The large oil price increase in Germany is required to make a <x0-dramatic decision” for highway driving

Given the significant increase in fuel prices, economist Veronica Grimm is open to the introduction of speed restrictions. The “wouldn't be a shame. Maybe even a smart signal to make people understand the seriousness of the” situation, Rheinische Post, a member of the German government's Economic Development Experts Council, told the newspaper.

Grimm believes the measures taken so far are not particularly effective: the “government should let prices operate to lower energy demand.” State fuel subsidies, price administrative restrictions and a tax on the surplus profits of oil companies are, in its opinion, “The wrong path”, writes Deutsche Welle.

Grimm also mentioned “countries at the global south”. There, she said, “drastic measures are being implemented, such as housework and restrictions on the use of” vehicles. “The more we spend, the worse it ends for those places”, Grimm explained.

Greens President Felix Banaszak requested the introduction of a temporary speed restriction. This, as he told Spiegel magazine, “immediately reduces fuel consumption, lowers prices and in solidarity and simply helps all those dependent on a machine for work”. His colleague, Richard Lang, in the news group Funke newspaper, demanded the right to work from home in order to facilitate the workers' work.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) has already cautioned measures to reduce fuel consumption in light of the oil crisis caused by the attack on Iran. According to the IEA, measures such as more jobs from home, speed restrictions and public transportation can be beneficial.

Highway speed restrictions have been discussed several times in Germany several times, citing environmental protection or traffic safety. The SPD, the Green and the Left favour the restriction, while the Union, the AfD and the FDP oppose it. German Transport Minister Patrick Schnider recently said at the ARD station that limiting speed “is not a big thing” on austerity measures: “In the overall context is quite small”, the CDU politician said. We must propose measures that people can accept, that they can afford and that are economically stable. ”

Germany is practically the only country in which there is no total speed limit on highways - the only one with a network of highways over 1,000 miles [13 thousand km] without total speed limits. However, speed restrictions are placed on a large part of this network for other reasons, and traffic density rarely allows for really free “ ” direction.