Where you ride, and how much room you get
Spain’s traffic regulation now answers “where does a cyclist ride?” twice, and the two answers point in opposite directions. Outside a built-up area you keep to the right-hand shoulder. Inside one you ride in the middle of the lane. On this island the second rule governs the streets at each end of your ride and the first one governs everything in between.
The reason both are true at once is that the new rules arrive as a Title of their own, about towns, while the article that governs open road was reworded and left standing. The seven rules that bind you whatever road you are on are on the rules page; this page is the part that depends on where you are.
- New rules in force
- 1 October 2026
- Gap behind you, in town
- 5 metres
- Room beside you, everywhere
- 1.5 metres
- New articles
- 8 — 2 about bicycles
In force since 1 October 2026.
Art. 153.4, added on 1 October 2026, and it does not apply outside a built-up area.
Art. 85.4. The figure is unchanged; the lane-change duty around it was added on the same day.
Título VI, Art. 151 to Art. 158. One of the two carries an interurban extension.
Which of the new rules reach a road on this island
One of the two bicycle articles does. Article 154, on carrying children and loads, says in its own last paragraph that it applies on interurban roads too. Article 153 — the five-metre following distance, the middle of the lane, filtering past queues — says no such thing, and stops at the town sign.
- The name the amending decree gives the new Title
-
The decree names the block it adds, and the name is the first half of the answer: these are rules for urban areas.
Título VI — «Normas de circulación específicas en zonas urbanas»
Source Agencia Estatal Boletín Oficial del Estado · checked 30 September 2026The name the amending decree itself gives the block it adds, in art. único.25: a whole new Title, Art. 151 to Art. 158, and the words «zonas urbanas» are in its title rather than inferred from its contents.
- What the Title says it is for
-
The Title’s own opening article says what it is for, and then leaves everything it does not cover to the rest of the regulation. That second clause is why Article 36 still governs the open road.
El presente título tiene por objeto regular aspectos específicos de la circulación en el ámbito urbano, sin perjuicio de lo dispuesto en otros preceptos que sean de aplicación en lo no regulado en este título.
Source Agencia Estatal Boletín Oficial del Estado · checked 30 September 2026Art. 151.1, the Title’s own purpose clause. The second half is what leaves Art. 36 standing: what this Title does not regulate is still governed by the rest of the regulation.
- The clause that extends one article beyond town
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And this sentence settles it. Article 154 needs an express clause to reach an interurban road; a Title that already reached one would have no use for such a clause. It names Article 154 alone.
Las normas de los apartados anteriores se aplicarán también a la circulación en bicicleta y demás ciclos en vías interurbanas
Source Agencia Estatal Boletín Oficial del Estado · checked 30 September 2026Art. 154.5. It extends Art. 154 and names no other article, which is both halves of the point: the Title needs an express clause to reach an interurban road, and only one article got one.
One step in that is tidier here than in the text, and it is worth knowing which. Article 36 is not itself written as an interurban rule — it governs the use of shoulders, and a road through a town can have one. What puts you under Article 153 in a built-up area is that the urban Title regulates the same question more specifically, and Article 151.1 leaves to the rest of the regulation only what this Title does not cover. Outside a built-up area nothing competes: Article 153 does not reach there at all, so Article 36 is the only answer.
How we got this Both redactions of the consolidated text were read from the BOE and split into articles at the publisher’s own block markers. An article counts as added when it is present in the later redaction and absent from the one in force. «About bicycles» counts an article whose own heading names ciclos or bicicletas — Art. 153 and Art. 154. «Reaches interurban roads» counts those carrying an express clause extending them beyond the urban scope Art. 151.1 sets, which is Art. 154.5 alone.Computed from the 8 articles the redaction published 26 June 2026 adds.Computed 30 September 2026.
Where you ride
The two that contradict each other
Both are the law on the same morning. Read as general advice they are irreconcilable; read with their road types attached they are simply two rules about two places.
Outside built-up areas · Art. 36.1
Article 36.1, reworded by the same decree and still in force. Open road.
circularán por el arcén de su derecha, si fuera transitable y suficiente para cada uno de éstos, y, si no lo fuera, utilizarán la parte imprescindible de la calzada
In town · Art. 153.3
Article 153.3, new. Town.
Los ciclistas circularán preferentemente por el centro del carril en la medida en que su seguridad y la de los otros usuarios lo permitan. En vías que dispongan de al menos dos carriles de circulación por sentido, los ciclistas circularán por el carril derecho.
