What it costs: cycling fines in Mallorca

Spanish traffic law does not price acts. It prices three classes of offence, and then names which acts belong to which — so the fine for riding without a helmet is not written down anywhere as a number. It is a join, across two instruments, and this is it.

The duties themselves — what you have to wear, where you may ride, what the car behind you owes you — are on the rules page. This page is the other half: what it costs when you get one of them wrong.

Most cycling offences

€200

A grave offence — the class that holds the helmet, the phone, the red light and the shoulder.

Pay early

−50% in 20 days

Settle within twenty calendar days and the amount halves. You give up the right to argue.

Licence points

None

A bicycle needs no licence, so nothing you can be fined for costs you one. The driver overtaking you is a different matter.

Official table vs statute

2 of 10 disagree

The rest match to the euro. Both figures are printed, with their publisher and date.

Three classes, three amounts

One sentence of Art. 80 carries the whole tariff. Everything else on this page is the work of deciding which of these three boxes an act falls into — which is exactly the work the law does in the three articles before it.

Las infracciones leves serán sancionadas con multa de hasta 100 euros; las graves, con multa de 200 euros, y las muy graves, con multa de 500 euros.

The three figures are read out of the article rather than typed into this site — see how this page was made.

Every act, priced

The article and letter is the one an officer writes on the ticket, and the one to quote if you appeal. Where the law names the act itself, the Spanish is beside it, word for word — and where it names only the subject and we have mapped the act onto it, the row says so rather than passing our reading off as the statute’s.

The catch-all, and it is written in a cyclist’s favour

Whatever the law does not expressly call serious or very serious is minor — and the sentence saying so goes out of its way to name people on bicycles, provided what they did did not put anyone else at risk. It is the most generous line in the instrument and almost nobody quotes it.

Incumplir las normas contenidas en esta Ley que no se califiquen expresamente como infracciones graves o muy graves en los artículos siguientes, especialmente en el caso de los conductores de bicicletas siempre que no comprometan la seguridad de los usuarios de la vía.

Riding without a helmet where one is required — Art. 76 h)

No hacer uso, o no hacerlo de forma adecuada, del cinturón de seguridad, sistemas de retención infantil, casco y demás elementos de protección obligatorios

Riding a bicycle without the required lights — Art. 75 a) · Written for bicycles

a) Circular en una bicicleta sin hacer uso del alumbrado reglamentario.

Riding without a reflective garment when lights are required — Art. 75 b) · Written for bicycles

b) No hacer uso de los elementos y prendas reflectantes por parte de los usuarios de bicicletas.

Riding with headphones in — Art. 76 f)

Conducir utilizando cualquier tipo de casco de audio o auricular conectado a aparatos receptores o reproductores de sonido u otros dispositivos que disminuyan la atención permanente a la conducción.

Riding with a phone in your hand — Art. 76 g)

Utilizar, sujetándolo con la mano, o manteniéndolo ajustado entre el casco y la cabeza del usuario, dispositivos de telefonía móvil mientras se conduce

Going through a red light — Art. 76 k)

k) No respetar la luz roja de un semáforo.

Ignoring a stop or give-way sign — Art. 76 l)

l) No respetar la señal de stop o la señal de ceda el paso.

Ignoring a sign, or an officer directing traffic — Art. 76 j)

j) No respetar las señales o las órdenes de la autoridad encargada de la regulación, ordenación, gestión, vigilancia y disciplina del tráfico, o de sus agentes.

Riding where you may not — lanes, shoulders, a closed carriageway — Art. 76 c)

Incumplir las disposiciones de esta ley en materia de preferencia de paso, adelantamientos, cambios de dirección o sentido y marcha atrás, sentido de la circulación, utilización de carriles y arcenes

Not giving way where someone else has priority — Art. 76 c)

Incumplir las disposiciones de esta ley en materia de preferencia de paso

Riding over the alcohol limit — Art. 77 c)

c) Conducir con tasas de alcohol superiores a las que reglamentariamente se establezcan, o con presencia en el organismo de drogas.

Refusing the breath or saliva test — Art. 77 d)

d) Incumplir la obligación de todos los conductores de vehículos, y de los demás usuarios de la vía cuando se hallen implicados en algún accidente de tráfico o hayan cometido una infracción, de someterse a las pruebas que se establezcan para la detección de alcohol o de la presencia de drogas en el organismo.

