Future Prospect: True Mobility on Two Wheels at Age Fifteen

Yet, the direct access to 125ccm motorcycles remains restricted.

From 2013 on, 15-year-olds should be allowed to ride mopeds and quads up to 45 km/h top speed, but before they have to pass the beginner driving test AM which at present is possible not earlier than at age 16. This plus in mobility is due to the Committee for Transport, Building and Urban Affairs, whose members by a majority followed the petition of the transport experts of the coalition fractions of CDU/CSU and FDP. The latest draft bill of the German Federal Ministry of Transport as well accepts this regulation.

(IVM) Essen, July 9, 2010. Just of the same importance as this reasonable reform would be the abolishment of the still prevailing injustice regarding the inclusion regulation of motorcycle classes up to 125ccm, which in the bill draft was dealt with in a rather fainthearted way. Only persons who passed their driving licence test before April 1st 1980 are allowed to benefit from personal mobility on motorcycles and scooters up to 125ccm, a mobility which in addition is cost-effective and saves resources. All other riders apart from the limited group mentioned above are excluded from this advantage in mobility.

Persons in possession of a car driving licence who depend on flexible mobility but cannot afford a car and who are at least 48 of age and passed their driving test at the age of 18 are off the hook

as they can ride a light motorcycle whenever they want. Those who passed the test only one day later will have to pass the A1 driving licence test for the very same vehicle.

This is because the draft for the implementation of the 3rd European Driving Licence Directive of the German Federal Ministry of Transport, which is at present submitted to IVM, does not show any willingness for an inclusion of 125ccm light motorcycles into the class B licence. IVM had handed in a proposal about a minimum age and an appropriate number of training lessons which was not accepted. Thus IVM requests rework on the draft by suggesting a further compromise which is raising the minimum age of 23 discussed at present and the number of training lessons. As Reiner Brendicke, General Manager of IVM, puts it, “A big chance for enlarging cost-effective mobility for employed persons who cannot afford a second car or a car at all will be forfeited.”

Likewise the current inclusion of three-wheel vehicles into the car licence will no longer be valid after the implementation of the new directive from 2013 on.

For those who want to make use of the three-wheel mobility concept – most of them car drivers – this means an unnecessary drawback because they will have to pass an expensive motorcycle licence test. Thus, rework is necessary in this field as well, as future visions of mobility are hindered by this non-inclusion of three-wheelers in car licences. As a compromise the IVM proposes an obligatory training in seven lessons for holders of a car licence, so that the future three-wheelers get

accustomed to the vehicle and learn about its specific features in handling it. A similar concept has already been implemented in France.

“Politicians in charge are challenged to modify the present draft in the central points mentioned above, in order to prevent turning the two- and three-wheel mobility concept into a phase-out model.” says Hermann Bohrer, IVM President. “In fact more mobility and more chances for this industrial sector could be ideally combined for the purpose of both the citizens and the motorcycle industry!”