[MLUG - DISCUSSION] Build the Missourabahn (was: Offtopic - speeding now)

[Jonathan King <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

On Thu, 4 Dec 2003, Heivilin, Jim wrote:

> When my attempt to buy a BMW while stationed in Germany when awry
> (thanks President Reagan) I looked into getting a BMW motorcycle and a
> license for it.  From what I remember most Germans have to go through
> driving school to get their license and it was going to cost me
> something like 2300 DM to attend.  So I would say that in general
> they're better trained drivers.  

See below.
 
> I want to say I saw something years ago that said they have a lower rate
> of accidents but a higher rate of fatalities in those accidents.
> However I have no facts to back it up with.  And for the record there
> are places that have speed limits both on and off the autobahn.  

So here's a short but quite nice story that mentions death rates and
everything else important:

http://biz.yahoo.com/fo/031029/c5818a3280a41852f8a4b6503f323325_2.html

So the big huge difference I see here that the German autobahns are
built to much, much, MUCH higher standards than US roads, and there
aren't any 16 year olds driving on them.  This explains a lot, I
think.  There might also be a unique opportunity to do something
about this coming up shortly.  It is no big secret that I-70 is in
horrible shape throughout Missouri, and most of the road through
Kansas is also built to dubious standards (e.g., the opposing lanes
are too close together, which is why they have 400+ miles of barrier
between them).  Also, there is a ton of truck traffic which is
killer on two lane stretches of lousy roads.  And the worst part is
that the recent rapid decline in passenger airline service promises
that more people will find themselves driving the corridor for trips
that used to be by plane, and the drive from (say) Columbia to St.
Louis or KC is currently an absolute chore.

So I say: autobahn it.  Build a new 6-lane I-70 up to autobahn
standards between St.Louis and Denver as an experiment and find out
whether this holds up better and delivers on the promise of much
higher speeds and resistance to truck damage.  If passenger cars (or
hot-rodded passenger vans) could do 110+ mph on the Missourabahn,
then any perceived need for high-speed rail and a lot of short-hop
air routes could be eliminated for good, and it's obvious that we 
have to re-do I-70 anyway.  If the project works, we could make this 
the new standard for most or all other primarily rural interstates.  
I don't think this plan would work in urban areas, more rugged 
terrain, or in general, but it would have real value elsewhere.  20 
years ago, I don't think I could argue that we could build cars well 
enough (or cheaply enough) to make such high speeds reasonable, but 
I don't really have those concerns these days.

jking


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