In this category you will find articles covering legal topics related to motorcycles and road traffic. This includes changes in legislation, court decisions, regulations, as well as developments concerning registration, licensing and road safety.
The list below brings together reports on national and international rules, judicial decisions and political initiatives that may affect motorcycle riders or the motorcycle market. Where possible, the background and practical implications of the respective regulations are explained.
This section provides an overview of the legal framework and current developments relevant to motorcycle riders.
In the Außerfern region, further roads could soon be closed to motorcycles with a stationary noise level above 95 decibels, as the Tyrolean state parliament reviews an extension of the ban. Ironically, the justification is motorcycles that are avoiding the existing closures.
Italy has issued new rules for underride protection on crash barriers, which is meant to protect fallen motorcyclists from posts and edges. A single serious accident can trigger an obligation, but designers and road operators may opt out with a justification.
After a summer of many fatal motorcycle crashes in the northern Black Forest, authorities are relying on rumble strips, drones and more checks. A traffic psychologist thinks this is not enough and wants to tackle risky riding where he believes it starts: in the mind and on the smartphone.
Italy’s government wants to oblige drivers in traffic jams to clear a corridor for motorcycles and allow motorcycles onto the hard shoulder when traffic backs up. Nothing has been adopted yet, and the corridor will by no means be mandatory on every road.
Since the end of June 2026, police in England and Wales can seize motorcycles immediately for anti-social riding, without issuing a warning first. At the same time, owners have much less time to recover their vehicle before it can be disposed of.
Riders injured at a track day can receive money from their private accident insurance despite being on a race track. Germany’s Federal Court of Justice has ruled that a widely used exclusion clause only applies to genuine races with a classification.
Cameras that detect phone use, seatbelts and following distance in addition to speed already exist. Whether they are allowed to issue fines, however, varies widely across Europe, and in France they still lack approval to this day.
Saxony wants mopeds and scooters with 50 cc engines to be allowed to travel at up to 60 km/h in future. The motion is due to go to the Bundesrat on 16 October, but the real decision will be made in Brussels.
A bill in New York State aims to ban the sale of fast e-motos entirely. Registrable electric dirt bikes would then no longer be available online, only from registered local dealers.
From 1 October 2026, Northern Ireland is switching the route to a motorcycle licence to a graduated system. Learner riders must now complete ten mandatory modules and record their progress in a digital logbook, while the previous speed limit for new riders is being scrapped.
Germany’s Federal Ministry of Transport wants to replace the Road Traffic Licensing Regulations (StVZO), in place since 1937, with a new vehicle regulation called the FGBV from 2029. The draft affects modifications, exhaust systems, individual approvals and classic bikes, and both testing organizations and the two-wheeler trade still see a clear need for improvement.
On the twisty L698 over the Kohlberg between Altena-Dahle and Neuenrade, residents have been complaining about noise and excessive speed for years. The CDU group on Altena’s town council wants to change that with a ten-point plan ranging from new speed limits to a fixed speed camera.
The UK government wants to bring modified motorcycles, scooters and mopeds under an emissions law for the first time, one that has so far only applied to cars, vans, lorries and buses. When asked, the Department for Transport confirmed in writing that it has no analysis or evidence of its own for this step.
The shape of the Vespa Primavera is now protected as a three-dimensional trade mark in all 27 member states of the European Union. Behind the decision lies a legal dispute that goes back more than ten years, during which the responsible EU authority had even temporarily overturned the Vespa protection.
Since 21 September 2026, vehicle-and-trailer combinations with a towing vehicle of up to 3.5 tonnes no longer need e-TOLL in Poland. The new rule does not apply on every route, and anyone with credit left on their toll account has to act.
A 21-year-old motorcyclist from Münster has been given an eight-month suspended sentence by Rheine District Court. In April he fled from the police without a licence, without registration and without insurance cover, and the court confiscated his motorcycle.
The Los Angeles city council is having it examined whether the sale of e-motos that are not street legal can be banned. Behind it lies a problem occupying all of California: many electric dirt bikes are sold as e-bikes even though they are legally motorcycles.
Italy is waiving vehicle tax on motorcycles in 2027, with no limit on power output or displacement. The exemption applies to one vehicle per person only, however, and anyone who owns a small car gets nothing for the motorcycle.
For the tenth time, the motorcycle demonstration “Freedom is our Religion” rolled through central Berlin. According to the organisers, more than 700 motorcycles took part in the procession on 12 September 2026.
The first test drives for a driverless taxi service begin in Munich in the coming weeks, and other operators are already on the road there. For motorcyclists that pushes one question to the front, and there is still no solid European answer to it: how reliably does this technology detect a single-track vehicle?
