Modern Vespa

This was posted by Ellen at Scooter Diva.

Where can you find the strictest government regulations on motorcyclists in the United States? Not in any of the 50 states, but in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico.

A measure recently signed into law by the governor of Puerto Rico will require riders to wear not only a helmet, but also gloves, boots, and long pants. After dark, riders must wear a reflective vest, and the law also tightens age restrictions on riders and imposes new testing requirements. In some ways, the law is even more restrictive than the requirements on many U.S. military bases.

Legislative sponsors said the law was a response to increasing numbers of motorcycle fatalities on the Caribbean island.

Between 2000 and 2005, the number of motorcycles and scooters registered in Puerto Rico more than doubled. Several factors encourage motorcycle use, including the year-round riding weather and the congestion of nearly 4 million residents on a 3,500-square-mile island. In general, gasoline is slightly more expensive than in the 50 states, while average household incomes are lower than in any of the states. In that environment, sales of inexpensive Chinese-built scooters have boomed in recent years as more residents in the crowded San Juan metropolitan area turned to them for affordable and fun transportation, in addition to steady sales of full-size motorcycles.

"This considerable increase in the purchase and use of motorcycles as an alternative means of transportation has brought with it an unprecedented increase in motorcycle accidents, and, at the same time, a dramatic increase in deaths from those accidents," the legislation states.

The new requirements include:

*Puerto Rico already required helmet use, but the new law also requires gloves, boots that cover the ankles, and long pants. Between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m., riders and passengers must wear a reflective vest.
*Riders must be 18 years of age, and passengers must be at least 12.
*New riders must pass a test on the first try to obtain a motorcycle endorsement. If they do not pass, they have to take a government-approved training course.
*The law adds motorcyclists to the list of school bus drivers, truck drivers, and heavy equipment operators who are subject to a legal blood-alcohol limit of 0.02 percent, instead of the 0.08 percent limit applied to car drivers.
*The law specifically prohibits lane-sharing, an accepted practice in Puerto Rico that can easily cut in half the time of a rush-hour commute in the San Juan area.
*The law imposes an additional $10 charge for taking the motorcycle endorsement test and an additional $10 charge for renewing an annual motorcycle registration.

The law takes effect in October. It calls for the creation of eight training centers around the island to license new riders and budgets $250,000 to start the program. But it's not likely the centers will be running by the time the law takes effect.

Owners of currently registered motorcycles are allowed to continue riding, but will have to comply with the new licensing requirements when they renew their drivers licenses.

The law essentially moves Puerto Rico from having less stringent regulations than most states to having more restrictive requirements than any of the 50 states. Previously, motorcyclists in Puerto Rico were not required to pass a riding test and get a motorcycle endorsement unless they wanted to use the island's toll highways.

http://www.amadirectlink.com/news/2007/PR.aspTh

Interesting. Some of it is just common sense, but it looks like it is punishing motorcycle riders. Maybe a lot of the serious injuries and fatalities there are related to stupidity on 2 wheels instead of 4 wheels??

Boy am I tooootally screwed!!! As soon as I heard about this I even thought about selling my scooter. But, is my main mode of transportation. Soory to say, our goverment goes overboard on things. The scooter bussiness here (remember, I work for US Customs and I process a whole bunch of chinesse bikes a day!!!) that the market and the streets got over-saturated. The laws here were never made for scooter/bike riding like in the US. All you needed to ride a bike here was a learner's permit to ride a bike. No defensive driving course or nothing.

First, during the scooter boom, parents started to buy scooters to their kids in an uncontrollable matter. They use to make bike rides of well over 10,000 bikes sometimes!!! We have kids ranging from 10 to 16 years old riding bikes like mad men without any concern or care whatsoever. These kids are driving their bikes without shirts, short pants and flip-flops!!! Car drivers were getting mad and tired of kids passing their cars while the traffic was moving that they were actually running them over and they were not stopping. I can testify on that. The cops here didn't care if they got into accidents. They had political rallies here were the more scooters, the merrier no matter how these kids were dressed. Until the parents of these deceased kids (as a result of the parent's own negligence) started to complain about it that the government got worried about it. They were so many accidents (at least 5 accidents every weekend) that the emergency medical facilities could not handle it

But I'm glad that the laws here are getting harder on the kids that are not concerned with their safety even tough is affecting us (the responsible-ones) directly cause now, I have to take a defensive driving course, wear all that crap, get a license, carry my shoes in my top case (I work in a office) and wear boots on my VESPA because of those dammed kids.!!! More to come...

VESPARICAN 8)

I got pulled over on Vieques because my ex wasn't wearing her helmet. I had mine but she refused to wear hers.....until the M/C cop corrected her.

Man, that little 50cc scooter could only maintin 7mph up some of those hills with both of us on it. Scary huh?