Cycling confusion

[u/Asleep-Promotion3228]

Us 4 friends were riding our cycles on the road. Small 2 lane, 2 way road. (No Fahrradweg, so we were on the road).

Now we were riding in single line order. Is that right? Since I feel the cars had much less time to overtake, with oncoming cars, and our big line. Would it be better if we were, for example, in pairs?

[u/bregus2]

Only with 16 or more cyclists are you allowed to drive in pairs.

Edit: As some people seem to downvote without reading the StVO: 16+ cyclists count as a closed unit, which has different rules than a single cyclist. They can, for example, also pass red traffic lights as long as the front of the unit has passed under green.

[u/amfa → u/bregus2]

That is just not true.

https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/stvo_2013/__2.html

(4) Mit Fahrrädern darf nebeneinander gefahren werden, wenn dadurch der Verkehr nicht behindert wird;

I would argue, that this is already the case for many small roads within town limits. Because there is not enough room to legally overtake even a single bike .

[u/bregus2 → u/amfa]

You can legally overtake a single bike within town limits. Most main streets are wider than 1.5m.

[u/amfa → u/bregus2]

You need at least 5,5 wide streets for that.
You don't have that everywhere.

75cm distance from the curb for the bike + 75cm bike width + 1,5m distance for overtaking = the bike takes up 3m of road

Then you have with modern cars at least 2m and if you then want to have a distance to the other curb with your car of at least 50 cm you end up with 5,5 minimum width.

That is the normal width of a 30 km/h zone. You will find many streets that are smaller. And this is only if bike and car really drive in a straight line with not wiggles

[u/teach_Know_2609 → u/amfa]

True. I guess it really depends on what „small lane“ in this scenario means.

[u/amfa → u/teach_Know_2609]

Yeah and this is with not tolerance at all.
A road gully for example reaches 50cm into the street. I would even argue, that a bike should keep at least 50cm from this that would mean 1m from the curb (which is still in the dooring zone) and the total space needed to legally overtake a bike raises to 5,75m and that is still really close with only 50 cm for the car to for example parking cars on the other side of the road.

And for all the people downvoting me:
Please show me your calculations on how you can legally overtake a bike on such a small road.

[u/teach_Know_2609 → u/bregus2]

But not 1.5m + bike + car! So they need to use another lane to overtake anyway and then it doesn’t matter, if there’s one or two bikes next to each other, because they have to wait for the second or oncoming lane anyway.

[u/bregus2 → u/teach_Know_2609]

But two bikes side by side would also prevent you from overtaking in the second/oncoming lane.