The past year has been a record breaking one for motorcycle tests in the UK according to the most recent Driving and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) figures.
67,511 people took their Module 2 motorcycle test between April 2021 and March 2022, which the British Motorcyclists Federation (BMF) reports is over 2000 up on the previous record set in 2012-13.
Of those 67,511 tests taken, 48,583 passed, meaning a pass percentage of 72%. In comparison, less than 50% of those who took car driving tests passed.
As the BMF says, this record breaking period for motorcycle tests is partly down to testing centres getting through the backlogs from Covid, when test centres were open only to essential workers.
The statistics are also split between genders. There were 62,364 tests taken by men with 44,929 passes (72% pass rate), and 5,133 tests taken by women with 3,643 passes (71%).
The DVSA data show that women are still a significant minority in the motorcycling community, and this is backed up by the Module 1 statistics, too. There were 60,745 men who took a Module 1 test between April 2021 and March 2022 and 76.4% passed. However, there were only 6,600 women who took a Module 1 test, with a 57.1% pass rate.
This means that women make up 7.6% of the people who took a Module 2 test, and 9.8% of those who took a Module 1 test. Of the 48,583 people who passed their Module 2 test, women make up 7.5%, and the same for the Module 1 test.
Although women are clearly still in the minority, the deficit is slowly decreasing. It could also be argued - possibly at a stretch - that a higher percentage of women taking Module 1 tests could mean that the percentage of those taking Module 2 tests in the future who are women will continue to increase, and that therefore the number of bikers on the road in the UK who are women will become increasingly more comparable with the number of those who are men.
“Great news, the increase in female riders particularly, it may not sound like much, but compared to a couple of decades ago, that looks like real progress. Anything which breaks down barriers is a good thing,” said BMF Chair Jim Freeman.
