Scary reading from BDN (British Dealer News).... Motorcycling has been screwed once again by Euro twats (nothing new there then) as hardly any youngsters are taking their bike tests now, not like the good olde days when I were a pup! How they hell are we going to encourage youngsters to get a passion for biking when they keep moving the goalposts to make getting your bike licence more and more complicated & confusing!! Its almost like they dont want us on the roads.....Oh, right...hang on?...... ************************************ Bad news week Latest figures from the government’s Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency on its new rider testing regime imposed by our “friends” in Brussels make for a sobering read. It’s blatantly obvious that the A1 licence category, which confines under-19s to nothing bigger than 125cc machinery, has completely undermined industry initiatives to recruit a fresh generation of powered two-wheeler users. More a case of Get Off than Get On. According to DVSA data, only a mere 353 young people in the 16 to 17-year-old age range took their A1 practical tests in 2013/14, plummeting dramatically from 3294 17-year-olds who took the test in the previous 2012/13 period — a decline of almost 90 per cent. As for 18-year-olds, the situation was even worse. Some 2787 tests in 2012/13 fell to just 151 in 2013/2014, down by 95 per cent. The rate of attrition for 19-year-olds (who can access bigger A2 bikes) was less severe, with year-on-year numbers shrinking by 46 per cent to 1377 tests. And as the Institute of Advanced Motorists has been quick to point out, this collapse in youthful test-taking could mask a more disturbing trend than any deleterious reduction in teenagers crossing dealer showroom thresholds. The IAM suspects that the new rules are encouraging them to remain learners rather than taking training required to pass a test. The organisation also notes that fatal accidents involving motorcyclists have begun to increase again since imposition of licencing changes and there may be a correlation worth urgent investigation. So much for European licence category reform making motorcycling safer. Sorry to spoil your week. Roger Willis BDN Columnist [email protected]
Posted on: Fri, 04 Jul 2014 11:07:17 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015