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[Chris]

Yep. The full name is a Regelquerschnitt (RQ) which is a cross section of a road. The standard cross section is RQ 29,5 for a 4-lane Autobahn. The German Wikipedia has more on it:

Richtlinien für die Anlage von Straßen – Querschnitt

[Special K]

Just had my first experience with driving the autobahn last week.  Cologne to Munich via A3 and A9.  I thought it might be fun, but it just ended up being exhausting.  So many vehicle speeds to be aware of.  Constantly looking ahead for slower traffic that might pull into my lane and looking back for traffic that might run me over.  I've never changed lanes so often in my life.

[Chris]

I have the same feeling when doing a long-distance trip in Germany. Especially if you just want to drive about 130 km/h (80 mph) you're constantly sandwiched between trucks and slower cars and BMW's, Mercedeses and Audi's. Driving fast is fun for about an hour or two, but on longer hauls it's tiring.

What day did you drive? Usually Fridays are the worst but all work days have high truck volumes. Saturdays and Sundays are generally better as long as you avoid a few busy Saturdays in July and early August.

[agentsteel53]

Driving fast is fun for about an hour or two,

at which point... you're there! 

I was comfortable doing about 170-180 km/h, at which point I think I found a good balance between slow and fast vehicles.

[Special K]

Driving fast is fun for about an hour or two,

at which point... you're there! 

I was comfortable doing about 170-180 km/h, at which point I think I found a good balance between slow and fast vehicles.

We traveled on a Tuesday.  I found that 180km/h was still an inadequate speed to maintain in the left lane.  Plus, it seemed that any time I could let loose, there was another interchange looming ahead with another speed reduction.  I tended to maintain 150 in the center lane and then latch on to a line of speed demons after they passed on the left.

I should also mention the difficulty with reading guide and warning signs at these speeds, especially when some of the text is ~6" high and often there is foliage that comes right up to the guardrail, obscuring the sign's message until you're almost on top of the sign.

The interesting thing was being passed by the ICE train when we paralleled the tracks for a short time.