Bali Wants To Change How Tourists Hire Motorcycles Following Fatal Collisions 

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In November alone three tourists in Bali have been reported to have died in traffic collisions on the island’s roads.

Tragically, around this time last year Bali also saw a sharp rise in the number of fatalities on the roads. With this in mind, authorities in Buleleng Regency are working to change the way tourists hire vehicles in hopes the same approach may be adopted island-wide. 

In November three foreign nationals were killed on Buleleng Regency’s roads in separate incidents. On 3rd November a 24-year-old British tourist died in a hit-and-run in Tajun Village in broad daylight.

On 11th November a Czech tourist was killed in a collision with a truck in Pemuteran Village. On 14th November a 24-year-old Czech citizen was killed in a collision with a pickup truck in Pejarakan Village. 

@frasjee Ubud, bali 🌴🌱🌿🎍. Missing it 🙁 #ubud#moped#bali#fyp #traveltiktok#travel#view ♬ original sound – ᶠᵉˣⁱ

Concerned by the rising number of tourist collisions on Bali’s roads the Head of Traffic Unit for Buleleng Police, AKP Bachtiar Arifin, has spoken to reporters about how and where changes must be made.

AKP Arifin told reporters “What is clear is that we will carry out outreach to rental services and hotels, including limiting and selectively using motorbikes, especially foreign nationals.”

He continued to explain that hotel owners who provide motorbike rental services will be asked to take preventative steps by accompanying foreign guests themselves if they want to travel by motorbike. 

@sharonnlj #balibikes ♬ original sound – sharonL

He said, “This is part of an effort to maintain the safety of foreigners staying at the hotels they accompany.” 

AKP Arifin reminded tourists and motorcycle rental providers that the requirement for foreigners to ride motorbikes on the streets of Indonesia is to at least have an international driver’s license and to obey the laws of the road such as wearing a helmet. 

He added “Apart from that, we will increase patrols in places where there are many foreigners. We will even carry out law enforcement if foreigners are found to be violating this.”

@amberlyvaleriano day three in Bali 🇮🇩 today we made the adventurous choice of renting a moped to get around Uluwatu 🏍️ it was tough at first but we got the hang of it pretty quicly and provided us with a cheap and easy way to get around and gave us a lot more options on things to do 👒 we started the day with breakfast at Drifter Surf Shop for the best pancakes, and then off to Suluban Beach during low tide 👙 after relaxing at the beach we headed back to get cleaned up and properly dressed for our visit to the Uluwatu Temple for the sunset Kecak Fire Dance show 🔥 #uluwatu #uluwatutemple #bali #indonesia #sulubanbeach #travel #thingstodo #kecakfiredance ♬ original sound – 𝔼𝕕𝕚𝕥𝕫𝕫_𝕓𝕪.𝕛𝕡

Earlier this year, before his term as Bali governor came to a close, Wayan Koster formally banned tourists from hiring mopeds directly from local people.

Ex-Governor Koster doubled down on laws that state that foreigners may only rent vehicles from authorized providers.

Koster made it clear that tourists can only hire a motorcycle from a business that is fully registered with the relevant provincial and national trade agencies or the transportation rental association in Bali.

This reinforcement of the law means that tourists cannot rent a motorcycle from an accommodation provider owner, local friend, or motorcycle rental owner who is not a formally registered motorcycle rental company. 

It is evident that AKP Arifin and his teams in Buleleng Regency want to take this a step further and are calling on rental providers to take more responsibility over their rental vehicles and who they lease them out to. 

Tourists planning their next visit to Bali and who are planning to hire a motorcycle are being urged to check and double-check the nuances of their travel, health, and driving insurance policies.

Over the last decade, there have been countless cases of tourists in Bali who hopped on a rental moped thinking they were unconditionally covered in the event of a collision.

Far too many tourists have learned only when it is too late that a tiny detail on their insurance policy, such as only being covered for moped up to 125cc or needing to have converted their driving licenses into international licenses, means that they will not be covered for their medical bills; many of which have been hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Every policy from every provider and every country is different, and tourists are urged to be super clear about their coverage before making any decisions about driving in Bali, especially this festive season.