMUM! four million € per km for construction alone), as is maintenance and I doubt the willingness (or ability) of the general public to pay such an extra toll would be big enough to make them economically feasible outside a select few sweet spots in a country with a considerably lower overall population density. Then there is a bit of a puritan streak in US politics (who actually needs to go faster than...) and getting a driver's license in Germany is apparently much harder.

http://www.gettingaroundgermany.info/autobahn.shtml#design

http://www.cracked.com/personal-experiences-2406-no-open-casket-funeral-you-realities-autobahn.html

http://www.imaginelifestyles.com/luxuryliving/2012/04/autobahn-vs-american-highways-high-speeds-and-fewer-accidents

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Xcxke6wVRs

There's probably a difficulty in aquiring the right of way too. Curves have to be much broader which takes up more land.

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Quite an experience holding a BMW M3 on the limiter at 250kph, quite legally.
I've sold my Westfield Clubman after years of fun on road and track. Only about 220 kph top speed but accelleration and handling next to none.570kg, 130+kw, sticky tires, etc.

aairfccha wrote:

cthia wrote:WHY DOES AMERICA NOT HAVE AN AUTOBAHN!!!

Construction costs mostly. Building to the high standard of an Autobahn is expensive (MINIMUM! four million € per km for construction alone), as is maintenance and I doubt the willingness (or ability) of the general public to pay such an extra toll would be big enough to make them economically feasible outside a select few sweet spots in a country with a considerably lower overall population density. Then there is a bit of a puritan streak in US politics (who actually needs to go faster than...) and getting a driver's license in Germany is apparently much harder.

Yeah, the thing you have to remember is that Germany is about half the size of Texas and has a GDP twice as large. We can afford to maintain and expand the Autobahn at its current standards (without having to resort to something as uncivilized as road tolls for private vehicles); the US most definitely can not.

Also, the Autobahn system is federally owned and maintained by federal agencies; somehow I'm having trouble the US ever doing something so sensible as to keep necessary infrastructure out of private hands.

One problem is that only 17 states require any sort of periodic vehicle inspection, and some of those are emissions only. You would not believe some of the unsafe shitboxes I see licensed to operate on the road here in Florida.

Another problem is the shabby standard of driver training in the US. Most places, it's a rote-memorization paper test plus an in-vehicle test that's a total cakewalk.

An American Autobahn would be plagued with unskilled drivers in crapmobiles. It might be an efficient way to Darwinize driving, but there would be a long period of scraping up human remains from the tarmac before the driving public was winnowed down to the competent survivors.

aairfccha wrote:

cthia wrote:WHY DOES AMERICA NOT HAVE AN AUTOBAHN!!!

Construction costs mostly. Building to the high standard of an Autobahn is expensive (MINIMUM! four million € per km for construction alone), as is maintenance and I doubt the willingness (or ability) of the general public to pay such an extra toll would be big enough to make them economically feasible outside a select few sweet spots in a country with a considerably lower overall population density. Then there is a bit of a puritan streak in US politics (who actually needs to go faster than...) and getting a driver's license in Germany is apparently much harder.

http://www.gettingaroundgermany.info/autobahn.shtml#design

http://www.cracked.com/personal-experiences-2406-no-open-casket-funeral-you-realities-autobahn.html

http://www.imaginelifestyles.com/luxuryliving/2012/04/autobahn-vs-american-highways-high-speeds-and-fewer-accidents

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Xcxke6wVRs

This would not be a project aimed at the general public. The general public does not own the types of cars one would be willing to shell out these kinds of fees to indulge, or that are appropriate for an "Autobahn."

Let the people directly pay for the construction costs. Build a 100 mile stretch at a time and allow the concept to pay for itself. Spearhead a huge campaign of commercials and advertising of the coming project and have it federally owned and the idea that the proceeds will go directly towards the National Debt and or to maintain or repair existing state highways. $1000 per hundred mile, exorbitant fees for crap and an automatic forfeiture of vehicles without DMV approval to use.

dscott8 wrote:One problem is that only 17 states require any sort of periodic vehicle inspection, and some of those are emissions only. You would not believe some of the unsafe shitboxes I see licensed to operate on the road here in Florida.

Another problem is the shabby standard of driver training in the US. Most places, it's a rote-memorization paper test plus an in-vehicle test that's a total cakewalk.

An American Autobahn would be plagued with unskilled drivers in crapmobiles. It might be an efficient way to Darwinize driving, but there would be a long period of scraping up human remains from the tarmac before the driving public was winnowed down to the competent survivors.

$1000 per 100 mile stretch would winnow out the shitboxes. And believe you me, they are found all over the U.S. Not just Florida.

But we cannot judge all of the people who drive them. Some of them are hapless college students trying to make ends meet, battered spouses striking out on their own working in a greasy spoon for menial tips trying to feed their kids. Etc.

cthia wrote:
But we cannot judge all of the people who drive them. Some of them are hapless college students trying to make ends meet, battered spouses striking out on their own working in a greasy spoon for menial tips trying to feed their kids. Etc.

I see your point. I will point out that, for the last few decades (according to Car & Driver Magazine), the average cost of a new car has been 7 - 8 month's worth of the average household income. Increases in manufacturing efficiency have not lowered the car prices the way they have for products like consumer electronics. I believe that low-cost, efficient cars would sell if manufacturers weren't pushing people to buy high-margin pickups and SUVs often used for one person's commute. If US manufacturers don't address this market, the Chinese will -- just as Japan and Korea did.

Daryl wrote:Quite an experience holding a BMW M3 on the limiter at 250kph, quite legally.
I've sold my Westfield Clubman after years of fun on road and track. Only about 220 kph top speed but accelleration and handling next to none.570kg, 130+kw, sticky tires, etc.

One of the hardest decisions I ever had to make was deciding between an M3 or an M5. I opted for the M5 and loved the ever-loving hell out of it. A BMW makes you a superior driver to the one you were.

I later bought an M3 for a friend girl (no romantic entanglements - just a friend) putting herself through law school. She is now a lawyer and she still owns that M3. She is worse than a guy when it comes to her. She kept it up and it looks pristine and she has a no touch policy. I'm special, so she'll allow me to sit in it for at least a minute before she yells "NOW GET OUT!" LOL

I bought her a BMW because she was afraid to drive at the time and I told her that BMW's would make her confident. So I gifted her with an M3—and an Italian scooter that she fell in love with on a trip to Milan with a group of us the summer before her freshman year —along with a week long driving course at a road track. She's a frickin' Mario Andretti now.

She rarely drove the M3 except on vacations and necessary lengthy excursions off campus. She said she was preserving her baby.

A BMW gets in your soul.