How come ATV's are not road legal in Thailand?

[modsquad]

Inadvertently deleted post. Here is the original entry.


by allied on Sun Oct 16, 2011 11:41 am
I am at a loss to understand why all terrain vehicles (quad bikes) are not road legal in Thailand. Many of the roads in Thailand are rough which is why most ofter people drive 4x4 or pick ups. If you go to Europe or the US you can buy a ATV which is legally approaved for use on the road. Although you can buy ATV in Thailand they tend to mostly be low cost, low quality. I am reluctant to buy some of these machines as there is no safety standard for these mchines and in Thailandand they are a non exisitant classification of vehicle. Why not make them legal, apply standards, and ensure that only good quality safe prducts are sold and used? Riden properly these machines an be safer and more practical than a motor bike.

[banmebkk]

ATV's are only road legal in some areas in Europe and US, they are not legal everywhere. In areas where it is legal, it is only legal on roads under a certain speed limit (eg. 40mph). I think atvs would be more dangerous in thai roads due to the speed and lack of agility.

Drivers here don't drive properly which makes the ATV a dangerous equipment to be on. A motorbike can at least dodge and weave in between cars, ATV is a sitting duck in traffic or on the road and has a higher change of being hit on the road.

[allied]

I am affraid that is not correct. There are proceedures in place in all EEC countries wich allow you to register an off-road vehicle for use on public roads (in Thailand there is no proceedure - that I am aware of)
As roads in Europe could broadly be regarded as a better standard than roads in Thailand, it would seem to make a lot of sense to allow people to ride ATV's legally and put compliance and registration proceedures in place to govern them.
Otherwse the cheapest options are the only ones available and they are not compliant to anything except being cheap - but are they being used on the road anyway?
I am not sure I agree that motorbikes are safer than ATV's either. ATVs get a lot of bad press from accidents at so called ATV Parks, which tend to be very poorly managed. Cheapest machines - probably poorly maintained, riders with little or no experience, very little training and little to no safety equipment. I have visted three of these parks and found them all to be of this ilk. The riders then attemp a challenging course which they are not prepared for. The result - accidents!
There may be good ATV parks in Thailand I have not visited them all!
If you did the same thing for motor bikes (or any other vehicle) I think you would get more accidents on motor bikes as the rider has to balance the bike as well as negotiate the obsticles.

[skywarp]

I am not sure that I agree that ATV should be made road legal.
There are so many accidents that you hear of where people get hurt or killed because they overturned their ATV's.
How would making these things road legal help the transport in Thailand?
I do agree that there are a lot of cheap products around and some form of safety regulation would be a good thing regardless of making them road legal or not!

[hawaiiman]

ATV's can be made road legal in Thailand...just go for it, and when busted show your ATV use permit (500b note).

[alfredosil]

I am not sure that I agree that ATV should be made road legal.
There are so many accidents that you hear of where people get hurt or killed because they overturned their ATV's.
How would making these things road legal help the transport in Thailand?
I do agree that there are a lot of cheap products around and some form of safety regulation would be a good thing regardless of making them road legal or not!

Why do you think that ATV should not be made legal? I mean Thailand's producing them. Big countries are legalizing it. It can help Thailand's transportation in many big ways! Do you have anything negative on your mind that may cause by legalizing ATV?


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