Pay in twenty days, pay half

Settle within 20 calendar days of the notice — or on the spot when it is handed to you — and the fine halves. The €200 that covers most of this page becomes €100.

el denunciado dispondrá de un plazo de veinte días naturales para realizar el pago voluntario con reducción de la sanción de multa

a) La reducción del 50 por ciento del importe de la sanción. b) La renuncia a formular alegaciones.

What you are buying is finality, and what you are giving up is the argument: paying ends the procedure, waives your allegations, and makes the sanction final that day. If you think the ticket is wrong, the half is what it costs to say so.

Where the official table and the law part company

The traffic authority publishes its own cyclist page with a euro figure against each of twenty acts. Of the 9 that name something priced here, 7 match the statute to the euro, one sits inside a band the statute leaves open, and 2 do not match at all. Both numbers are below, with who publishes each and when.

Guidance from the enforcing authority, not an instrument.

Matches

The same amount the tariff produces for that class.

Inside the band

A figure below a minor offence’s ceiling — allowed, and stated by no instrument.

Does not match

An amount the three-class tariff cannot produce for that act.

The three, one at a time

Alcohol, and the offence that costs more

The limit is the ordinary driver’s limit, and the regulation that sets it names cyclists in the same breath as drivers — so there is no argument to be had about which figure applies to a bicycle.

The rate, from the regulation that sets it:

los conductores de vehículos ni los conductores de bicicletas con una tasa de alcohol en sangre superior a 0,5 gramos por litro, o de alcohol en aire espirado superior a 0,25 miligramos por litro.

Las infracciones previstas en el artículo 77. c) y d) serán sancionadas con multa de 1.000 euros.…esta sanción únicamente se impondrá al conductor que ya hubiera sido sancionado en el año inmediatamente anterior por exceder la tasa de alcohol permitida, así como al que circule con una tasa que supere el doble de la permitida.

And you are obliged to take it. The duty reaches a cyclist through the sentence that extends it to everyone else on the road who has been in a collision or committed an offence.

Igualmente quedan obligados los demás usuarios de la vía cuando se hallen implicados en un accidente de tráfico o hayan cometido una infracción conforme a lo tipificado en esta ley.

How we got this Art. 80.2.a raises both alcohol offences to the same figure and then restricts the raise, in its own next sentence, to driving over the permitted rate — a repeat within the year or a rate over double. That sentence does not reach the refusal offence, so the refusal carries the raised amount with no condition attached. Both figures are parsed out of the article; neither is typed here.Computed from Art. 77 c), Art. 77 d) and Art. 80.2.a of the Ley de Tráfico, in the consolidated text as published.Computed 7 August 2026.

You have no points to lose

Points come off a licence only for something done while driving a vehicle that requires one. A bicycle requires none — so nothing on this page, the alcohol offence included, costs a point.

La pérdida de puntos únicamente se producirá cuando el hecho del que se deriva la detracción de puntos se produzca con ocasión de la conducción de un vehículo para el que se exija permiso o licencia de conducción.

That holds whether or not you also hold a driving licence, Spanish or otherwise: the deduction is tied to the vehicle you were on, not to the licence in your wallet.

Turn that round and it stops being good news for the rider and starts being the most useful thing on this page. The driver coming past does hold a licence, so the whole points regime applies to them — and for one particular manoeuvre it applies harder than for almost anything else in the catalogue.

What the driver who passed you too close pays

Two of the seven duties on the rules page bind the car rather than the bike, and until now this page priced neither. The euro figure turns out to be the smaller half of the answer.

The duties themselves, in both wordings and side by side, are on the rules page.

How we got this Both figures are read out of the catalogue, neither is typed. Entry 11 prices endangering or obstructing those coming the other way while overtaking, and overtaking where visibility is reduced; entry 12 prices endangering or obstructing a cyclist, or leaving less than the minimum separation. Nothing is inferred about why the legislature separated them.Computed from entries 12 and 11 of Anexo II. Infracciones que llevan aparejada la pérdida de puntos.Computed 7 August 2026.

The two entries, verbatim

The catalogue is a numbered list and these are two of its twenty-one lines. Read them next to each other: the first names cyclists and the second does not have to.

Adelantar poniendo en peligro o entorpeciendo a ciclistas o sin dejar la separación mínima de 1,5 metros.

