Already in 2008, the former Bremer transport Senator Reinhard Loske introduced a speed limit. In spite of all the protests.

not only in Bremen: highway 37 at Salzgitter photo: Julian Stratenschulte/dpa

taz : Mr Loske, as the first Minister of transport in Germany, you have to put 2008 in Bremen, the speed limit of 120 kilometres per hour on motorways. There was a protest of the towers?

Reinhard Loske: From the ADAC to the chamber of Commerce has been plenty of protest. Especially because the speed limit on the highways in an overall strategy of the slowing down of the car traffic was embedded: speed reduction from 50 to 30 kilometres an hour in residential areas and on side streets, from 70 to 50 on urban main roads. All this was accompanied by the Expansion of the Tram, the introduction of the S-Bahn and the massive promotion of Cycling and car sharing.

In Berlin to fight the coalition over the Limit. It's about 70 percent of the 13,000 kilometres of motorway in Germany, where no speed limit is. In Bremen it was only about 80 kilometers, of which the most documentation is already a speed restriction. This made enforcement easier?

In fact, the country is small. It makes some things possible, also a pioneer role. But the Federal government – at the time, with transport Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee (SPD) – used a lot of energy to make life difficult for us, so that the measure found no imitators. So we were not allowed to "General", but only a "specific speed limit" to introduce. The result was the Same.

photo: private

Reinhard Loske is the President of the Cusanus Academy of Bernkastel-Kues in Rhineland-Palatinate. From 1998 to 2007, he was a member of the German Bundestag of the Greens, from 2007 to 2011, Bremen transport, Senator.

An Argument against the surface of the deck is the end of speed limits on motorways, that quick Drive in Germany is part of the national character, such as possession of weapons in the United States. Both could not prohibit, without trigger an uprising.

I've used this comparison earlier self, keep him but in the meantime, for bullshit. It is true that political conflicts pluralistic polarize tables companies, often in 50 percent, supporters and 50 percent opposing it. Then it can go violently. This applies to big questions, such as Brandt's Ostpolitik, or the nuclear phase-out. And for small issues, such as the use of seat belts or banning Smoking. The things are decided, for once, be accepted as new facts sooner or later by all. Politicians need a little perseverance.

Supposedly, the motorways are something of a national demonstration routes for the export products of Audi, Daimler, BMW, or Porsche. A speed limit occurs because in order for the business model of the corporations?

This is a strange Argument, because there is in practically all the countries in the world speed limits. I see it Vice versa: With the one-sided orientation of the own product range on HP-strong, heavy and fast models creates the German automotive industry is more likely to have problems. Such a fixation obscures the fact that the corporations need to develop mobility-related service providers. As it comes to electro-mobility, Carsharing, Autonomous Driving and sustainable urban mobility.

A speed limit of 130 kilometers per hour would reduce the CO2 emissions of traffic by approximately 1 percent, of the total German CO2-emissions by approximately 0.1 percent. Worth the excitement about this mini-load?

Immediate pace would be the limit on the car is only a small contribution to achieving the German climate cars protection goals. Indirectly, and, above all, permanently, but it would be a very big contribution to sustainable mobility culture in Germany.

another Argument: "Only" 424 out of the total of over 3,300 traffic fatalities on German roads in 2018 were killed on motorways; and how many of them, due to rage, is unknown. What is it?

mean that The aim of zero road deaths. A speed limit of 120 or 130 on highways is certainly an important contribution. A car culture in which people increasingly SUVs to buy in order to gain in the arms race with other heavy vehicles safety, is with the "Vision Zero" is incompatible.

What do you think of the proposal from various associations and insurance companies, for the first time for a longer practice test, to assess the effect of a speed limit for the road safety?

nothing, because you can get just that higher speeds and longer braking paths and higher impact speeds in accidents. So what you learn in physics class in high school. And the Rest of the world knows it, too.

you say that Driving fast is not so important, but the system speed. What do you mean?

High top speeds of a means of transport to say nothing about how quickly I can go from door to door. Much more important is, what options and Alternatives do I have, whether traffic or flow, as I have the necessary transport time want to use or can. You have to wonder what's going on with the people that stick to a speed of 130 wild gesticulating on the rear bumper.

In the Bundestag, the SPD from the coalition discipline and voted recently against the speed limit proposal of the Green. What you could do however?

a common request of the government, political groups, it looks at the moment. Individual members, however, may make a group application for each speed limit in the Bundestag. This is something I've tried, together with the colleagues Josef Göppel, the CSU and Heidi Wright (SPD), however, more or less unsuccessfully. And then there is the Federal Council with eleven state governments, where greens are involved. Maybe what's going on.