I wonder if we followed the 'lighter touch' of Germany, France and Denmark whether it would encourage companies to offer speed pedelecs (maybe with insurance bundled in). I don't think this is a big market in the UK at the minute ? I think it would encourage take-up if you could basically do a longer commute in a shorter time and reduce the amount of congestion in rush hour city centres
I agree, but we've tried to get it and failed. Members of the trade tried to get the DfT to look at it, accepting it in principle, but after consideration they refused to, so I doubt they would even look again.
The fundamental problem we have is that we have one of the world's best road safety records and our governments are so proud of it that they are scared to change anything that might jeopardise it. And they have history on their side.
Eager to encourage two wheels to get drivers out of cars, long ago they decided that since mopeds were fairly slow and car drivers were already safety tested, they could be trusted on one. So they added a Group P for 30 mph mopeds automatically to all car driving licences.
The result was that a lot more mopeds appeared on the roads but the accidents shot up, so they put a stop to that on 1st February 2001. The existing drivers kept that group P but from that date on anyone taking a car test no longer got the bonus group P.
You can see why they are nervous about any easing of the rules, once bitten, twice shy.
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