moped

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Babetta , a moped from the former Czechoslovakia
Sachs hercules 503
Simson Moped SL 1, the GDR moped

The syllable word moped is derived from mo tor- Fa hrrad or mo torized Fa hrrad. Colloquially they are referred to as Töffli in Switzerland . While in Germany mopeds have been largely replaced by (throttled) scooters , they are still widespread in Switzerland, mainly because they can be driven from the minimum age of 14 years.

history

As a motor bike the first motorcycles were known. In 1929, as part of the global economic crisis, bicycles with add-on motors were developed, which were referred to as bicycles with auxiliary motors after the Second World War . The resulting faster moped equipped with pedals was later technically and legally supplemented by the slower moped.

Switzerland

In 1961, the legal basis for a bicycle with a motor was created in Switzerland , and the first manufacturer on the local market was Pony Motos . Mopeds were widespread among the working class and in agriculture and were part of youth culture . Due to increasing prosperity and the introduction of helmet use and the new category of scooter sales dropped the moped .

Germany

In the FRG on April 23, 1965, the legal basis for a vehicle class below the moped , the license-free moped, was created. Mofaz, the moped with pedals derived, were single-track after the first regulation, single-seat motorized bicycles with a speed not exceeding 25 km as / h and a maximum speed of 4,800 min -1 . The independent, distinctive design of the classic mopeds, combined with the freedom to drive, triggered a moped trend that lasted until the 1980s. At the height of development, 25 manufacturers in Germany offered well over 140 different models. Versions with an electric motor ( Solo Electra ) could not gain acceptance. After 1985 the moped trend subsided and the number of vehicles produced decreased. What remains is a retro scene that appreciates the simple design of the classic mopeds. A classic moped model, the SL 1 , was also briefly produced in the GDR . The moped category did not legally exist in the GDR, however, the SL1 was regularly classified as a bicycle with an auxiliary motor requiring a driver's license, so it was not a sales success.

The moped as a vehicle class remained relevant even after the end of the moped trend - single-seat vehicles throttled to 25 km / h were derived from conventional small motorcycles. With the final elimination of the speed limitation and pedal crank obligation through the EC Directive 2002/24 / EC of March 18, 2002, throttled versions of modern small scooters with V-belt gear , electric starters and a centrifugal clutch pushed the last classic mopeds off the market. Some vehicles without cranks approved by exemptions as a moped before 2002, for example, the Scooter Simson Star 25 or Simson S53 Alpha M . Mopeds still fill a niche in the market today, as there is no driver's license and the minimum age for driving is only 15 years.

In 1987/93, the light moped class was established in Germany - for bicycle-like mopeds with an empty weight of up to 30 kg and a top speed of 20 km / h. Although the class still exists in a legal sense, there are currently no providers of such vehicles in Germany.

Legal

Mopeds are after the EC vehicle class as a moped classified.

Germany

In Germany , a moped is - even without cranks - a single-track bicycle with an auxiliary motor , with which a design-related maximum speed of no more than 25 km / h is achieved and for which you therefore do not need a driving license . A requirement for driving a moped is a minimum age of 15 years and a moped test certificate according to § 5 FeV . Anyone who has a valid driver's license (regardless of the class) or was born before April 1, 1965 does not need a test certificate. To operate on public roads, the vehicle also requires a so-called insurance license plate and an operating permit.

  • Pedelecs up to 25 km / h are considered bicycles.
  • According to the StVRAusnV, e- bikes up to 20 km / h are considered light moped , and helmets are not required for them .
  • E-bikes up to 25 km / h count as moped.
  • S-pedelecs and e-bikes up to 45 km / h require a class AM driving license and are never allowed on footpaths or bike paths.
  • Small electric vehicles are neither bicycles, mopeds, nor e-bikes.

It is mandatory for moped drivers to wear helmets since October 1, 1985.

Since January 19, 2013, mopeds have been allowed to have multiple seats, until then a placeholder bag was mandatory for two-seat scooters.

