Motorcycle Licensing, Laws & Costs by State
Gear Rider Hub 
Washington runs this differently from almost every other state Three things about the process here surprise riders who have been licensed elsewhere, and all three are in the official rules rather than in folklore. The instruction permit requires a riding test, not just a written one. The permit lasts 180 days and you get one … Read more
The course does two different jobs, and which one you need depends on your age Almost everything written about motorcycle training in Arizona treats the course as one thing. In the statute it is two. For any rider, completing a Basic RiderCourse with an MVD-recognized provider takes the place of the on-site skills evaluation. You … Read more
No. And the thing you are probably asking about is legal anyway Both answers circulating online are wrong, and they are wrong in the same way: they treat “lane splitting” and “lane filtering” as one thing. Arizona’s statute does not. Riding between lanes of moving traffic — splitting — is prohibited in Arizona. Riding between … Read more
Class M or an endorsement — and why the paperwork is the same Arizona lets you ride a motorcycle in one of two ways. If you already hold an Arizona driver license, you add a motorcycle endorsement to it. If you do not, you apply for a Class M license in its own right. The … Read more
Why nobody can give you one number Search this question and you get six state DMV fee pages and no answer. That is not laziness on anyone’s part — it is that “motorcycle registration” is not one fee. It is a stack, the stack is assembled differently in every state, and one of the components … Read more
Registration is not the title, and confusing them costs weeks These are two different documents doing two different jobs, and almost every stuck DMV visit starts with treating them as one. The title is the state’s record of who owns the machine. It is a certificate, it names you, and it is what you sign … Read more
The short answer, and why it is not the useful one Yes. Per mile traveled in 2023, the motorcyclist fatality rate was 31.39 per 100 million vehicle miles against 1.13 for people in cars — almost 28 times higher, on NHTSA’s own arithmetic. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety puts the 2024 comparison at almost … Read more
The headline figures, and the year each one belongs to Most of the motorcycle statistics circulating online have no date attached, which makes them useless. A figure from 2019 and a figure from 2023 describe different worlds — deaths rose by more than a thousand between them. Everything below carries its year. The primary source … Read more
Filtering and splitting are not the same maneuver Lane filtering is moving between lanes past traffic that has stopped. Lane splitting is riding between lanes of traffic that is still moving. In ordinary conversation the two words get used interchangeably; in a statute they do not, and the distinction decides whether what you just did … Read more
Three groups, and only one of them is simple Every state falls into one of three categories. Seventeen states and the District of Columbia require a helmet from every rider and every passenger, whatever their age. Three states — Illinois, Iowa and New Hampshire — require one from nobody. The other thirty sit in the … Read more