The Ma-10, the Ma-2141 down to Sa Calobra, the Pla, the Llevant — all interurban, all Article 36. Ride them in the middle of the lane on the strength of a headline about the new rules and you are citing an article that does not reach the road you are on.
All six duties, by road type
Six duties, sorted by the only thing that decides which one you are under: whether there are houses and a town sign around you.
The shoulder, outside town
Outside a built-up area, ride on the right-hand shoulder where there is one you can actually use. Where there is none, or it is unrideable, take as much of the carriageway as you need — the article says «la parte imprescindible», the indispensable part, and broken edges, gravel and parked cars all count against a shoulder being usable.
This is the rule that governs almost all of your riding here. The Serra roads are the case it was written for and the case it handles worst: on the Ma-10 the shoulder is intermittent, and where it runs out the article puts you on the carriageway without any further formality.
Riding two abreast
Two abreast on the shoulder, and two abreast on the carriageway where the shoulder will not take you. Single file on blind sections, when you are holding traffic up, and between sunset and sunrise or in poor visibility.
los conductores de bicicletas podrán circular en columna de a dos por el arcén. En el caso de que éste no exista o no fuera transitable y suficiente, podrán circular en columna de a dos por la parte imprescindible de la calzada, si bien deberán colocarse en hilera en los tramos sin visibilidad, cuando afecten a la fluidez de la circulación, o cuando circulen entre el ocaso y la salida del sol
The sunset clause is the one that catches riders here in winter, when the light goes early.
Leaving the shoulder on a descent
On a long descent with bends you may leave the shoulder and take the part of the right-hand lane you need, when safety allows it. Not on an autovía, where the shoulder is the only place a bicycle may be at all.
En los descensos prolongados con curvas, cuando razones de seguridad lo permitan, y salvo en las autovías en las que en todo caso circularán por el arcén, los conductores de bicicletas podrán abandonar el arcén y circular por la parte derecha de la calzada que necesiten.
Sa Calobra, Puig Major, the Coll de Sóller: long, bending descents are what this sentence describes, and it is the clearest permission in the regulation to hold the lane on one.
The middle of the lane, in town
In town, ride in the middle of the lane when it is safe to. On a road with two or more lanes your way, use the right-hand one, and move out of it to turn or when safety requires it.
It applies in Palma, Alcúdia, Pollença, Sóller — the streets at each end of a ride, and nowhere between them.
Carriageway or cycle lane
With no cycle lane, ride on the carriageway. Where there is one, it has priority, and the local authority may make it compulsory with an R–407a sign.
En ausencia de carril o vía específica, las bicicletas circularán por la calzada. Si hay carril bici o vía específica, su uso es preferente, si bien la autoridad competente podrá hacerlo obligatorio mediante la señal R–407a.
Passing on either side, and filtering
Overtake on whichever side is safer for you. At traffic lights and in queues you may pass stopped and stop-start traffic to reach the advanced stop box.
Los ciclistas podrán adelantar a otros vehículos por la derecha o por la izquierda, según sea más conveniente para su seguridad. En intersecciones reguladas por semáforo y en retenciones de tráfico podrán rebasar a los vehículos que se encuentren detenidos o sometidos a paradas frecuentes
The two distances, and they are not the same distance
The reform creates a second minimum separation around a cyclist. It is bigger than the one you know about, and it measures something else.
| Distance | Minimum | How it is measured | Where it binds | Article |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The room beside you when a car passes | 1.5 metres | Measured sideways, while passing | Every road | Art. 85.4 |
| The gap behind you in your own lane | 5 metres | Measured behind you, while following | Built-up areas only | Art. 153.4 |
Source Agencia Estatal Boletín Oficial del Estado · checked 30 September 2026
The room beside you when a car passes
A driver overtaking you leaves at least 1.5 metres. Where the road has more than one lane in their direction they have to change lane completely, and outside a built-up area they must also drop at least 20 km/h below the limit for the whole manoeuvre. This applies on every road you ride.
guardando una anchura de seguridad de, al menos, 1,5 metros, salvo cuando la calzada cuente con más de un carril por sentido, en cuyo caso será obligatorio el cambio completo de carril
The gap behind you in your own lane
A driver following you in the same lane keeps at least five metres. It is new on 1 October 2026, and it is in the urban Title — so it binds in Palma and it does not bind on the Ma-10.
