{"id":11007,"date":"2019-08-22T11:00:14","date_gmt":"2019-08-22T11:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/?p=11007"},"modified":"2019-08-21T22:58:08","modified_gmt":"2019-08-21T22:58:08","slug":"why-german-drivers-hate-these-points","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/why-german-drivers-hate-these-points\/","title":{"rendered":"Why German Drivers Hate These Points"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week, I received a rather unfortunate surprise in the\u00a0Post\u00a0<\/em>(mail): A Strafzettel\u00a0<\/i>(fine) because I drove too fast. Fortunately, it was a quite minor\u00a0Versto\u00df\u00a0<\/em>(violation), since I only drove a few km\/h above the limit. This means that I only have to pay a\u00a0Bu\u00dfgeld <\/em>(fine).\u00a0But careful with more serious Verst\u00f6\u00dfe\u00a0<\/em>– then you might also get Punkte in Flensburg\u00a0<\/em>(points in Flensburg). I am very glad I didn’t! Let me tell you why.<\/p>\n

Das Punktesystem in Flensburg<\/strong><\/em><\/h2>\n
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The city of Flensburg (Image by Wolfgang Pehlemann at Commons.wikimedia.org under license CC BY SA 3.0)<\/p><\/div>\n

The\u00a0Punkte\u00a0<\/em>are registered in the\u00a0Fahreignungsregister\u00a0<\/em>(Driving Aptitude Register), which is maintained in the city of Flensburg on the Danish-German border in the north of the country by the Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt <\/em>(Federal Motor Transport Authority). This is why people refer to these points as Punkte in Flensburg<\/em>.<\/p>\n

There are all kinds of\u00a0Ordnungswidrigkeiten im Stra\u00dfenverkehr <\/em>(road traffic infractions) that can get you\u00a0Punkte in Flensburg<\/em>. If you commit an\u00a0Ordnungswidrigkeit <\/em>that leads to a Bu\u00dfgeld <\/em>of more than 60 euros, you get one P<\/em>unkt<\/em>. However, this is only the case if your Fahrverhalten <\/em>(driving behavior) formed a danger for others. If it didn’t, you pay more, but get no Punkt<\/em>, at least.<\/p>\n

Depending on how severe the\u00a0Versto\u00df<\/em> (violation) is, you can get 1, 2 or 3\u00a0Punkte<\/em>! This also counts for driving\u00a0way<\/span> past the speed limit (e.g. 30-40 km\/h above the limit), by the way. So careful there.<\/p>\n

If you receive acht Punkte\u00a0<\/em>(eight points), your\u00a0F\u00fchrerschein\u00a0<\/em>(driver’s license) is taken away, the so-called F\u00fchrerscheinentzug\u00a0<\/em>(driver’s license revocation). Yikes.<\/p>\n

F\u00fchrerscheinentzug!<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Example of a German F\u00fchrerschein (public domain image from Commons.wikimedia.org)<\/p><\/div>\n

When you reach eight points, congratulations! You lose your F\u00fchrerschein <\/em>for a while. Why? Well, the idea is that you are a gro\u00dfe Gefahr\u00a0<\/em>(great danger) for the Stra\u00dfenverkehr\u00a0<\/em>(road traffic). And so you are taken out of traffic.<\/p>\n

This\u00a0Entzug\u00a0<\/em>has a duration of three months to five years, after which you can get it back. Depending on what happened, you might have to go through more driving lessons or go through an\u00a0Untersuchung\u00a0<\/em>(investigation) into your psychological fitness to drive. If your condition is deemed not to improve, your\u00a0F\u00fchrerscheinentzug\u00a0<\/em>might be life-long! Though this is very rare.<\/p>\n

Reaching the Maximalpunktezahl\u00a0<\/em>(maximum number of points) of 8 is not the only way to lose your\u00a0F\u00fchrerschein<\/em>. Being under the influence of Alkohol <\/em>(alcohol) or\u00a0Drogen\u00a0<\/em>(drugs) while driving or Unfallflucht <\/em>(hit and run) are examples that can also lead to F\u00fchrerscheinentzug.\u00a0<\/em>And don’t think that drinking and biking is a good idea – if you’re caught with alcohol or drugs in your system while cycling, your\u00a0F\u00fchrerschein\u00a0<\/em>might also be on the line, even though you were not even in a car!<\/p>\n

\u00a0But… I can simply avoid the Punkte<\/em>, right?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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On my Fahrrad <\/em>(bike), nothing can go wrong, right? (Image by Ben Kerckx at Pixabay.com)<\/p><\/div>\n

Ok, you might think – what if I just don’t get a\u00a0F\u00fchrerschein<\/em>? Then it cannot be taken away! Sure. But you can\u00a0<\/em>still<\/span> get points! Since your 12th birthday, you can get Punkte<\/em>. If you cross a rote Ampel\u00a0<\/em>(red traffic light) with your bike, for example.<\/p>\n

As an\u00a0Ausl\u00e4nder\u00a0<\/em>(foreigner), you do get lucky though. Even though you theoretically get the\u00a0Punkte<\/em>, they are not registered to your name in Germany.<\/p>\n

However, even for Germans there is some relief. Depending on whether a Versto\u00df\u00a0<\/em>led to 1, 2 or 3\u00a0Punkte<\/em>, there are different\u00a0Verj\u00e4hrungsfristen\u00a0<\/em>(limitation periods). After 2.5, 5 and 10 years, respectively, the\u00a0Punkte <\/em>are removed from your Punktekonto <\/em>(point account). Phew!<\/p>\n

\u00a0Have you driven in Germany and gotten\u00a0Punkte<\/em>? Does your country have a similar system? Let me know in the comments below!<\/strong><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

Last week, I received a rather unfortunate surprise in the\u00a0Post\u00a0(mail): A Strafzettel\u00a0(fine) because I drove too fast. Fortunately, it was a quite minor\u00a0Versto\u00df\u00a0(violation), since I only drove a few km\/h above the limit. This means that I only have to pay a\u00a0Bu\u00dfgeld (fine).\u00a0But careful with more serious Verst\u00f6\u00dfe\u00a0– then you might also get Punkte in…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":110,"featured_media":11011,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3,8],"tags":[2080,2585],"class_list":["post-11007","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-language","tag-driving","tag-traffic"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/110"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11007"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11007\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11012,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11007\/revisions\/11012"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}