Traffic legislation and safety in Europe concerning the moped - Swov

As shown in Table 2.1 we received information about the legislation of
mopeds from 15 European countries. In some countries, legislation differss
for the light-moped and the moped.
The minimum ages for riding a moped differ strongly and depend on the type
of moped:
Countries (6) with a light-moped:
− 14 year: 1 country,
− 15 year: 2 countries,
− 16 year: 3 countries.
Countries (15) with a moped:
− 14 year: 3 countries,
− 15 year: 3 countries,
− 16 year: 8 countries,
− 18 year: 1 country (light-mopeds: 16 year).
Two countries have no theoretical test for mopedists and two countries no
test for light-mopedists.
Nine of the 15 countries have a practical test for mopedists. Only Denmark
also has a practical test for light-mopedists.
Only a few countries have different urban and rural speed limits:
− Germany 25 and 50 km/h respectively,
− Luxemburg 30 and 40 km/h respectively,
− Netherlands 30 and 40 km/h respectively; this regulation will probably be
changed. (Section 5.2.3).
Of all these 15 European countries, the Netherlands is the only country
without compulsory helmet use for the light-moped.
In seven of the fifteen countries mopeds must be provided with formal
registration plates and documents. In France this has been arranged
recently (see Section 5.3.4) and in the Netherlands it will be introduced in
2005/2006 (Section 5.3.3).
2.2. Possession and use of mopeds and light-mopeds
It is shown that collecting data about crashes and the number of vehicles is
relatively easy. But figures about the possession subdivided by moped type
and age of the user, and the use expressed in the number of kilometres
travelled, are difficult to get.
Only one study, from the Netherlands, was found with these figures. We will
see that within the selected European countries, the Netherlands scores
average in the number of killed mopedists (Section 2.3). Presented data
about possession and use of mopeds possibly serve as a guide to
understand some of the crash data.
10 SWOV publication R-2004-10