Below are all traffic signs in the Federal Republic of Germany that explicitly refer to mopeds and e-bikes.

Switzerland

In Switzerland the moped is considered a motor bike . According to Art. 18 Para. A VTS, a moped is a single-seat vehicle with a design-related maximum speed of 30 km / h, a maximum of 1 kW engine power and an internal combustion engine with a maximum displacement of 50 cm³. According to Art. 179 VTS, the moped must have an automatic clutch connected to a single-speed gearbox and it must be possible to move it by means of pedals (pedal crank obligation). Electric bicycles with pedal assistance of up to 45 km / h are also regarded as motorcycles, but their provisions differ from those of mopeds with combustion engines (with a power of up to 500 watts, pedal assistance up to 25 km / h and a design-related top speed of up to 20 km / h is from one Age 16 years no test certificate required).

A category M driver's license is required to operate a motorcycle ; the minimum age for purchase is 14 years. Card holders of other categories are allowed to ride motorbikes. No driver's license was necessary until 1977. As a transitional provision, it was defined that people who were born before June 30, 1963 and did not have a driver's license could obtain a category M driver's license between July 1, 1977 and January 1, 1980 ( Art. 151 VZV).

Current designs

The pedals of classic mopeds are used to start the engine, to brake and as a step surface for the feet. A few manufacturers still produce classic mopeds such as Pony or Tomos . In Switzerland , based on Art. 179 VTS and the category M driver's license , such models still have a relevant market share, especially for 14 and 15-year-old road users.

Piaggio Zip Scooter 25, a motor scooter as a typical moped of today (Germany)

Classic mopeds play a subordinate role in Germany. There they largely correspond to the motor scooter in terms of design and appearance , but they are single-seated and their design-related maximum speed is limited to 25 km / h by limiting the speed (engine) and / or limiting the transmission ratio (transmission). Almost all manufacturers of scooters also offer their vehicles in a moped version.

environmental pollution

According to a study by an international team of researchers published in 2014, two-stroke scooters and mopeds emit significantly more organic aerosols than other motor vehicles, both when idling and when driving . For hydrocarbons , the values ​​were 124 times, for aerosols up to 771 times higher. According to this study, such vehicles are responsible for a large part of the harmful emissions, although they only make up a small part of the means of transport on the roads. The results show that scooters with two-stroke engines are “asymmetrical air pollutants” which, in “extreme cases, are responsible for up to 96 percent of the organic emissions in the streets”. Even waiting behind a two-stroke motor scooter at a traffic light can be “extremely harmful to health”.

See also

Web links

Wiktionary: Moped  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. a b They still exist, the Töffli. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . February 28, 2008 ( nzz.ch ).
  2. Der Bund : A mass vehicle has become a niche product , accessed on September 18, 2015.
  3. ^ Ordinance amending the Road Traffic Licensing Regulations of April 23, 1965, Federal Law Gazette Part I, p. 344.
  4. MOTORCYCLE catalog 1972/73. Pp. 240-243; MOTORRAD Catalog 1976. pp. 238-240; Motorbike 4/1980. Pp. 42-50.
  5. a b Directive 2002/24 / EG (PDF)
  6. a b Peter Hentschel (greeting), Peter König , Peter Dauer (editing): Road traffic law. Comment. 41st edition. Beck, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-406-60991-6 , p. 1292.
  7. Section 4 (1) sentence 2 no. 1 FeV
  8. Section 5 (1) sentence 2 FeV
  9. Section 76 (3) FeV
  10. ifz - Statement on the subject of "Obligation to wear helmets for motorized two-wheelers" ( Memento from November 18, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  11. § 4 FeV (accessed on April 25, 2017)
  12. tomos.ch
  13. SM Platt et al .: Two-stroke scooters are a dominant source of air pollution in many cities . In: Nature Communications . 13, No. 5, 2014. doi : 10.1038 / ncomms4749 .
  14. Toxic two-stroke engines. On: Wissenschaft.de from May 13, 2014.