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HAMBURG - Speed limit-free motorways may fall victim to fears of global warming after the Social Democrats unexpectedly voted in favour of introducing a top speed of 130km/h.
Studies showing Germany's CO2 output from cars could be cut sharply with a speed limit helped convince a majority of SPD delegates to ignore their leaders at a party congress. The autobahns were built without speed limits by the Nazis and, after World War II, Germany's influential car industry pressured politicians against introducing any national limit.
Opinion polls show about 60 per cent of Germans are in favour of a speed limit.
- Reuters
