Can You Ride a Motorcycle With a Learner's Permit in Massachusetts?

Yes, but two things are off the table and both are in the statute rather than in anyone’s policy manual. G.L. c. 90, sec. 8B provides that a learner’s permit restricted to the operation of a motorcycle “shall not entitle him to carry any passenger while operating such motorcycle upon any way or to operate a motorcycle upon any way at any time after sunset or before sunrise.” No passenger, and no riding in the dark. Those are the two motorcycle-specific limits, they apply from the day the permit is issued, and they do not soften with experience. Around them sits the ordinary permit machinery: you must be at least sixteen, the permit runs two years or until you are licensed, and if you are under eighteen there is a separate midnight to 5 a.m. bar on top. There is also a renewal trap that catches riders who let the season go by without booking a road test, and a cross-reference in the statute that points at a section of the General Laws that no longer exists. To talk through a Massachusetts motorcycle crash, call Jim Glaser Law at (617) JIM-WINS. The line is answered 24 hours a day. The first telephone consultation is offered without charge.

The Two Restrictions, in the Statute’s Own Words

Most of what people are told about motorcycle permits in Massachusetts is a paraphrase of a paraphrase, so it is worth reading the operative clause once.

Section 8B describes a learner’s permit generally, then adds provisos. The one that matters here reads: “provided, further, that if the applicant has been issued a learner’s permit restricted to the operation of a motorcycle, said learner’s permit shall not entitle him to carry any passenger while operating such motorcycle upon any way or to operate a motorcycle upon any way at any time after sunset or before sunrise.”

Three things follow from the words themselves.

“Any passenger” means any passenger. There is no exception for an experienced rider riding pillion, none for a licensed instructor, and none for a short trip. A motorcycle permit is a single-occupant document.

The night limit is tied to sunset and sunrise, not to a clock time. This is the part riders get wrong most often, because every other night restriction in the chapter is written as an hour. Sunset in Massachusetts moves by roughly three hours across the year. A permit ride that is lawful at 7:30 p.m. in late June is unlawful at the same hour in October, and nothing about the permit has changed. The limit tracks the sun.

“Upon any way” is the reach of both limits. That phrase is the standard Massachusetts formulation for a public way and places to which the public has a right of access, and it is what makes these restrictions rules of the road rather than rules about where you keep the bike. A closed private course is a different question and is not what this article is about.

Who Can Get One, and How Long It Lasts

Section 8B opens the door at sixteen: “Any person who is at least sixteen years of age,” other than a person whose license is revoked or suspended or whose right to operate the registrar has suspended, “may apply to the registrar for a learner’s permit.” An applicant submits evidence of age, and the registrar may refuse to issue if there is reasonable cause to suspect a document is altered, false or otherwise invalid.

The permit issues, in the statute’s phrasing, “after the applicant has successfully passed all parts of the examination other than the driving test.” That is the shape of the thing worth holding on to: a permit is what you hold between the written examination and the road test, and the road test is the event that ends it.

Validity is fixed. Any learner’s permit “shall be valid for two years from the date of issue or until the holder shall have received a license to operate, whichever first occurs.” Two years is generous, and it is the source of the problem in the next section.

The Renewal Trap, Which Is Specific to Motorcycles

This paragraph of section 8B applies to motorcycle permits and to nothing else, and it is the single most consequential thing in the statute for a rider who is not in a hurry.

“No such motorcycle learner’s permit which has expired shall be renewed unless the applicant successfully passes such parts of the examination other than the driving test as the registrar may require; and unless said applicant has taken at least one driving test during the period when the learner’s permit was valid.”

Read the second condition slowly. It is not enough to re-sit the written test. To renew an expired motorcycle permit you must have actually taken a driving test while the old one was alive. Not passed one. Taken one. A rider who gets a permit in April, rides through one summer, lets the second summer slip, and turns up at the end of year two having never booked a road test is not in a position to renew. The statute closes that door on the ground that the permit was never meant to be a two-year licence to ride alone in daylight.

Answer Capsule

A Massachusetts motorcycle learner’s permit does allow you to ride on a public way, and G.L. c. 90, sec. 8B forbids exactly two things while you hold one: carrying any passenger, and operating a motorcycle “at any time after sunset or before sunrise.” The night limit follows the sun rather than a clock hour. The minimum age is sixteen, the permit is valid two years from issue or until a license is granted, whichever comes first, and a holder under eighteen also may not operate between 12 a.m. and 5 a.m. unless accompanied by a licensed parent or guardian with at least a year of driving experience. An expired motorcycle permit cannot be renewed unless the applicant re-passes the non-driving parts of the examination and took at least one driving test while the permit was valid. Failing the driving test twice triggers a mandatory rider training course before another test can be scheduled. Riding outside these limits is treated as operating without being duly licensed under section 8B and carries permit suspensions of 60 days, 180 days and one year for first, second and third offenses. Under G.L. c. 231, sec. 85 a violation like that is evidence of negligence in a later injury case; it is not a bar to recovery. Call Jim Glaser Law at (617) JIM-WINS. The first telephone consultation is offered without charge.

