California may be getting its own ‘Autobahn’

Literally everyone knows of the German Autobahn. Whether you like cars or not, you’ve probably heard of the famous Autobahn and its lack of speed limits in certain areas. In these unrestricted areas, there truly is no speed limit, allowing enthusiasts to drive as fast as either their car or their courage will go. It’s so world-famous that enthusiasts travel far and wide for a crack at the unrestricted sections of the Autobahn. Now, it seems as if we might be getting one of our own right here in America, as a bill was just proposed in California that would create such a thing. In fact, it might be even better.

According to Senate Bill 319, two new lanes would be added both north and south to two different highways that will lack speed limits entirely.

This bill would require the department to initiate a project to construct two additional traffic lanes on northbound and southbound Interstate Route 5 and State Route 99, and would prohibit the imposition of a maximum speed limit for those traffic lanes.

Sounds like fun. Though, it was actually done for logical reasons and not just to make gearheads happy. The idea is to reduce traffic and congestion, which California is known for, thus reducing emissions from less people just sitting and idling for hours. It’s also a much cheaper alternative to California’s proposed high-speed railway project that seems to be going off the, well, rails due to funding, or lack thereof.

Now, there’s actually quite a bit to unpack here. We recently spoke about how Germany was considering adding speed limit restrictions to all of the Autobahn in away of reducing emissions. So it seems odd that California would want to do the opposite. Although, Germany doesn’t have the congestion problem California does. Also, California is not known for having the best road conditions so it will need to step it up if it wants a highway with no speed limits. Another thing, Germany has extreme vehicle inspections to make sure all vehicles driving at that speed are safe, so California would likely have to adopt some new vehicle inspection regulations.

So it’s not as easy as just paving a couple of roads, putting up a sign of Wile E Coyote and calling it a day. Still, if this ever does come to fruition, I might have to consider moving to California. I’d have to choose between no speed limits and good pizza.

[Source: Jalopnik]

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