Europe is currently going through some turbulent times on the motorcycle front with various debates occurring across the continent over new guard rails, power limits for bikes and just general laws on motorcycle behaviour. Mike Werner reports that in Belgium, motorcyclists are getting some new laws that will come into effect as of September 1st.

The laws seem to be slightly more liberal than the current trend of prohibitive or punitive legislation characterising motorcycle culture in Europe at the moment, and include stuff like lane splitting, carrying child passengers on motorcycles and where bikers can park. See below for the list of things that are changing in Belgium.

• Lane splitting/filtering: this will be allowed at speeds of up to 50 km/hr, and only when the speed difference between the car and a motorcycle doesn’t exceed 20 km/hr. Lane splitting is only allowed in the far left lane/s of a road.
• Parking on footpaths: motorcyclists can now park on footpaths as long as they leave a free space for pedestrians of at least 1.5 metres.
• Child passengers: Children over eight can ride as a normal pillion passenger, children between three and eight years of age can travel in child seats on motorcycles up to 125cc. Children under three cannot be passengers on bikes.

More after the jump.

• ATGATT: Motorcyclists must now wear 100 percent safety gear at all times when riding a motorcycle. That means gloves, long sleeve jacket, trousers and ankle-protecting boots. ATGATT = All The Gear, All The Time.
• Bus lanes: Motorcyclists can now use bus lanes when travelling.

Could this be an attempt to help decongest the city of Brussels, Europe’s most traffic clogged city…?

Photo | Flickr

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