Ride legally
ARITE of passage for many of us when we turn 16 is to rush to the Road Transport Department (RTD) with the endless queues and forms to fill out, written tests to take, jostling with other testees for the driving school bike, and finally, a nervous wait for your turn at the handlebars of a derelict and abused test bike.
Fortunately, things have improved since those days. The tests have been computerised, the bikes are better maintained and the wait shorter. The one thing that has always been a bugbear is the cost.
It used to be that the all-in cost of taking a B2 licence was RM211 without the additional cost of photos, course materials and a registrations fees to the course centre (September 2009). But since then, the cost has been rising due to inflation, the need to upgrade facilities and ageing bikes and other factors. This rising cost has implications.
There are around three million licensed motorcyclists in the country, but RTD Director-General Datuk Nadzri Siron has interesting figures to trot out.
“Nearly 1.2 million motorcyclists have no licence, and 6,000 accidents involving the group with 18 fatalities are recorded daily. Because of that, we have been organising programmes in collaboration with volunteer groups to educate people on road safety,” he said during the launch of the recently held Selangor Bikers Fiesta 2016.
Among the 1.2 million are around 18,000 students.
RTD Enforcement Division director Datuk V. Valluvan Veloo said the figures were obtained via a survey conducted by the Institute of Road Safety Research and Department Road Safety.
“The study also found that parents gave their permission to the children to ride a motorcycle without a licence.”
A few months ago, the RTD relaunched the MyLesen programme to help unlicensed motorcyclists ride legally at a lower cost. Since April , people have to pay only RM299 for a B2 class licence to ride a motorcycle under 250cc, instead of the usual RM350. This effort is part of the Road Safety Plan 2014-2020, which sets a target to reduce up to 50 per cent fatal accidents, said Nadzri.
“Of the total number of cases, 62 per cent involved motorcycles. There are 18.8 million registered vehicles that are active and they involve 14 million drivers.”
MyLesen is a community social sesponsibility initiative by RTD to create competent, educated and lawful riders. Through the incentives given, RTD hopes more riders will sign up for a licence, thereby reducing the accident rate through education and training. Details of the programme are on RTD’s website.
A proposal to further reduce the cost of obtaining a motorcycle licence, including that for higher capacity motorcycles, is being studied by the RTD. The department will study the suitability of the proposal and costs involved.