Hello everyone, I’m new in Germany and I don’t want to break any laws riding with my bike. I want to go from position (I) to (III). Should I go with other cars to position (II-blue) and wait for an opening to turn left or should I go to position (II-yellow) and wait for the pedestrian light to change to green and then cross the street?

by gamersevil

4 comments

  1. i second this because i want to be able to turn with the cars instead of waiting for two damn green lights

  2. You should definitely expect to stop and wait for the lights.

  3. Yellow 2, wait for green light and go to three. (Well at least that’s what I do)

  4. This is a little bit of a confusing intersection, Generally, there are two legal ways to navigate this one.

    1) You act like a car. This is called direct left turn. You need to place yourself early on the street (not on the bike path) for this. This particular intersection has two left-turn lanes. Take the right one of those, place yourself in the middle of that lane, indicate left with your arm, and wait until your traffic light shows green. Then start moving and follow the cars ahead of you in a left curve. You need to give way to traffic in the opposite direction here. You also specifically need to give way to pedestrians and other bikers who want to cross the intersection. Once the left turn is done take the bike path again. This has the advantage that you can navigate this intersection in just one green phase. It has the disadvantage that it is a lot more dangerous. Therefore it is not recommended to do. But it is legal.

    2) The second option is called indirect left turn. For this, you need to wait for two green phases. But it is a lot safer and therefore recommended. It is basically your blue line, but with the difference that you need to wait at II. until the other traffic light shows green. So kind of what you wanted to do with your yellow line, but you should not wait at the pedestrian crossing. The best place to wait would be where the II. (blue) is, but a bit to the right so that you don’t interrupt other bike traffic behind you that wants to go straight. Like, move away from the bike path to the right. Then just wait there for the other traffic light and then cross safely.

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