No mantener la distancia de seguridad con el vehículo que le precede.

It says «vehículo», not «coche». A bicycle is a vehículo by the same four Anexo I definitions the cyclist page uses to show that the sanctioning regime reaches a rider at all — so the entry that prices tailgating prices tailgating a bicycle, and nothing in it has to mention one.

The driver’s side, priced

Same tariff, same early-payment discount, same instrument. The column the cyclist’s table cannot have is the last one.

class set by the regulation

The regulation fixes the class in the article that carries the duty, through a reference the law redirects. Stronger than a reading of subject-matter, weaker than a letter that names the act.

named in the law

A letter of the penalty article names this act itself. Nothing is added here.

our reading

A letter names the subject-matter and this site maps the act onto it. Defensible, and still a reading.

Incumplir las disposiciones de esta ley en materia de preferencia de paso, adelantamientos

ñ) No mantener la distancia de seguridad con el vehículo precedente.

Incumplir las disposiciones de esta ley en materia de preferencia de paso

m) Conducción negligente.

e) Conducción temeraria.

How a duty in one instrument becomes a price in another

The cyclist’s side of this page runs from an act straight to a letter of the penalty article. The driver’s side does not, and the detour is worth showing rather than stepping over. The regulation fixes the class inside the very article that carries the 1.5-metre duty — and then points at an article of a law that was repealed in 2015.

Las infracciones a las normas de este precepto tendrán la consideración de graves, conforme se prevé en el artículo 65.4.c) del texto articulado.

Queda derogado el texto articulado de la Ley sobre Tráfico, Circulación de Vehículos a Motor, aprobado por el Real Decreto Legislativo 339/1990

Las referencias normativas efectuadas en otras disposiciones al texto articulado de la Ley sobre Tráfico, Circulación de Vehículos a Motor y Seguridad Vial…se entenderán efectuadas a los preceptos correspondientes del texto refundido que se aprueba.

One step in that chain is ours and no publisher states it. The law redirects references to “the corresponding precepts” without printing a table of which is which; identifying Art. 76 c) as the correspondent rests on it being the only letter in the whole list of serious offences that names overtaking at all. A future redaction that adds a second one stops this page rather than ageing inside it.

El titular de un permiso o licencia de conducción que sea sancionado en firme en vía administrativa por la comisión de alguna de las infracciones que a continuación se relacionan, perderá el número de puntos que, para cada una de ellas, se señala a continuación

Anexo II. Infracciones que llevan aparejada la pérdida de puntos, in the redaction published 21 December 2021 and in force since 21 March 2022. Its 21 entries are the whole of the points regime; nothing outside them costs a licence anything except the speed table in Anexo IV.

The authority’s own figures, and they match

The DGT publishes cards for both of these with an amount and a points figure on each. Scored against the statute on both counts — 4 pairings — 4 agree and 0 differ. That is the opposite of the result on the cyclist’s side of this page, and it is worth saying plainly rather than burying: where the authority is describing what a driver owes a cyclist, it is describing the law correctly.

One thing is missing all the same, and it is missing from the page a rider is likeliest to find. The DGT’s own guide for cyclists prices twenty acts. Every one of them is something the cyclist can do wrong. It does not price overtaking too close, it does not mention a metre and a half, and it does not mention points.

Source Dirección General de Tráfico · checked 7 August 2026Re-read in full on the date shown. The page prices helmets, lights, reflectives, headphones, alcohol, red lights, pavements, pedestrian priority and riding in a disorderly group. It does not price overtaking too close, it does not mention a metre and a half, and it does not mention points.

Where the two instruments do not line up

What 1 October does to these prices

Nothing. The reform rewrites 6 of the seven duties on the rules page and it does reach into the law itself — but only the dictionary: 10 entries of the definitions annex, in force on 1 October 2026, and not one sanctioning article.

The tariff is untouched and the points catalogue carries no pending amendment at all, so every figure in the table above survives the rewording of the duty above it. What does change is the duty: the separation stops being limited to roads outside a built-up area, a full lane change becomes compulsory where there is more than one lane each way, the overtaking driver has to drop 20 km/h below the limit outside town, and a group of cyclists becomes a single vehicle to be passed in one move.

