Abstract
Road safety effects of lowering the minimum age for the A1 motorcycle licence to 16 or 17; Memorandum dd 19 May 2009 addressed to the Dutch Ministry of Transport. In 2013, a new European Directive will get into force which sets the minimum age for the A1 (up to 125cc) motorcycle licence at 16 years old. Member States, however, are free to set that age at 17 of 18 years old. In the Netherlands, the present minimum age for riding a motorcycle is 18 years old. As a result the Dutch Ministry of Transport faces the option whether or not to lower the minimum age for the A1 motorcycle licence. This memorandum discusses the potential effects on road safety of a possible reduction of the minimum age.