On the radio, I heard about a man who road his bike after dark through the Englisher Garten after visiting the Oktoberfest. The police started following him and ordered him to get off his bike. He had had a few Maß in him and was worried about getting ticketed, loosing his license or thrown in jail–so he hightailed it.

His get-away was quickly foiled by the Eisbach, a cold and fast moving stream that traverses through the park. To the cops amazement, they watched the man abandon his bike and jump into the freezing water. When the cops caught up to him, they found him shivering on the bank and suffering from a bad bout of hypothermia.

The cops only wanted to site him for riding without bike lights. Naturally they gave the paranoid guy some first-aid and a breathalyser test. It turned out his blood alcohol concentration was below 0.16%, which is the limit for people on bicycles. Had he driven a car, he had enough alcohol in him to loose his license for a year. Lucky for him but he nearly lost his life for a measly 10 Euro fine!

So in case you find yourself contemplating evading the cops to meet freezing death, take a look at cycling fines you’ll face in Munich. In general, you are better off loosing a few bills in your wallet than saying bye-bye to your existence.

[Apparently I have violated a lot of bike laws in Germany. If I was caught one time with each of the offenses I've made in the last 5 years, my fines would be a minimum of 370 Euro. uh oh.]

As a cyclist, you disregard the Rechtsfahrgebot (meaning, the right lane/side must be used when it is free) within the designated road surface marking.
Fine: 10 Euro,
15 Euro – if you caused an obstruction to others,
20 Euro – if you endangered yourself or others,
25 Euro – if you caused an accident.

You don’t cycle on the marked designated bike lane.
Fine: 10 Euro,
20 Euro – if you caused an obstruction to others,
25 Euro – if you endangered yourself or others,
30 Euro – if you caused an accident.

You ride your bike on the bike lane or on the street in the wrong direction.
Fine: 15 Euro,
20 Euro – if you caused an obstruction to others,
25 Euro – if you endangered yourself or others,
30 Euro – if you caused an accident.

You ride side-by-side and hinder other cyclists.
Fine: — ,
15 Euro – if you caused an obstruction to others,
20 Euro – if you endangered yourself or others,
25 Euro – if you caused an accident.

You make a turn into another street without signaling.
Fine: 10 Euro,
30 Euro – if you endangered yourself or others,
35 Euro – if you caused an accident.

You have lights on your bike but you aren’t using them even though it is too dark to see or be seen.
Fine: 10 Euro,
15 Euro – if you endangered yourself or others,
35 Euro – if you caused an accident.

You are riding a one-seater bike and allow another person over 7-years old to hitch a ride.
Fine: 5 Euro.

You are riding a bike with a child without the proper safety equipment.
Fine: 5 Euro.

You are riding a bicycle without proper or with a broken bike light(s).
Fine: 10 Euro,
20 Euro – if you endangered yourself or others,
25 Euro – if you caused an accident.

You are using a mobile telephone while riding your bike.
Fine: 25 Euro.

You are riding your bike with headphones / mp3 player in your ears.
Fine: 10 Euro.

You are riding your bike with no hands or you are being pulled by a moving vehicle while on your bike.
Fine: 5 Euro.

You disregard when the police ask you to pull over.
Fine: 25 Euro.

As cyclist, you ignore the red light pedestrian cross signals even though these signals apply to cyclists as well.
Fine: 45 Euro and 1 point on your driver’s license.

As cyclist, you ignore the red light traffic signal.
Fine: 45 Euro and 1 point on your driver’s license,
100 Euro – if you endangered yourself or others,
120 Euro – if you caused an accident.

As cyclist, you ignore the red light traffic signal and the light has been red for over 1 second.
Fine: 100 Euro and 1 point on your driver’s license,
160 Euro – if you endangered yourself or others,
180 Euro – if you caused an accident.