How we got this The decree’s scope over the Ley is read from the note the BOE prints on the amended annex — «Se modifican los conceptos 2, 59, 74, 75, 76 y 77 y se añaden el 83, 84, 85 y 86» — which reaches ten entries of the dictionary and no sanctioning article. Anexo II carries no pending block at all, so the points catalogue is unchanged. The reworded duties are counted from the article-by-article diff of the two Reglamento redactions that the rules hub already publishes.Computed from the BOE’s own amendment note on Anexo I of the Ley, the redaction line on Anexo II, and the two stored redactions of the Reglamento.Computed 7 August 2026.

Why any of this applies to a bicycle

The law’s penalty articles never say the word “bicycle”. They fine drivers of vehicles — so a page that jumps straight to a euro figure is skipping a step. The definitions close it in four moves.

1. A vehicle is anything fit to travel on the roads the law covers.

   Aparato apto para circular por las vías o terrenos a que se refiere el artículo 2.

2. A cycle is a vehicle with at least two wheels, driven mainly by the muscle of the people on it — pedal-assist included.

   Vehículo provisto de, al menos, dos ruedas y propulsado exclusiva o principalmente por la energía muscular de la persona o personas que están sobre el vehículo, en particular por medio de pedales.

3. A bicycle is a cycle with two wheels.

   Ciclo de dos ruedas.

4. A driver is whoever is at the controls of a vehicle. On a bicycle, that is you.

   Persona que, con las excepciones del párrafo segundo del punto 4 maneja el mecanismo de dirección o va al mando de un vehículo

One more definition does real work here. “Interurban” — the word the helmet obligation turns on — means a public road outside a built-up area. Not a big road, not a numbered road. The Ma-10 is one thing through Sóller and another the moment the houses stop.

Vía pública situada fuera de poblado.

Who writes the ticket depends on the same line. On interurban roads and through-routes it is the provincial traffic chief; inside a town it is the mayor, under the town’s own rules. Nearly everything worth riding here is the first; the streets of Palma are the second.

La competencia para sancionar las infracciones cometidas en vías interurbanas y travesías corresponde al Jefe de Tráfico de la provincia en que se haya cometido el hecho.

La sanción por infracción a normas de circulación cometidas en vías urbanas corresponderá a los respectivos Alcaldes

The cheapest fine to avoid

Two of these offences are equipment you either have on the bike or do not, and a hire bike does not always arrive with lights. Ask when you book, or bring your own — a rear light weighs less than the reduced fine costs. Compare bike hire on the island.

What a policy will and will not do

No travel policy pays a traffic fine anywhere — it is a penalty, not a loss. What a policy is for is the other side of a bad day: treatment, repatriation, and the liability claim if you are held responsible for someone else’s injury. Travel cover for a cycling trip. Read what any policy excludes for cycling before you buy — some treat a road bike as a normal activity and some do not.

Riding the interurban roads this page is about

Every rule here changes at the edge of town, which is where the riding is. Sóller sits at the foot of the two twistiest climbs on the island and puts you outside the houses inside a minute. Places to stay in Sóller.

How this page was made

Every amount is read out of the article that sets it, not typed here: the three class figures and the raised alcohol figure are parsed from Art. 80, the reduction from Art. 94, and its twenty-day window from the word Art. 93 spells it in. Every Spanish fragment on the page is re-checked at every update to be a verbatim substring of the article it is credited to.

Where the law names an act, this page says so. Where it does not, the row is marked as an application of the catch-all rather than as a figure the statute prints — which is the distinction a one-column fine table has to leave out.

Sources

Source Real Decreto Legislativo 6/2015, de 30 de octubre, texto refundido de la Ley sobre Tráfico, Circulación de Vehículos a Motor y Seguridad Vial · checked 7 August 2026

Source Agencia Estatal Boletín Oficial del Estado · checked 7 August 2026

Source Dirección General de Tráfico · checked 7 August 2026On the page itself, word for word: «Multa de hasta 100€» for a leve, «Multa de 200€» for a grave, «Multa de 500€» for a muy grave, and «Tienes 20 días naturales para pagar con reducción del 50%». Every one of them matches the instrument, which is the result that makes the two that do not worth printing.

Source Dirección General de Tráfico · checked 7 August 2026The page states its own date as 28 October 2021. It is guidance rather than an instrument, and it is the closest thing to an official cyclist-specific fine table that exists for Spain.

How this site is researched and checked

the rules page · The roads you cannot ride, and what the way round costs