How the DSA hope the new learner rider test will reduce the motorbike accident rate

In recognition of the disproportionate toll wrought by motorbike accidents on European roads, the UK has accepted a new European Community Directive, which means that the way learner riders in the UK take their full license tests will change.

The major change is the way in which learner riders will have to perform a series demanding manoeuvres. Road safety laws and the danger of budding riders causing motorbike accidents while attempting them mean that these manoeuvres are not able to be performed on public roads, so UK license testing providers have had to respond to the changes by providing purpose-built testing centres.

However, there are concerns that there are not enough test centres currently capable of providing the new test. Once instructor commented on the changes, “It’s going to be a catastrophe. Logistically, people are going to have to travel a 100-mile round trip to sit a test. Learner drivers will be forced to travel across the country on unfamiliar roads in adverse weather conditions to somewhere they do not know.”

Yet it seems that logistical concerns of testers are only a minor consideration set against wider, more significant, background of improving road safety and reducing the number of motorcycle injuries in the UK.

The new tests take only eight minutes to complete and the Driving Standards Agency (DSA) describes them in the following way: “The EU directive requires that more demanding special manoeuvres must be included in every practical motorcycling test. These include at least two manoeuvres to be carried out at slow speed and includes a slalom, at least two manoeuvres to be carried out at higher speed, of which one manoeuvre should be in second or third gear at a speed of at least 30 km/h (18.6 mph), one manoeuvre avoiding an obstacle at a minimum speed of 50 km/h (31.1 mph) and at least two braking exercises, including an emergency stop at a minimum speed of 50 km/h (31.1 mph).”

The DSA are adamant that the new test represents an improvement on what went before. Their chief executive commented, "The new motorbike test will contribute to improvements in road safety and multi-purpose test centres fit into our overall vision of improving facilities for riders and drivers across Great Britain."

The new test will apply to all learner drivers from October 2008.

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