Don't get too upset. An older map I have of the German roads shows
an Autobahn section to be completed 1997. Most of it will be
completed in 2007, but there are still gaps.

[I'm keeping tabs on the progress because of plans to visit Europe
next year.]

Of course, Germany grew by 30% over-night and thousands of km of
more important Autobahn have been (re-)built in the past 15 years.
The network has grown by more than 100 km a year over the past
decade.

There are also reasons of local politics, "environmentalists" and,
as with the B6n, the unexpected discovery of previous civilisation
that has to be preserved. This can entail re-routing of the
highways, carefully digging up anything deemed worth preserving, or
providing alternative habitats for species such as the "green-horned
lesser central German wood louse" (that previous generations perhaps
tried desperately to exterminate because the bugs ate their
half-timbered houses).

The situation in Germany a just a little different. The distance
between adjacent towns/villages/hamlets on the old highway was
between zero metres and 6 kilometres.

The highest speeds usually allowed in a locality is 50 km/h. Many
older towns, with 1000+ year-old buildings within a metre of the
main road choose the lower limit of 30 km/h. The highway is
sometimes the only road in the village.

A drive along such a highway is therefore very taxing; very slow;
and very expensive.  Tourists don't want to have to spend 2 to 3
hours in that sort of traffic conditions to cover a nett distance of
less than 100 km.  It's worth making a 100 km *detour* via Autobahn
to save on the aggro.

Don't for one second believe that the Police aren't also used in
Germany to supplement incomes by "taxing" the unwary motorist. All
the monies from traffic infringements under about $100 go to the
local government. That includes btw exceeding the speed limit by up
to 20 km/h.

The bypass highway has interchanges every 3 to 10 km to feed a few
locatities either side; all within spitting distance of the bypass.
Instead of motorists having to endure local traffic conditions for
hours to get to where they want, they can choose the place that they
_want_ to visit. Each destination has (to have) its own merits.

Be that a tourist destination, a quiet agricultural hamlet or a
quiet residential village.

Yes. Using roads for efficiency in transportation is a "novel" concept.

As long as truckies are prepared to work a 100-hour week at a
subsistence rate and fuel prices are still "cheap", things aren't
going to get better,

Consumers can see some "fuelled" price rises on the supermarket
shelves, but many truckies are still prepared to act the indentured
slave. When they start costing $100/hour or more behind the wheel,
shelf prices will rocket.

Reducing journey times and fuel costs are essential to minimise the
transport component of consumer prices. High *real* efficiency in
that part of the economy makes the whole economy less sensitive to
externally-determined fuel costs.

That's the dollars-and-cents argument.

Quality of life for both residents and those on the roads is a less-
quantifiable aspect.