The Strada Statale Numero Uno between Genoa and Santa Maria Ligure or the winding ribbon through the Wispertal in the Taunus, trips across the country are among the bright spots in the life of a driver.
Of course, as informed citizens, we know that the risk of accidents increases significantly when we leave the motorway.
Because while the official statistics there show an average of 1.5 road deaths per billion kilometers driven, this figure is 4.0 on country roads.
The individual risk increases by more than two and a half times.
It is all the more surprising that the Federal Environment Agency recently published a study on the speed limit, which takes into account a partial shift of traffic to the country road.
If the maximum speed on motorways and similar roads were limited to 120 km/h, there would be a saving of 2.9 percent in CO2 emissions from road traffic.
So far, so little.
After that, however, the study authors continue to calculate.
There would be a "shift to the subordinate network", i.e. mainly on country roads.
There is no talk of the associated danger, nor of the fact that country roads not only lead across the country, but also through inhabited towns.
Instead, the authors cite an additional shift to local public transport, loosely based on the motto: trams instead of the motorway.
In total, this results in a significantly larger CO2 saving of 4.2 percent.
Incidentally, the basis for calculating percentages, which should never be forgotten, are consumption values from 2018, when there were hardly any electric vehicles on German roads.
It's always worth counting.