Fail the Road Test Twice and a Course Becomes Mandatory

The sentence immediately after the renewal bar sets up a consequence that surprises people: “If such applicant fails the driving test twice he shall be required to successfully complete a course of study at an approved rider training school as provided for in section 35G of chapter 10, prior to scheduling a subsequent driving test.”

So two failures is the trigger, the course is mandatory rather than recommended, and it has to be completed before a third test can even be scheduled.

Now the part that is genuinely odd, and that is reported here because it is checkable and because nothing else on the subject seems to mention it. G.L. c. 10, sec. 35G, the section that sentence points at by name, has been repealed. The Legislature’s own page for it reads, in full: “Section 35G: Repealed, 2003, 26, Sec. 35.” Section 8B still sends the reader to it.

What that means in practice is narrower than it looks, and it is worth being careful rather than dramatic about it. The obligation in section 8B is not void because its cross-reference is stale; the duty to complete a course at an approved rider training school is stated in section 8B itself, and the cross-reference is describing where such schools were provided for rather than creating the duty. What the repeal does mean is that anyone trying to work out from the statute alone which schools qualify will follow the citation into an empty section. The current administration of rider training in Massachusetts sits with the Registry of Motor Vehicles rather than in chapter 10, and this article does not describe that program in detail because the Registry’s own pages could not be retrieved at the time of writing. Ask the Registry, or the school, whether a given course satisfies section 8B before paying for it.

If You Are Under Eighteen, There Is a Second Night Rule

A junior operator’s permit carries its own restriction, and it stacks on top of the motorcycle one rather than replacing it.

Section 8B provides that if the applicant is under eighteen, “the learner’s permit shall not entitle him to operate a motor vehicle between the hours of 12 a.m. and 5 a.m.,” unless accompanied by a parent or legal guardian who holds a valid license and has at least one year of driving experience, or in the case of an emancipated minor a person twenty-one or older with a valid license and a year of experience, “who occupies the seat beside the driver.”

For a sixteen or seventeen year old on a motorcycle permit the practical effect is that the earlier restriction swallows the later one. Sunset in Massachusetts never falls later than about 8:25 p.m., so a rider who is already barred from riding after sunset is barred long before midnight arrives. The midnight rule still matters for the same permit holder in a car, and the statute’s exception, which requires the accompanying adult to occupy “the seat beside the driver,” is written for a vehicle that has one.

The registrar is also required to notify a parent or guardian of the suspension of a junior operator’s learner’s permit for a violation of the chapter, unless the junior operator is an emancipated minor.

What Happens If You Ride Outside the Permit

Section 8B treats riding outside the permit’s terms as a licensing offense rather than a technicality. A holder who operates without the accompanying driver the statute requires “shall be deemed to be operating a motor vehicle without being duly licensed and, in addition to any fine or penalty, shall have his learner’s permit suspended for 60 days for a first offense, for 180 days for a second offense and for 1 year for a third or subsequent offense,” and must reapply for the permit before a license can issue under section 8. On a second offense the holder must also complete a program selected by the registrar “that encourages attitudinal changes in young drivers who have committed a violation of the motor vehicle laws.” The identical ladder of 60 days, 180 days and one year appears again for a violation of the under-eighteen night paragraph.

Two neighbouring sections are worth knowing about.

G.L. c. 90, sec. 10 is the general rule the permit is an exception to. It provides that no person under sixteen years of age shall operate a motor vehicle upon any way, and that no other person shall operate “unless licensed by the registrar” or unless “he possesses a valid learner’s permit issued under section eight B.” The permit is what stands between a rider and an unlicensed operation charge, which is why riding outside its terms is framed as operating without being duly licensed.

G.L. c. 90, sec. 12 reaches the person who owns the bike. Whoever, “being the owner or person in control of a motor vehicle, knowingly permits such motor vehicle to be operated by a person who is unlicensed or whose license has been suspended or revoked” faces, for a first offense, a fine of not more than $1,000 or imprisonment in a house of correction for not more than one year. Lending a motorcycle to someone who is not entitled to be riding it is its own exposure.

There is one more limit that has nothing to do with enforcement and everything to do with planning. A permit valid for two years allows its holder no more than six driving tests in the first year and no more than six in the second. If the registrar issued a permit for a shorter period, the cap is six in the first year and one for each two months after that.

What a Permit Violation Does to an Injury Claim

This is where the licensing question stops being administrative, and it is the part a rider hurt by somebody else usually wants answered first: if I was riding at dusk, or carrying a friend, does that end my claim?

No. Under G.L. c. 231, sec. 85, “the violation of a criminal statute, ordinance or regulation by a plaintiff which contributed to said injury, death or damage, shall be considered as evidence of negligence of that plaintiff, but the violation of said statute, ordinance or regulation shall not as a matter of law and for that reason alone, serve to bar a plaintiff from recovery.”

That sentence does real work. A permit violation is evidence the other side may put in front of a jury. It is not a switch that turns the claim off. The same section sets the framework the evidence feeds into: contributory negligence does not bar recovery so long as the injured person’s share of the negligence “was not greater than the total amount of negligence attributable to” the people they are suing, and damages are reduced in proportion to that share. It also abolishes the defense of assumption of risk outright, and it puts the burden of proving the injured person’s negligence on the party asserting it, with the plaintiff “presumed to have been in the exercise of due care.” The mechanics of that apportionment are covered in the article on comparative negligence and partial fault.

