Electric Longboard experiences?

I've been riding mine around Friedrichshain for about a year now and only been stopped once near Warschauer Brücke. The cops just asked me to walk it the rest of the way and gave me a verbal warning, no fine or confiscation. From what I've heard from others, the standard fine if they decide to ticket you is around 70 euros for driving without a valid insurance license plate, but it really depends on the officer's mood.

The legalization timeline is pretty murky right now. The last I checked, the Verkehrsministerium was talking about a new class of "Elektrokleinstfahrzeuge" that might include boards, but that was over a year ago and nothing concrete has moved forward. I'd expect at least another year or two before anything changes.

For now, I'd recommend sticking to quieter side streets and the bike lanes on bigger roads, and definitely avoid the Polizei presence around Alexanderplatz or Hauptbahnhof. If you see a patrol car, just step off and carry it until you're out of sight. A lot of us in the local esk8 Telegram group do this and it's worked fine so far.

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yeah i ride mine almost daily in neukölln, been doing it for like 2 years now. never been stopped tbh but i also stick to the less busy streets around here, like past hermannplatz at night. the fine thing is real but from what i hear it's mostly if you're being dumb about it, like flying down the main roads or weaving through traffic.

one thing nobody mentioned is the insurance thing. you can actually get a liability insurance for it from some smaller companies, even without a license plate. costs like 50-60 euros a year and covers you if you hit someone. i did that just for peace of mind even though it's not technically legal. cops might still confiscate if they're having a bad day though.

for legalization the rumor i heard is the next bundestag session might finally push that elektrokleinstfahrzeuge thing through but honestly german bureaucracy moves slower than a skateboard uphill. my bet is late 2025 at the earliest. just ride chill and you'll prob be fine

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Live in Wedding and have been riding my board for about three years. The trick is to look like you're on a legal e-scooter from a distance, so I keep my speed under 20 km/h and stay in bike lanes. I've passed cops near Leopoldplatz a few times without issue.

The legal situation is stuck because electric longboards don't have a handlebar, which is required for the Elektrokleinstfahrzeuge classification. Some people have rigged a removable handlebar just for registration, but that feels like a grey area to me. I just ride defensively and accept the risk.

For the insurance thing, I use a company called CosmosDirekt, they insured my board under a "sonstige Elektrofahrzeuge" policy for 45 euros a year. It's not a license plate but at least you have liability coverage if you accidentally hit a pedestrian on the Mauerpark path.

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Worth noting that Berlin street names have official umlaut and ß rules that trip people up, so a sign showing "Strasse" versus "Straße" is not actually a spelling error, just an older transcription. Same with "ue" versus "ü" (e.g. "Kantstrasse" vs "Kantstraße"), both are considered valid renderings and you'll see the ß version on the blue Schilder and the ss version on older plaques or in databases that predate Unicode. If the difference you're seeing is between those two forms, there's nothing to fix and both are technically correct.

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if the signs u mean are the old enamel ones on the house facades those are often protected as Baudenkmal so nobody's allowed to correct them even if the spelling is outdated. the binding version is whatever is in the Berliner Strassenverzeichnis plus the entry in the Liegenschaftskataster, so if u tell me the street i can point u to the right Bezirksamt Mitte or Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf page. tbh the merged district thing is real but the facade signs are a separate story, theyre basically museum pieces at this point

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honestly thats super common in Charlottenburg, the district offices were merged from older Bezirke and nobody ever fixed all the Schilder. if its a real street you can check the official strassenverzeichnis on berlin.de, that list is what the Burgeramt actually goes by. which street is it? some of the Kaiserdamm / Kantstrasse signs are notorious for this.

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