Statistical investigation on driving speeds within the German autobahn network

摘要

There is no speed limit existing on 69% of the German Autobahn network. Therefore the driving style on the German Autobahn represents one of the most severe conditions for the car development. To clarify the typical customer usage of vehicles, MRE (Mazda Europe R&D Representative Office) investigated the driving style on German Autobahn using its own measurements in 1998. The results are only representative for the "not speed limited" German Autobahn. The average speed of all measured cars increased from 125.5km/h (1985) to 130.3km/h (1998). This speed is influenced by the actual traffic conditions, the speed which customers like to drive is even higher. To get reliable data for the vehicle development, the speed distributions were analyzed separately for different vehicle types. A car class system, which reflects the typical customer usage was introduced. As a result the speed distributions of 13 different car classes were determined. For each car class, the driving speeds of different customer types were analyzed. Typical speed values, representing average and sporty customers were calculated.