Wo man fährt
A quiet street with no cycle path and no signs. Where do you ride?
Erklärung: The roadway is the default and the gutter is not a lane. A metre of clearance is the width of a car door, and it is also the distance at which drivers see you as traffic rather than as scenery.
A narrow, bumpy path runs beside the road on your right, with no blue sign. Where do you ride?
Erklärung: Without one of the blue signs the path is an offer. You may take it, and on a surface like that you may reasonably decline it.
This sign stands beside the path on your right, and the path is full of leaves. Where do you ride?
Erklärung: A blue sign makes the path compulsory, and leaves are not an exception. Only a genuinely impassable path — building works, deep snow, a parked lorry — sends you back onto the road.
The road is busy and the pavement is empty. Where do you ride?
Erklärung: Riding on the footway is the classic newcomer move and it is banned. It is also where cyclists get hit, because drivers pulling out of driveways do not look at the pavement.
You are riding with a six-year-old. Where does the child ride, and where do you?
Erklärung: Children under eight must use the footway and may until they are ten. Since 2016 one adult may ride on the footway alongside a child under eight to supervise them — an exception written for exactly this.
A car edges onto the broken white line beside you to get past an oncoming van. What do you do?
Erklärung: A broken line marks an advisory lane, still part of the roadway. Cars may cross it when necessary — but never park on it. A solid line with the blue sign is the one they must stay out of.
A one-way street runs towards you and there is no bicycle plate on the sign. What do you do?
Erklärung: Riding a one-way street the wrong way is only allowed where a plate with a bicycle explicitly opens it, and plenty of streets do not have one.
You are riding beside a friend on a wide, empty road when a car comes up behind. What do you do?
Erklärung: Riding two abreast is allowed as long as you are not holding traffic up. Once someone is behind you, that condition has stopped being true. In a bicycle street it stays true anyway.
Riding as close to the kerb as possible is the correct and considerate position on the road.
Erklärung: It is the position with no escape route: a door, a drain or a pothole leaves you nowhere but the traffic. Keep about a metre from parked cars and a hand's width of room at the kerb.
A cycle path on the left-hand side of the road may be used in your direction whenever it is emptier than the right-hand one.
Erklärung: A left-hand path is only yours if it is signed for your direction. Riding against the expected direction is how cyclists surprise drivers turning out of side roads.
Where does a bicycle belong when nothing tells you otherwise?
Antwort:
on the road, on the right
Erklärung: The roadway is the default; a cycle path is the exception a sign creates.
Which three signs make a cycle path compulsory?
Antwort:
237, 240 and 241
Erklärung: Bicycle alone, bicycle and walker shared, and the split circle. Any other path on your right is optional.
How far from parked cars should you ride?
Antwort:
about a metre
Erklärung: The width of an opening door — the only distance at which it cannot reach you.
Up to what age must a child ride on the footway, and up to what age may they?
Hattest du es gewusst?
Antwort:
must until 8, may until 10
Erklärung: And since 2016 one adult may ride on the footway alongside a child under eight.
What does a broken white line with bicycle symbols mark?
Antwort:
an advisory cycle lane
Erklärung: Part of the roadway. Cars may cross it when they need the space; they may never park on it.
What does a solid white line with the blue bicycle sign mark?
Antwort:
a mandatory cycle lane
Erklärung: Cars may neither drive on it nor park on it. The solid line is the difference.
When may two cyclists ride side by side?
Hattest du es gewusst?
Antwort:
when they are not holding traffic up
Erklärung: And always in a bicycle street, where riding abreast is expressly part of the point.
What does the German word "EinbahnstraĂźe" mean?
Antwort:
one-way street
Erklärung: Eine Bahn — one lane, one direction. Bicycles only go against it where a plate says so.
What is a "FahrradstraĂźe"?
Hattest du es gewusst?
Antwort:
a street where bicycles come first
Erklärung: Two abreast allowed, 30 km/h for everyone, motor traffic only where a plate admits it.
A cycle path with no blue sign beside it is yours to use or to leave; you may ride on the road instead.
Erklärung: Only the three round blue signs (237, 240, 241) make a path compulsory. Without one, the choice is yours.
What is this lane called?
Erklärung: The broken line is the tell. A car may cross it when it has to; a solid line it may not.
What is this lane called?
Erklärung: A solid line with the round blue bicycle sign makes it a lane of its own, closed to cars.
You are riding along a road that has this lane on your side. Where do you ride?
Erklärung: A Radfahrstreifen carries the blue bicycle sign, and that sign makes it compulsory, just like a signed cycle path. The pavement is never the answer for an adult.
A seven-year-old may ride on the road, as long as a parent rides right behind.
Erklärung: Under eight a child must use the footway, with or without a parent. The parent may ride on the footway alongside — not the child on the road.
A child must ride on the footway until what age?
Antwort:
8
Erklärung: Must until eight, may until ten.
Cyclists may always ride a one-way street in both directions.
Erklärung: Only where a plate with a bicycle under the one-way sign opens it. Without the plate, the arrow applies to you as well.
You may ride against the arrow of a one-way street only where a plate shows a … ?
Antwort:
bicycle
Erklärung: The plate "Radverkehr frei" under the sign; without it, go round.
Two cyclists may ride side by side as long as they are not holding traffic up.
Erklärung: That is the whole condition. Once a car is waiting behind you, drop into single file — except in a bicycle street.
Riding two abreast is allowed as long as you do not … traffic.
Antwort:
hold up
Erklärung: In a bicycle street riding abreast is allowed anyway.
A cycle path on the left-hand side of the road is yours only if it is … for your direction.
Antwort:
signed
Erklärung: Without a sign for your direction, the left-hand path is for the other way.
The cycle path on your side is full of puddles. Across the road a left-hand path is dry, with no sign for your direction. What do you do?
Erklärung: A left-hand path counts for your direction only when it is signed for it. Drivers turning out of side roads look for cyclists coming the other way.