Los conductores de vehículos a motor deberán dejar una separación mínima de cinco metros con los ciclistas que les precedan en el mismo carril
Carrying a child or a load
These rules are not new, and the article they live in is. Until now they were paragraphs of Article 12, the motorcycle article, which also covered cycles. From 1 October bicycles leave Article 12 — «ciclos» drops out of its heading — and reappear in Article 154 with the tests rewritten. Check Article 12 on its own that morning and you will conclude the rule was repealed.
- Who may carry anyone at all · Art. 154.1
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The rider must be of age. That is the condition on carrying either a passenger or a load.
En las bicicletas y demás ciclos se podrá transportar carga y pasajeros si el conductor es mayor de edad
- A child on the bike · Art. 154.2
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A child up to 22 kg who can sit up unaided, in an additional seat meeting specifications the Interior Ministry will set by order. The old test was an age — under seven. The new one is a weight and whether the child can sit up, which is a different question about a different child.
podrán transportar menores de hasta 22 kg que sean capaces de sentarse por sí solos en asientos adicionales que cumplan las especificaciones técnicas que se establezcan por orden de la persona titular del Ministerio del Interior
Until 1 October 2026 this was Art. 12.1
un menor de hasta siete años en asiento adicional que habrá de ser homologado
- A trailer · Art. 154.4
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Trailers and semi-trailers are allowed, for people, for loads, and for animals up to 15 kg. The load may not drag, fall, shift dangerously, unbalance the bike or hide your lights.
Se podrán utilizar en las bicicletas y demás ciclos remolques, semirremolques u otros elementos … para el transporte de personas, de animales de hasta 15 kg de peso o de carga
And this is the paragraph that lets any of it out of town — on the condition that you are riding in daylight, in conditions that do not badly reduce visibility.
Las normas de los apartados anteriores se aplicarán también a la circulación en bicicleta y demás ciclos en vías interurbanas, salvo lo dispuesto en el apartado 4 por lo que se refiere a las restricciones que pueda imponer la autoridad municipal, siempre que sea de día y en condiciones que no disminuyan la visibilidad.
Source Agencia Estatal Boletín Oficial del Estado · checked 30 September 2026Art. 154.5. The daylight proviso is not new wording either — Art. 12.4 a) already required a bicycle trailer to run «de día y en condiciones que no disminuyan la visibilidad», so the condition survives the move along with the permission.
What “in daylight” costs you here
Article 154.5 does not define daylight, and neither will we. What the figures below use is sunrise to sunset, which is the narrowest honest reading and the pair of instants the two-abreast rule and the lighting duty both name in their own words. All three depend on the same two moments, and this site measures them for every day of the year.
| Which month | Sunrise to sunset | Length | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shortest month | 08:03–17:27 | 9 h 24 min | The floor. A trailer on an interurban road is legal inside this window and not outside it. |
| Shortest camp-season month | 07:42–18:26 | 10 h 44 min | February to April is when the island’s camps run, and this is the tightest of those three. |
| Longest month | 06:21–21:19 | 14 h 58 min | The ceiling, in the middle of summer. |
How we got this Sunrise and sunset at the middle day of each month, computed for a sea horizon with the NOAA solar-position algorithm at a zenith of 90.833°, in Balearic local time. The window is sunset minus sunrise — the narrowest reading of «de día», and the pair of instants Art. 36.2 names in its own words. The season figure is the shortest of February, March and April, which is when the island sells its camps.Computed from the 12 monthly solar tables this site publishes, reference year 2027.Computed 25 September 2026.
Civil twilight would give you another half hour at each end. We do not use it here: the article says day, the other two say sunset and sunrise, and the wider figure would be a claim the text does not support.
How this was checked
Both redactions of the regulation were read from the BOE — the text in force and the text that replaces it. Every Spanish clause on this page is a verbatim fragment of the article it is captioned with, checked word for word against that article in that redaction. Nothing here paraphrases a statute into quotation marks.
Source Agencia Estatal Boletín Oficial del Estado · checked 30 September 2026Real Decreto 1428/2003, de 21 de noviembre, Reglamento General de Circulación — consolidated text, redaction published 26 June 2026.
The seven rules that bind you on any road — helmet, lights, headphones, the roads you may not use — are on the rules page.
What the driver overtaking you has to do with their speed, road by road, is on the overtaking page.