Short Answer
The state will permanently revoke your standard motor vehicle driving license if you are caught operating a bicycle with a blood alcohol concentration of 1.6 per mille or higher. This tier of intoxication constitutes a serious criminal safety offense that triggers a mandatory medical-psychological assessment.
What Most Expats Don't Realize
You chose to ride a public rental bicycle home after an evening of heavy drinking because you wanted to avoid operating a motor vehicle. A police patrol stopped you for weaving across the road lanes and escorted you to a precinct for a compulsory blood evaluation. You failed the subsequential state psychological examination months later, causing the highway office to cancel your vehicle driving credentials. You lost €1,500 in medical assessment fees and legal consultation costs because you treated a bicycle like a low-risk alternative to a car.
What To Do
- Ask the intercepting officers for a mandatory blood evaluation at the station instead of consenting to an inaccurate roadside breathalyzer.
- Call a traffic defense attorney the morning following your citation to map out your upcoming administrative hearing.
- "Ich verweigere den freiwilligen Atemalkoholtest." (I refuse the voluntary breath alcohol test.) — state this firmly on the street to protect your medical data trail until you reach the official station facility.
The Truth
In the German legal mind, public traffic is a single unified environment. If you prove you are too intoxicated to control a standard bicycle, the system assumes you pose a threat to human life and cannot be trusted with a two-ton motor vehicle.