New motorcycle test may herald boom
The popularity of motorcycling is a good economic barometer – during lean times we tend to take to two wheels, so amid fears of an impending recession will the new motorcycling test this September add unnecessary bureaucracy or herald a new age of the motorcycle?
A new motorcycle test which comes into effect at the end of September complies with European legislation in the hope it will help reduce the number of bikers that are injured each year, but the revised test includes new elements that can only be carried out at new purpose-built centres around Britain and critics complain that riders will be dissuaded from travelling long distances to them aboard small capacity machines.
A spokesperson for the Environmental Transport Association said: “The peaks in the popularity of motorcycling over the last fifty years have coincided with periods of recession, so the current economic uncertainty may herald another boom.”
“Motorcyclists in Britain currently have the most rigorous level of non-vocational driver training and nobody knows for certain if this new test will have a postive effect on safety simply because it deters new bikers, but with average emissions of 110g of CO2 per km, people may turn to it as a relatively green as well as a highly cost-effective form of motoring.”
| What is changing about the motorcycle test? | New excercises |
|---|---|
| 1. | two exercises carried out at slow speed, including a slalom |
| 2. | two exercises carried out at higher speed, of which one exercise should be in second or third gear, at a speed of at least 30 kph |
| 3. | one exercise avoiding an obstacle at a minimum speed of 50 kph |
| 4. | two braking exercises, including an emergency brake at a minimum speed of 50 kph |
For more information about the new test visit direct.gov.uk
The ETA is a not-for-profit ethical organisation providing motorists, including bikers, and cyclists with carbon-neutral breakdown cover and insurance products. As well as encouraging responsible driving to reduce carbon, the ETA campaigns for sustainable transport.
