On Wednesday, our colleagues at 5Minutes contacted Hammelmann for his take on the new petition submitted Monday. He was despondent, explaining that sometimes he feels he is the only person respecting the 90 km/h limit in tunnels. Even on that front, Hammelmann remembers having to fight for the limit.
The petition is not a novel concept. It has a 2017 predecessor, which argued that the current tunnel speed limit is "too weak" and moving from 130 km/h to 90 km/h is a "dangerous" transition. The petitioner proposed a "more natural" limit of 110 km/h.
Hammelmann immediately dismissed this argument, claiming that tunnels do not suddenly appear on motorways, but are instead announced in advance. As a result, he said that motorists can slow down bit-by-bit rather than braking suddenly. He also highlighted the difference in brightness of tunnels and the outside of the tunnels, which requires some adapting. In that sense, Hammelmann believes that drivers increase their risk of crashing if they continue to go fast.
As for the argument that the current tunnel speed limits cause traffic jams, Hammelmann was equally dismissive. Instead, he said to criticise those who ignore speed limits, as they are the ones who cause traffic jams. He also pointed out that often speeding drivers crash into other vehicles, which causes accidents, and thus, traffic jams.
In his opinion, those arguing for a higher speed limits are either "populists or idiotic". Contrary to his clear lack of approval of the petition, Hammelmann supports Minister of Mobility François Bausch's policies of installing speed cameras in tunnels. He agrees with the minister that a rather straightforward accident on a normal road can become a catastrophe in a tunnel.
