Autobahn 3

Control City Freak visits its 4th country and third International Road, Autobahn 3! We're zipping diagonally across Germany with our first look at control cities across the pond!

Control City Freak is updated weekly and covers every two digit Interstate Highway in America as well as other roads. I'll be showing control city signs on each 1 and 2 digit (2di) Interstate Highway in the continental United States and will strive to make as complete a record as possible, as well as various other highways. I'll also be getting into the roadgeek weeds here and there, showing downtown skylines and state border crossings, and making corny jokes. I welcome all to join my geeky tour of every primary Interstate in the country!

All images of roads and signs come from Google Street View unless otherwise specified.

Music: Acoustic Sunrise, from the Apple iMovie sounds library
"Du Hast" Rammstein
"Roll Out the Barrel" Lew Brown

Control City Freak Episodes mentioned in this video:

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Twitter: @contrlcityfrk
Instagram: @controlcityfreak

Interstates, Interstate Highways, Control Cities, Signs, Roadsigns, highway nerdery, Germany, Europe, Deutschland, Netherlands, Austria, Dusseldorf, Cologne, Frankfort, Munich, Nuremburg, Regensburg, Autobahn, Duisburg

[bonecanoe]

Even though I'm no Chiefs fan, the gimmick of doing a highway from where they are playing each week is inspired!

[roadgeek]

There's a lady originally from Munich Germany who lives in Cincinnati Feli. Her explanation of the Autobahn system for 6 lanes. Commercial vehicles right Lane. Faster traffic center and passing lane high speed. I wonder what happens if they have heavy traffic like I 81 and I 95 in Virginia.

[autotechxbox]

My grandparents spent time in Germany. According to them, any place with the word "Bad" in front is where a public bath either is or use to be.

[tomsmith]

Of note, odd numbered single digit autobahns generally run north-south while even numbered single digit autobahns generally run east-west.
At 3:13, the gantry can display variable speed limits on the square signs with warning signs (e.g., wet road, heavy traffic) on the rectangular signs.
There are no tolls on the autobahn.
Trucks are not allowed on the autobahn on Sundays. On Sunday nights just before midnight, you can see trucks stopped on the side of the highway in Belgium and the Netherlands waiting to be allowed into Germany. You won't see that in France because they don't allow trucks on the Autoroute network on Sundays, either.
On Autobahn 2, if you look closely, you can see the remnants of Checkpoint Alpha near Helmstedt. Most of it has been demolished, but a watch tower remains and an old inspection station is being used as a rest area.

[courtemanche]

I have another exit request for I-476 besides the one that I made on your Patreon page, that being I-81 at Exit 115, because I'm not sure if you're planning to include it or not. I'm super excited for that video and can't wait to watch it, along with the other videos that you have coming up in the near future! Keep up the great work Todd!

[ErikCB]

I was on this 10 years ago from Frankfurt to Düsseldorf. It’s crazy how fast the cars would go in the left lane.

[dylansmith]

Cool to see Germany! I like how threy do mileage signs. Larger signs than America with a couple upcoming cities and prominent highway junctions.

[Ithyas]

How cool to see an Autobahn featured on CCF! Great job! Really loving the variety of roads and countries on the channel recently.

Some clarifications from a heavy user of the Autobahn network:
2:20 The entire Autobahn system (except some short near-border segments) is a tollway network, however, tolls are only charged for large vehicles (currently >7.5 metric tons in weight, >3.5 tons starting in July 2024). There's an ongoing debate about also implementing tolls for cars, but there's no agreement in sight in the near future.
3:14 That's actually an out-of-service overhead variable speed limit sign. The three smaller panels display speed limits for the three lanes, and the two larger panels in between indicate additional information or hazard signs (congestion ahead, road work, fog, etc). Automatic toll gantries can easily be identified by the large cameras on them.
7:58 Hainbach is just the name of this specific rest area. Most rest areas are named after places or towns close to them to make em distinguishable. Here, Hainbach is the name of a very small creek that runs through a nearby forest. The translation for the term "rest area" would be "Rastplatz" (smaller rest areas) or "Raststätte" (bigger rest areas with food and gas services). Actually, there are also a couple Autobahn rest areas named after far-away cities in former Prussia (part of the pre-war German Empire), like the A3 rest area "Landsberg a.d. Warthe" (named after the now Polish city of Gorzów Wielkopolski / Landsberg an der Warthe) to commemorate the flight and expulsion of German people from Central and Eastern European countries after WWII.
12:37 This picture is not on mainline A3, but on southbound A45 shortly before its intersection with A3, hence the two different directions of A3 that are signed there. A3 is a six-lane road in this area, not a four-lane.

[corbenhavener]

Having been in Kenya recently, the US certainly puts up a lot more signs about all sorts of thing. Back in Indiana though and will be watching my Colts via TV take on the Patriots also in Frankfort.

[ianp]

The “D” at 10:57 and the “CZ” at 9:02 are to specify that the control city is in a different country (probably to avoid accidentally crossing a border). Shouldn’t matter too much because it’s the EU, but it is still a good thing to point out. We have seen things lice Vancouver BC on I-5 before.

[jeffreykregel]

So at 2:05 the sign saying "Signalering" which in this case doesn't reflect a sign for a town/city boundary. Although you are correct that nearly identical signs do indicate town and/or city limits this way.

But this sign actually means it's the end of usage for Dynamic Message Signs. So there won't be any usage of digital road signs beyond this point (at least in The Netherlands), but only analog road signs will be in place.

[thecoxsays]

Next time you go back to Germany, you should do Autobahn 2, specifically from Helmstedt to Berlin. The road has a lot of history as it was the one route that allied citizens were allowed to use to get to West Berlin during the Cold War. There’s even a video you had to watch before you traveled on it. Really cool stuff!

[nonnadiona]

13:57 The Reason for the interchange still being a cloverleaf is a lack of space. They can’t build it taller because of the adjacent airport and they can’t build it deeper because of a railway line running under the junction

[nyrambler]

New to the channel and I love this whole ‘do a road where the chiefs are’ bit… cannot wait to see I-476 (I hope) next week!

[MrDilldock]

You need to do a Quebec autoroute series one day!

[cds]

Super cool to see the Autobahn on your channel, Todd! 🙌🙌🙌

[SlowedByCinnamxn]

Love how there’s mileages and route numbers on the same sign! Example at 2:33

[miked]

This is very interesting to see!

My Patriots play in Germany next week vs the Colts.

[gridlockjoe]

“Zoll” is German for “customs”. “OB-Holten” is the Oberhausen-Holten train station. The gantries are for electronic toll collection (tolls are only charged to large commercial vehicles).

[danielmerklin]

I love your German accent emphasis todd