Poor planning in Germany?
 

How very un-German of them.

Got a call from a friend today. In the course of our conversation, he told me that the autobahn had been shut down in [at least] his part of Germany due to the extreme weather they have had lately.

Apparently, they used up all the salt for spreading on the roads, so have nothing to combat the ice. I guess the politicians have their elections coming up soon and are freaking out because people there are so upset about it.

Any Germans here effected by this?

i didnt go to germany for xmas because of that. but the weather is really unusual and they already used more salt than in the whole last winter - which was already harder than usual. the problems mostly come from stupid truck drivers with summer tires who lose control and then block all 3 lines on the highways at once.

Just did a road trip to Washington state, driving thru some snow, but colder than I like, about 20 degrees. Loads of salt

When I was there in 09 I was told that there were new laws in effect that insisted that all vehicles, not just trucks, had to use winter tires in the cold months.

Figured someone in charge had a relative with a tire company. Pretty much how things happen around there, it seems.

the law was very controversial cause it did not define exactly what a winter tire is and finally renewed just a month ago. now real winter tires are mandatory from november to march - which is a good thing imo. too many idiots with summer tires on ice and snow around who cause traffic jams and accidents. but the law does not cover trucks - unfortunately. transportation companies claim that it would be too expensive and due to the weight not necessary. hundreds of accidents this winter proof the opposite

had to do it;)

Socialism at it's best.

:1orglaugh :1orglaugh :1orglaugh

The autobahn shutdown was only partial and for short time frames from what I've heard, no general shutdowns in the area I was travelling in the last weeks. On a few days they banned trucks from the autobahn because they caused to many accidents (due to ice/snow + summer tires).

Pretty cool, now winter tires are mandatory for cars but they can't drive as trucks on summer tires block all lanes on the autobahn.

On the other hand - they really fucked up the road management, even more than last year. It's really ridiculous as I live only a few miles from the border and it's the same fucked up weather here in the Netherlands - only that the roads here are completely free of ice and snow and once you cross the border you think you're driving on a frozen sea ...

I wouldn't really call it poor management. They have to use as much salt as they have to to keep the roads safe, and I would imagine that they have a finite amount of salt. We have a similar issue in Poland too. German winter tire law allows either all season or winter tires to be used, but cars registered in other countries do not have to adhere to this when traveling through germany (due to vienna road convention).

Netherlands is much smaller and has far less KM of roads to salt then germany.

Yeah, of course that's true, but Germany didn't have enough salt last winter (lasted till end of January if I recall correctly). I recall politians talking about starting ordering salt earlier and keeping bigger reserves, etc.. But instead of learning and ordering more salt in advance they didn't have enough to even last December this year.

Anyway, even if they find an excuse for not having enough salt, there's no excuse for not even ploughing the snow. On the upside SUV sales will sky-rocket after this winter :winkwink:

But at least Germany has billions to spend on prestige and unneccessary projects - who cares about roads? :thumbsup

If they didn't close airports they are at least a step ahead of the UK.

You are right there..I must say that the A1 when you enter germany on the dutch side is looking pretty rough heh reminds me of riding a horse

huh? move a bit more to the WEST on the map to find GERMANY :2 cents:

and, its funny; every cold year the same shit ... too lil salt ... "next time we'll order more" --- and then the next year its STILL not enuff ... lol, its always "surprising" when it snows in DE i guess :error

At least they have an Auto Bahn

It's all a question of money and budget. All town and city councils have to save money. They just don't have the budget to spend in autumn to make sure they'll be able to have enough salt and sand in stock to withstand extreme winters like the last two ones... in addition the self-claimed marketleader ran out salt to provide cities with as well, but i think that's a french company ;)

<---- Note to Self. Dont drive Autobahn this year.

Thanks BD.

They do require winter tires but you are not allowed to have the ones with nails or dubs in them. You can only have the specially constructed winter tires or all weather/all year round tires without the nails.

So since no one is allowed to use the nail tires, they need to salt pretty heavily to make sutre the roads are not that icy, or they will have huge wrecks.

I dunno but it seems to me that with all the new cold and snow coming to EU they realize how the fuck hard its been living and building economy in Russia and around when 50% efforts jsut go to get heat to homes and food.

One of the problems is that salt will only work and clear snow under rather mild conditions. In very cold conditions it does not work.

Germay = Socialism .....do they have schools where you live?

QFTT :2 cents:

under -7°C salt becomes pretty useless ...

and talking about school ... ---> germany (FRG/BRD) is a federal, parliamentary, representative democratic republic. ... i guess German Democratic Republic (GDR/DDR) is stuck in your head somewhere ... didnt you notice germany reunited? duh :error