“Please understand if a motorcyclist has to keep moving in a traffic jam and let him through.”

Can motorcyclists just drive through traffic jams?

And again a message is shared on Facebook saying that motorcyclists should be allowed to move on in the event of a traffic jam. The request to drivers is not particularly new - the image has been shared on Facebook and WhatsApp for years. But is this actually allowed by law?

The status contribution in the wording:

Dear drivers,

Please understand if a motorcyclist has to move on in a traffic jam and let him through.
This will show your true greatness!

When he stands, he has asphalt temperatures of over 50°C under his feet, the blazing sun on his helmet engine at knee height that
can reach over 130°C That's why bikers in the Netherlands were expressly allowed to drive through traffic jams with hazard lights on.

Thanks (feel free to share)

Weaving through is prohibited

At least in Germany, here the legal text is clear ( §5 Paragraph 1 StVO ). Practically speaking, under the StVO, weaving through traffic jams constitutes illegal overtaking from the right, which can also be punished. Furthermore, the minimum lateral distance is slightly undercut when overtaking.

You are only allowed to drive past vehicles on the right in very specific cases, for example if there are queues of vehicles in several lanes, you are allowed to drive faster on the right than on the left, and if there is a column in the left lane or if you are driving at a maximum of 60 km/h, You may overtake in the right lane with a maximum speed difference of 20 km/h.

Traffic experts reject the possibility of overtaking on the far left in order to avoid illegal overtaking on the right. Even if this variant is legal, there is not enough space for overtaking and it is therefore much riskier to overtake on the left in the left lane.

Unless otherwise signposted, the hard shoulder is also not the right way to get ahead in traffic jams.

So it depends on where you live. A look at other countries shows that there are different laws there:

In Austria:

In Austria the situation looks completely different. Here it is permitted, under certain circumstances, to pull up to a traffic jam. An interesting text on what is legal and what is illegal on the subject in Austria can be found on the Austrian website Bikerwelt .

In Switzerland:

In Switzerland, the same applies as in Germany: moving forward or weaving in traffic jams on the motorway is prohibited.

In the Netherlands:

In the Netherlands you are allowed to weave your way through a traffic jam on a bike as long as the speed between the car and the bike does NOT exceed 10 km/h. So if the cars are stationary, the bike can only travel 10 km/h; if the cars are traveling at 30 km/h, the bike can only travel 40 km/h.

Incidentally, the hazard warning lights are not required by law. See: Infopolitie.nl