You are riding in a pedestrian zone where signs forbid moving vehicles.
Fine: 10 Euro,
15 Euro – if you caused an obstruction to others,
20 Euro – if you endangered yourself or others,
25 Euro – if you caused an accident.

You are riding in a pedestrian zone that allows for certain vehicles but you are pedaling faster than walking speed.
Fine: 15 Euro.

You are riding in a pedestrian zone that allows for certain vehicles but you endanger a pedestrian.
Fine: 20 Euro.

You are riding in a pedestrian zone where signs say this is not allowed and you endanger a pedestrian.
Fine: 25 Euro.

You are riding in a prohibited traffic zone.
Fine: 10 Euro,
15 Euro – if you caused an obstruction to others,
20 Euro – if you endangered yourself or others,
25 Euro – if you caused an accident.

As cyclist, you ignore the “do-not-enter, one-way” sign.
Fine: 15 Euro,
20 Euro – if you caused an obstruction to others,
25 Euro – if you endangered yourself or others,
30 Euro – if you caused an accident.

If your bike doesn’t have 1) a bell, 2) functioning brakes 3) lights and reflectors (front white and rear red) 4) two yellow spoke reflectors per tire or tires with reflector rings
Fine: 10 Euro for each.

If you own a racing bike (less than 11 kg) and you aren’t in a race, it also needs lights and reflectors or pay 10 Euro.
source: Landeshauptstadt München KVR, 6. April 2010

I do look forward to the Oktoberfest. And then again, I hate Oktoberfest. It reminds of snow bird season in Florida. The crowd factor is out of this world for next two weeks until October 5th. Prices are jacked up, noise.. But to stay on the positive. I’ll offer you Oktoberfesters something cool to check out. You won’t be disappointed.

Plan ahead. Before you hurry by too quickly to grab a spot on bench with strangers (who will then become your singing companion) in a Bierzelt/ Biergarten or you get too overly romanced by the giant Ferris wheel, do check out Feldls Teufelsrad (Feldl’s devil’s wheel) on Schaustellerstraße on the Theresienwiesen. It’s been around since 1910 and has survived decades of trendy carni-venues. For only 3 Euro, it is a steal in all things entertainment:

• you can stay as long as you want,
• you can participate (depending on age, boy/girl, and whether or not you are wearing tracht),
• get out your aggression,
• you can brush up on your Bavarian slang

That about sums it up. It’s different every time and you’ll probably loose track of it too. It’s fun for all ages and sobriety level.

A short clip to give you an idea:

Related:

• on the Feldls Teufelsrad (in German)
• Sip your Oktoberfest beer

It’s only fitting that I’d give a huge ‘ein Prosit’ (toast) in honor of our well-aged beauty of a host city. Locals here recently made jokes that as we celebrate Munich’s birthday at the Oktoberfest: “Wouldn’t it be a treat to have to dish out 850 cents for a liter of beer?” Hahaha…hehe… Get ready to gulp:

Last year the price for a Maß of OK-beer was already at 7,90€. Now it’s announced that during the 16-day festival (20th Sept. – 5th Oktober 2008) the price will be between 8€ to 8,30€ per liter of beer. For Americans, that’s about 13 dollars per Maß at today’s exchange. ooh Aua!

Blame it on the price of barley, so say the breweries. Not to worry. Thrifty Oktoberfest visitors can still get their ‘drink on’ by taking advantage of the fact that in Bavaria, beer is considered a food staple. That’s right. Beer constitutes a major part of a Bavarian’s diet. Along with eggs and bread, beer is also subsidized. That means you’ll pay about 60 cents (+ a tax on the bottle) for a half liter of Augustiner Helles if you buy it at the grocery store. No, you can take your beer bottles to the fest but I’m sure you can workout some pre-game plans. There aren’t any open container laws from what I’ve observed.

So happy birthday, Munich! With the higher prices, I’m hoping during the 16 days of beer mayhem there won’t be so many drunk people peeing on your trees, gardens and subway walls. Yeah. Who am I kidding?

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