Federal Transport Minister Patrick Schnieder does not want to reduce the border for alcohol at the wheel to 0.0 per thousand. “Of course, I recommend that you get to the wheel without alcohol,” the CDU politician told the newspapers of the Funke media group. However, he considers the current 0.5-promille limit to be “sufficient and targeted”.
“On many social occasions, you can join in courtesy and take a sip – without endangering road traffic,” said Schnieder.
Cannabis “look closely”
The Minister believes that another drug is more problematic: “I am very critical at cannabis. I think the effect in traffic is relatively unpredictable. We have to take a closer look at this in this election period.”
A speed limit does not consider Schnieder necessary. “The average speed on German highways is not even 115 kilometers per hour,” he said. There are many speed limits, and there are also construction sites and traffic jams. “In Germany you can only drive really quickly on a few routes. So I think a general speed limit on motorways is superfluous.”
No driving tests for seniors
The minister, who drives an electric car privately in his homeland, is also skeptical, mandatory driving tests for older drivers: “Seniors do not run out in the road.
For 2023, the Federal Statistical Office found that older people, measured in their share of the total population, were less frequent in traffic accidents than younger ones – for example because they no longer drive to work. However, if seniors were involved in an accident with personal damage at the wheel, according to statistics, however, they more often wore the main debt than younger driving, especially if they were older than 75 years.