From my time in Germany, the opinion I formed was that Germans took driving seriously, in a way that Americans never have and never will. And it wasn't "nanny state-ism", or whatever the current in-vogue expression is; I think Germans rightfully recognized that they lived in a relatively small country with a dense population and a LOT of cars, so it benefited their society overall if they made sure that all those people in that small area caused the least amount of mayhem to their fellow man while they were out tooling around the roads. They had a pretty rigorous multi-tiered licensing program that required you demonstrate some actual skill for the task, plus they had an excellent public transportation system that made it unnecessary for every Tom, Dick and Harry to need to get a license to just get around, regardless of their driving skill (or lack thereof).
They also took driving infractions very seriously. It was true that there were sections of the Autobahn that had no posted speed limits, but when there was a speed limit, it was rigorously enforced. They were also very tough on things like tailgating, and lane discipline (do NOT be in the passing lane if you were going slower than everyone else). And they were sentencing people to jail for first offense DUI long before the US began to take it seriously. The last thing you wanted as a GI stationed there was to get popped for DUI on the way back to the kaserne from the gasthaus.
They didn't yet have cellphones when I lived there, but I imagine the Germans now take that sort of "driving while distracted" infraction way more seriously than we do here, as well they should. Every time I see some idiot texting while he or she is driving, I have that fleeting thought of "I wonder if that's the asshole who is going to run me over someday while I'm waiting at a traffic light".
