What is this autobahn?

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t_maia2000

Germany has 3 kinds of overland roads:

Autobahn, indicated by "A" as part of the road number
Bundesstrasse, indicated by B
Landstrasse, indicated by L

Autobahn is the most important kind of road, vehicles travelling on it need to be able to go at a minimum speed of at least 60 kms per hour. Auto means car and bahn is a special kind of way, so Autobahn essential means "cars only road". It is 2- to 4-lanes per direction, no traffic lights and with exits and under- and overpasses.

So autobahn is just the German word for highway/motorway/autostraat. And yes, you do have autobahn in Egypt, the only difference is that you got another name and the speed limit of 100 kms per hour.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autobahn

BTW, plenty of people come to Germany just to drive very fast on the German autobahn. But when they are here they find that large parts of it got indeed speed limits, and if they are on a stretch that has none they find themselves stuck in a traffic jam that rivals Cairo at Ramadan just before breaking the fast. :-)

The autobahn is the motorway in Germany (I believe what Americans call highway or freeway).

It has in general no speed limit for cars. It does for trucks, coaches etc. and there are exceptions - usually around cities, in bendy sections, accident hotspots, etc, and of course in roadworks.

EDIT:
I don't know exactly what the American highway is, I wrote that in case you were American.

The autobahn is the kind of road where only motorvehicles are allowed. There are no crossing and always at least two lanes.

ATL PJA Wyldstar

I have driven both US and the Autobahn and the answers given so far are mostly correct.

It is very true that huge portions of the Autobahn DO have speed limits only some areas have unlimited.

In the US we would call it a Highway as you said. MANY Americans think the Autobahn is ONE road and it is NOT, it is just like Highways, their are MANY of them. I drove A4 route the most when there.

I think the fastes I went was 175 KM Hr and it was a short time, mostly I was going 130 which is about 90 mph.

Sundancer

Actually these times almost half of the autobahn has a speedlimit due to increasing traffic. Otherwise the first person is correct,

Tyler J

Well, Autobahn is german for highway. there used to be no speed limit on it, but there now is a varying speed limit on about half of it, mostly in larger cities.

jwamerica

The Autobahn is the road system in Germany, which was years back much less restricted than today. There are still many streches free of any restrictions, meaning speed limit, passing, etc.

Only one thing you will have to keep in mind, it seems that everytime you are need to go somewhere the whole country and everybody in transit needs to go to the same place at the same time. Traffic jams can be quite a bummer. Also, if there is a speed limit posted, you better watch your speed, speed cameras a quite common and rather unforgiving! Also keep in mind that passing on the right is strictly forbidden, no exception whatsoever!

If you want to go and drive the Autobahn, I think Hertz has Porsche 911 for rent, I think there is a minimum age to rent them. The autobahn to pretty much nowhere (Wilhelmshaven A29) is never crowded and all flat and has no speed limit... Enjoy

nicole

The autobahn is the German version of the American highway, but on the autobahn there is no speed-limit, or sometimes there is a general speed-limit.

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