Autobahn

There is an irrevocable sense of freedom as your car races gracefully along the German highway with no speed limits in sight. Other cars rush past you, making it seems as if you were moving driving even faster than you are. The windows are open and the cool fresh air rushes to soothe your adrenaline. The Autobahn is the federal controlled-access highway system in Germany. The official German term is Bundesautobahn(plural Bundesautobahnen, abbreviated BAB), which translates as "federal motorway". German autobahns have no federally mandated blanket speed limit,—although limits are posted (and enforced) in areas that are urbanized, substandard, accident-prone, or under construction. In case of bad weather, speed limits come into play and are frequently enforced. On speed-unrestricted stretches, an advisory speed limit (Richtgeschwindigkeit) of 130 kilometres per hour (81 mph) applies. Individual states have the authority to set speed limits for any or all autobahnen they control. Germany's autobahn network has a total length of about 12,845 kilometres (7,982 mi) in 2012, which ranks it among the most dense and longest systems in the world.