Motorcycles are no longer free to ride with a
learner's license or in some cases, no license at all.
As of Friday January 24th 2015,
motorcyclist will have to have a license under the newly revamped Road Traffic
Act as explained in the article “Motorcyclists
Will Require Licence Under New Traffic Laws”, published Sunday January 24,
2016, The Jamaica Gleaner.
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Previously motorcyclists require only a provisional
licence as explained in my blog article
entitled “NRSC
record increase in Motorcycle Deaths - Why Road Traffic Act need to license
Motorized Bicycles and Electric Bikes”.
This recent legislative change in the Road Traffic
Act mandates that riders have a drivers' licence. Already some 100 Jamaican
Police officers had been deployed on Friday January 24th 2015 to enforce the
new Road Traffic Act and the increased fines.
Before motorcyclist reading this cry foul and
unfair, consider these stats:
1. 380
people died in road traffic in 2015
2. 65
fatalities among motorcyclists in 2014
3. 111
fatalities among motorcyclists in 2015
4. Westmoreland
and St Elizabeth accounted for the majority of the crashes
In most of these deaths, the cause appeared to be
the following:
1. Motorcyclists
not wearing helmets
2. Collisions
with other motor bikes
3. Rider
lost control and crashing
Hopefully, this legislation will be extended to any
form of two or four wheeled mode of transportation that looks like a bike, be it
gasoline or electric powered, as legislation needs to also tackle the rise of
Electric Motorcycles in Jamaica!
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