Project Ride will provide on-road instruction if legislation updating laws for people learning to ride auxiliary cycles is passed by MPs.

Proposed amendments to the law will allow Project Ride, the programme teenagers must complete to acquire a youth driving licence, to ride their bikes on public roads, where they will also be tested.

Until now, Project Ride classes have been conducted in enclosed areas off public highways and tests for auxiliary bike licences have been carried out in the testing area at the Transport Control Department.

Owen Darrell, the Minister of Tourism and Transport, Culture and Sport, introduced the Auxiliary Cycles (Project Ride) Amendment Act in the House of Assembly.

The Bill would allow instructors to carry out on-road instruction. It also requires Project Ride students, who must be 16 or older, to hold a learner’s permit.

Instructors must hold an instructor’s licence before teaching trainee riders, and the licence will cost $121.

The amendment also states that the on-road exam will assess riders’ “understanding of traffic rules, safe driving technique and ability to navigate live traffic conditions”, and proposes that every Project Ride participant would first need a learner’s permit.

Permits are $12, cannot be issued to anyone younger than 16 years old and are valid for a six-month period.

The Act states: “The holder of a learner’s permit shall carry it while operating an auxiliary bicycle during on-road instruction and an on-road test, and present it when requested to do so by a police officer.”

It also said that any visitor must have been, or must intend to be, in Bermuda for at least 30 days in order to apply for a drivers’ licence.

The Auxiliary Cycles (Project Ride) Amendment Act was placed on the order paper for the next meeting of the House.

The Royal Gazette’s Drive for Change road safety campaign, which was commended in Parliament, advocated for the implementation of a mandatory graduated licensing programme in Bermuda including the advancement of Project Ride to include on-road training.

The campaign also advocated for speed cameras and roadside sobriety testing.