Transport in Germany
Road and automotive transport
Map of the German autobahn network
The volume of traffic in Germany, especially goods transportation, is at a very high level due to its central location in Europe. In the past few decades, much of the freight traffic shifted from rail to road, which led the Federal Government to introduce a motor toll for trucks in 2005. Individual road usage increased resulting in a relatively high traffic density to other nations. A further increase of traffic is expected in the future.
High-speed vehicular traffic has a long tradition in Germany given that the first freeway (Autobahn) in the world, the AVUS, and the world's first automobile were developed and built in Germany. Germany possesses one of the most dense road systems of the world. German motorways have no blanket speed limit. However, posted limits are in place on many dangerous or congested stretches as well as where traffic noise or pollution poses a problem.
The German government has had issues with upkeep of the roads in the country. For the government has had to revamp the eastern portions transport system since the unification of Germany between the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) and the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany). With that, numerous construction projects have been put on hold in the west, and a vigorous reconstruction has been going on for almost 20 years. However ever since the European Union formed an over all streamlining and change of route plans have occurred as faster and more direct links to former Soviet bloc countries now exist and are in the works, with intense co-operation among European countries.
Roads
Germany has approximately 650,000 km of roads. The road network is extensively used with nearly 2000 billion kilometers travelled by car in 2005, in comparison to just 70 billion km travelled by rail and 35 billion km travelled by air.
Other roads
The national roads in Germany are called Bundesstraßen (federal road). Their numbers are usually well known to the road users, as they appear (written in black digits on a yellow rectangle with black border) on direction traffic signs and in street maps. A Bundesstraße is often referred to as "B" followed by its number, for example "B 1", one of the main east-west routes. More important routes have lower numbers. Odd numbers are usually applied to east-west oriented roads, and even numbers for north-south routes. Bypass routes are referred to with an appended "a" (alternative) or "n" (new alignment), as in "B 56n".
Other main public roads are maintained by the Bundesländer (states), called Landesstraße (country road) or Staatsstraße (state road). The numbers of these roads are prefixed with "L", "S" or "St", but are usually not seen on direction signs or written in maps. They appear on the kilometre posts on the roadside. Numbers are unique only within one state.
The Landkreise (districts) (number prefix "K") and municipalities are in charge of the minor roads and streets within villages, towns and cities
Map of the German autobahn network
The volume of traffic in Germany, especially goods transportation, is at a very high level due to its central location in Europe. In the past few decades, much of the freight traffic shifted from rail to road, which led the Federal Government to introduce a motor toll for trucks in 2005. Individual road usage increased resulting in a relatively high traffic density to other nations. A further increase of traffic is expected in the future.
High-speed vehicular traffic has a long tradition in Germany given that the first freeway (Autobahn) in the world, the AVUS, and the world's first automobile were developed and built in Germany. Germany possesses one of the most dense road systems of the world. German motorways have no blanket speed limit. However, posted limits are in place on many dangerous or congested stretches as well as where traffic noise or pollution poses a problem.
The German government has had issues with upkeep of the roads in the country. For the government has had to revamp the eastern portions transport system since the unification of Germany between the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) and the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany). With that, numerous construction projects have been put on hold in the west, and a vigorous reconstruction has been going on for almost 20 years. However ever since the European Union formed an over all streamlining and change of route plans have occurred as faster and more direct links to former Soviet bloc countries now exist and are in the works, with intense co-operation among European countries.
Roads
Germany has approximately 650,000 km of roads. The road network is extensively used with nearly 2000 billion kilometers travelled by car in 2005, in comparison to just 70 billion km travelled by rail and 35 billion km travelled by air.
Other roads
The national roads in Germany are called Bundesstraßen (federal road). Their numbers are usually well known to the road users, as they appear (written in black digits on a yellow rectangle with black border) on direction traffic signs and in street maps. A Bundesstraße is often referred to as "B" followed by its number, for example "B 1", one of the main east-west routes. More important routes have lower numbers. Odd numbers are usually applied to east-west oriented roads, and even numbers for north-south routes. Bypass routes are referred to with an appended "a" (alternative) or "n" (new alignment), as in "B 56n".
Other main public roads are maintained by the Bundesländer (states), called Landesstraße (country road) or Staatsstraße (state road). The numbers of these roads are prefixed with "L", "S" or "St", but are usually not seen on direction signs or written in maps. They appear on the kilometre posts on the roadside. Numbers are unique only within one state.
The Landkreise (districts) (number prefix "K") and municipalities are in charge of the minor roads and streets within villages, towns and cities
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