The Malaysian Driving Institute Association (PIMA) has voiced its opposition to a proposal made by a road safety expert that the government should increase the minimum age to obtain a motorcycle licence to 19.
According to PIMA president Mat Aris Bakar, the call to raise the age limit is discriminatory and negates the rights of those aged 16 and 17, who are considered mature at the international level, as FMT reports.
“These groups are deemed to be competent and mature enough to ride a motorcycle safely, and we should respect that,” he told the news publication. He added that such a move, if implemented, would be disadvantageous to students in higher learning institutions, who are reliant on motorcycles to get themselves to school because the public transport system was insufficient.
Mat Aris said this in response to Universiti Putra Malaysia road safety expert Law Teik Hua’s suggestion that the government should review the minimum age to obtain a motorcycle licence, given that statistics revealed that 20% of motorcyclists who were killed in road accidents were aged between 16 and 19.
Based on statistics from the federal traffic enforcement and investigation department from 2001 to 2023, deaths involving motorcyclists and pillion riders were higher than any other road users. Last year alone, 69.2% – or 4,480 – of the 6,463 road fatalities involved motorcycles.
Mat Aris said it would be better for the government to review enforcement instead of looking at the age factor. “There are many factors that need to be reviewed, but to increase the minimum age does not make sense,” he explained.
While he admitted that the compliance rate among motorcyclists when it came to stopping at red lights was still low, he said there were ways to improve it. He suggested that cameras and sensors at traffic lights, similar to ones used in China and Japan, be installed. “If the compliance rate is increased, maybe there would be fewer accidents.
The call to raise – and also lower – the age limit for a motorcycle licence is not new. Back in 2021, a similar suggestion to increase it was made by transport consultant Rosli Azad Khan, who urged the government to raise the minimum age for a motorcycle licence from 16 to 21. What do you think? Should the present age limit remain in place, or should it be increased in the hope it will improve aspects of road safety?
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