Germans are known for their high degree of organisation, their bureaucratic mentality, and, of course, their Autobahn (which, in fact, did not originate with Hitler). When these three things come together, what do you get? Flensburg, that's what.


In Flensburg, every major traffic misdeed committed by Germans in posession of a drivers license is recorded in the Verkehrszentralregister of the Federal German Office for Motor Traffic. Specifically, every traffic violation above a certain threshold (at the moment: anything punishable with payment of 40€ or more) will get you "points". Getting three or more points at once will get your drivers license suspended immediately, for one, three, or six month. If you collect between 8 and 13 points, you will get a notice informing you of that, and offering you the opportunity to reduce the points by voluntarily taking part in a educational seminar. After passing the 14-points-threshold, you have to take part in this learning experience, and you have the (voluntary) opportunity to take part in a psychological evaluation. If you get above 18 points, well, that's it - they will take away your drivers license permanently.


There is a way to get it back, though. This way is called the Medizinisch-Psychologische Untersuchung (Medical Psychological Assessment), commonly called the "Idiotentest" (I think you know what that means) and it's really costly - it will set you back somewhere between 300€ and 750€, depending on the exact offenses that brought you there - a DUI conviction makes it more expensive. Oh, and it might be useful to prepare for the assessment by visiting some courses, weighing in at about 60€ - 100€ per session. Only about 50% of those examined actually pass, and of those, about a third manages to accumulate new points in the next 10 years[1].


But today, Peter Ramsauer, the Federal Minister of Transport, Building and Urban Affairs announced that he was planning to revamp the test and the whole points system in order to be more transparent and comprehensible, and to increase their efficacy:

"Wir müssen den Betroffenen das Gefühl geben, dass im Interesse der Verkehrssicherheit geurteilt wird und nicht im stillen Kämmerlein einsame Entscheidungen getroffen werden."

"We have to give those aggrieved the feeling that the decisions are made in the interest of traffic safety and that there are no lone decisions made behind any closed doors."[2]

So, yeah, apparently we have the first member of the Merkel Cabinet II to actually get some points on our list of "people to set policy based on evidence".


Congratulations, Minister.




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Footnotes


[1] Wolfgang Jacobshagen / Hans-Dieter Utzelmann (1996): Medizinisch-Psychologische Fahreignungsbegutachtungen bei alkoholauffälligen Fahrern und Fahrern mit hohem Punktestand. Empirische Ergebnisse zur Wirksamkeit und zu deren diagnostischen Elementen, Köln. (German)
[2] Focus online (2010): Verkehrsminister will Reform des „Idiotentests“. http://www.focus.de/auto/ratgeber/sicherheit/mpu-verkehrsminister-will-r...