> The other ones that bug me is when traffic is heavy, and instead of 
> leaving the intersection open enough, when the light's green, five cars 
> will pull into the middle of the three-lane-road intersection, just so 
> they can "get through the light."

Here you're not meant to enter the intersection unless your exit is clear 
(or you can be sure it will be clear when you get there).  ie you're not 
meant to stop in the middle of the intersection, the only exception is if 
you are turning across the oncoming traffic, where you are allowed to wait 
in the middle.

> Of course, when the cross traffic gets the green, the intersection is 
> still full. So most people will drive in front of the people already stuck 
> and start blowing the horn.

How do they drive in front of the people stuck in the middle?  Usually here 
the idiots who block the intersection go as far forward as they can so it's 
impossible to go in front of them, sometimes you have to weave around behind 
them, particularly fun if it's more than one lane.

> I think in the USA you'd get even worse constitutional challenges if the 
> camera was hidden.

Hehe, a hidden camera to catch people driving illegally?  Bah no we can't 
possibly have that - the people must know exactly which section of road they 
have to drive legally on!

> I'd be more worried that in the case of an accident, there's no way for 
> the emergency vehicles to get to the problem area, myself.

When there is no shoulder here you are meant to leave a gap between the two 
lanes (ie you stop over the left side of the left lane, and over to the 
right side of the right lane), that usually leaves plenty of gap for 
emergency services to come through.  Pretty sensible as some of the 
remaining old autobahns here don't have a shoulder, also some of the newer 
ones can be switched from a shoulder to a proper lane depending on the 
traffic volume.

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