Motorbikes no longer welcome
Motorcyclists have a hard time: more and more cities don't want to let old combustion engines in. Added to this is the noise with which male and female riders make themselves unpopular in many places. A survey among drivers suggests that there will be fewer and fewer motorbikes in the future.
Loud and dirty, that's how many motorbikes are seen. And the measures against this are becoming more and more numerous. Since January of this year, Barcelona no longer allows motorbikes with internal combustion engines registered before 2002 to enter the city on weekdays between 7 am and 8 pm. The Netherlands has also set itself the goal of not allowing internal combustion vehicles into cities from 2030 onwards. Amsterdam already has an environmental zone that only applies to motorbikes. No motorbikes with internal combustion engines registered before 2011 are allowed to drive there. From 2030, the ring road is also to be closed to motorbikes with internal combustion engines. In London, only motorbikes with at least Euronorm 3 will be allowed to enter. In Paris, all combustion engines are to be banned by 2030. In Italy, two-stroke motorcycles are already banned from 200 cities. In Austria, the province of Tyrol is going so far that noise above 95 decibels caused when stationary is no longer permitted on some routes, as in the Außerfern environmental zone.
Due to the increasing number of environmental zones and the associated driving bans for combustion engines, it is not surprising that the majority of motorcyclists are opposed to the ban on combustion engines. This becomes clear in the results of a survey of over 20,000 motorcyclists conducted by the Federation of European Motorcyclists' Associations (FEMA). As could hardly be expected otherwise, more than 90 percent of the respondents do not think much of a ban on internal combustion engines. This rejection is also reflected in another answer: almost 60 percent would no longer ride a motorbike if there were no more combustion models. In the last survey, 15 percent fewer wanted this. It is remarkable that not even eight percent said they would want to switch to an electric model as long as combustion engines were still being sold. Of these eight percent who would switch to a zero-emission vehicle sooner, however, 90 percent are not prepared to pay more for it than for the old models. As soon as only new combustion models are allowed, 45 percent would give up a motorbike altogether.
So will motorbikes disappear from our roads altogether? Will they switch to cars? If you believe the statements of the motorcyclists, the number will at least decrease drastically. In the event of a ban, over 75 percent would switch to other means of transport. But as soon as electric motorbikes have become established and are available at cheaper prices, many will prefer a motorbike again. However: one third said they would rather give up motorbikes altogether before switching to an electric model.