It is estimated that there are 1.6 million motorcycles in the country and that nearly 700,000 of them do not have license plates to use on the roads. This is why as of the first of April, the government will launch the Motorcycle Regulation and Control Program. The Department of Taxes (DGII) will spend RD$367 million on the license plates this year, says the director of the Metropolitan Transport Authority (AMET), General Juan Geronimo Brown Perez. He told Diario Libre that the government has already set up five locations for issuing license plates: two in Greater Santo Domingo, and one each in San Cristobal, Santiago and La Altagracia. He said that the plates will be issued to motorcycle owners free of charge until 1 December, but that as of that date (1 December 2013) anyone interested in obtaining a plate will have to pay RD$1,500.
General Brown added that this program includes the creation of the AMET Vehicle Identification Department, which will be managed together with the National Police Pilot Plan, to identify and normalize the status of the existing motorcycle fleet in the DR. “Over the next three months we could be normalizing 300,000 motorcycle drivers and after that a further 250,000.” The process will start with motorcycle drivers who are affiliated to moto-taxi federations, who are estimated to total about 500,000,” he said.
According to official statistics, most accidents in the Dominican Republic involve motorcycles.