Stricter vehicle inspections from 2017

The government has officially proposed to tighten the city’s regulations on vehicle inspections, which currently require vehicles 10 years of age or older to undergo annual inspections. The new regulations would require inspections for vehicles eight years of age or older.
Last week, the Executive Council announced the bill amending the city’s current road traffic regulations, which also proposes annual mandatory inspections for light 50cc motorbikes that are five years of age or older, as opposed to the current eight years.
The proposal suggests that the bill be implemented from July 1, 2017.
In fact, the government had intended to make the city’s vehicle inspections stricter in 2014, when the Transport Bureau was still being overseen by its ex-director Wong Wan. The plan aims to limit the annual growth in the number of vehicles to within four per cent.
The same bill also proposes to allow residents to get a driving license for heavy motorbikes of below 400cc by conducting the exam with automatic-transmission bikes.
But the vice director of the Transport Bureau, Luis Correia Gageiro stressed in a press briefing of the Executive Council last week, that those drivers who get a license with automatic-transmission bikes would not be allowed to ride manual-transmission motorbikes, according to Chinese-language newspaper Macao Daily News.
He added that the government would not introduce specific laws to eliminate 50cc scooters in the local market. He believes that demand for theses types of light motorbikes will naturally shrink given the decrease in the number of granted licenses.