In Europe, there are those who propose lowering speed limits for motorcycles, and this leaves us impressed, especially because it is not a joke, but a proposal that comes from none other than the French Karima Delli, who is not just any deputy, but the president of the Transport and Tourism Committee of the European Parliament.
Recently, we explained how we are moving towards a simplification of the process for obtaining motorcycle licenses with the procedure launched on September 18 of last year, which authorizes training courses instead of practical exams for categories A2 and A. On the other hand, the proposed amendment to the EU directive on driving licenses, which aims to increase the minimum age for riding a motorcycle based on engine size and, at the same time, reduce the speed limits allowed for motorcycles, goes in the opposite direction.
This is stated in a series of amendments to the draft legislative resolution of the European Parliament on the proposal for a directive on driving licenses. As mentioned before, the author is the French deputy Karima Delli, who chairs the Transport and Tourism Committee of the European Parliament, so there is one more reason to take them seriously. The noble objective of the legislative resolution project is, obviously, to further increase road safety, in order to achieve the “Vision Zero,” which aims to end road deaths by 2050. The intentions cannot fail to make us agree, much less this latest proposal that blatantly penalizes two-wheeled vehicles to the point of absurdity.
Here are the changes in question:
“Without prejudice to the speed limit established by national authorities on each road, the absolute maximum speed authorized by Member States for drivers of category A1 vehicles must not exceed 90 km/h, for drivers of category A2 vehicles must not exceed 100 km/h, for drivers of category A vehicles must not exceed 110 km/h. Maximum speed of 90 km/h also for heavy quadricycles.”
This means that, even with an A driving license, it would no longer be possible to reach the 130 km/h limit on highways, which is simply absurd and makes very little sense and has, in our opinion, very little to do with road safety.
Among the extravagant proposals, there is also one regarding the increase in the minimum age required to ride a motorcycle. In practice, the minimum age is increased by two years, depending on the engine size:
– 16 years for category AM, that is, mopeds;
– 18 years for categories A1 and A2
– 20 years for category A motorcycles. However, the authorization is conditioned to acquiring at least two years of experience on A2 motorcycles.
However, there is another amendment that would authorize EU Member States to increase the minimum age for issuing an AM license to 18 years, for A2 to 20 years, and for A to 22 years.
These are proposals and nothing is approved or definitive, however, we reiterate that they are changes presented officially within the scope of a project aimed at amending the European directive on driving licenses. It seems to us, however, that, as unfortunately often happens, those who are forced to propose these laws probably know little about the subject in practice. We agree that there is a road safety problem, we talk about it daily, including on our website, but these proposals do not seem to go in the desired direction, merely penalizing motorcycle riders. Instead, it would be much more important to urgently and intensively work on the preparation and civic education of those who drive vehicles, regardless of the number of wheels. Member States should therefore work concretely on maintaining roads and not on setting different and absurd speed limits.