There is a second point, and it is the one adjusters tend to skip past. Section 85 says the violation must be one “which contributed to said injury.” A rider carrying a passenger who is rear-ended at a red light by a distracted driver has violated the permit, and the violation has no causal connection to being rear-ended at a red light. Whether a breach contributed is a question about this collision rather than a label attached to the rider.

None of that makes riding outside the permit a good idea. It does mean a permit violation is an argument about the percentage rather than the end of the conversation, and a rider who assumes otherwise may simply not make the call.

Insurance Does Not Work the Way It Does in a Car

A rider on a permit is in the same insurance position as any other Massachusetts motorcyclist, which is not the position a car occupant is in.

A Massachusetts motorcycle policy does not provide personal injury protection to the person on the motorcycle, so there is no no-fault layer paying the first medical bills while fault is worked out. That single absence changes the shape of a motorcycle claim in both directions, and the consequences, including the Supreme Judicial Court’s decision in Murphy v. Bohn, 377 Mass. 544 (1979), are set out in the article on Massachusetts motorcycle accident law. A permit holder should read it before assuming a crash will be handled the way a fender bender in a car was handled. The compulsory coverages that do apply to the bike are covered in Massachusetts car insurance requirements.

Two related questions come up often enough to point at directly. Whether riding between lanes is permitted is answered in lane splitting in Massachusetts. Where motorcycle crashes in the Commonwealth actually happen, by municipality and by road type, is measured in where motorcycle accidents happen in Massachusetts. That second one is worth a permit holder’s time for a practical reason: just over half of Massachusetts motorcycle crashes are not at an intersection, which is not where a new rider expects the risk to be.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Can I carry a passenger on a Massachusetts motorcycle learner’s permit?

A: No. G.L. c. 90, sec. 8B provides that a learner’s permit restricted to the operation of a motorcycle does not entitle the holder “to carry any passenger while operating such motorcycle upon any way.” There is no exception in the statute for an experienced rider, a licensed instructor, or a short trip. The restriction applies for as long as you are riding on the permit rather than on a license.

Q: Can I ride at night on a motorcycle permit in Massachusetts?

A: No. The same proviso in section 8B bars a motorcycle permit holder from operating “upon any way at any time after sunset or before sunrise.” The limit is tied to sunset and sunrise rather than to a clock hour, which means the lawful window shrinks and grows through the year. A ride that ends at 7:30 p.m. is inside the window in late June and outside it in October.

Q: How old do you have to be to get a motorcycle permit in Massachusetts?

A: Sixteen. Section 8B allows any person at least sixteen years of age to apply, excepting people whose licenses are not in force because of revocation or suspension and people whose right to operate the registrar has suspended. A holder under eighteen is also barred from operating between 12 a.m. and 5 a.m. unless accompanied by a licensed parent or guardian with at least a year of driving experience, though for a motorcycle the sunset restriction bites long before midnight.

Q: How long is a Massachusetts motorcycle learner’s permit good for?

A: Two years from the date of issue, or until the holder receives a license to operate, whichever happens first. Within that period the holder may take no more than six driving tests in the first year and no more than six in the second. If the registrar issued the permit for less than two years, the cap is six tests in the first year and one for each two months thereafter.

Q: What happens if my motorcycle permit expires before I take the road test?

A: You are in the one trap the statute sets specifically for motorcycle permits. Section 8B provides that an expired motorcycle learner’s permit shall not be renewed unless the applicant re-passes such parts of the examination other than the driving test as the registrar requires, and unless the applicant “has taken at least one driving test during the period when the learner’s permit was valid.” Taking a test and failing it satisfies that second condition. Never booking one does not.

Q: What happens if I fail the motorcycle road test twice in Massachusetts?

A: Section 8B requires the applicant to successfully complete a course of study at an approved rider training school before a subsequent driving test may be scheduled. It is a precondition to scheduling rather than a suggestion. The statute identifies those schools by a cross-reference to section 35G of chapter 10, and that section was repealed in 2003, so the citation no longer leads anywhere; confirm with the Registry of Motor Vehicles or the school itself that a particular course satisfies the requirement before paying for it.

Q: Can I still bring an injury claim if I was riding outside my permit restrictions?

A: Generally yes. Under G.L. c. 231, sec. 85, a plaintiff’s violation of a criminal statute, ordinance or regulation that contributed to the injury is considered evidence of that plaintiff’s negligence, but the violation “shall not as a matter of law and for that reason alone, serve to bar a plaintiff from recovery.” Recovery is barred only if the injured person’s share of the negligence is greater than that of the people they are suing, and damages are otherwise reduced in proportion to that share. The statute also requires the violation to have contributed to the injury, so a restriction that had nothing to do with how the collision happened is a weaker argument than it first sounds. How that plays out depends on the specific facts, which is a reason to ask rather than to assume.

Q: Does my permit status affect who pays my medical bills after a crash?

A: Not directly, but being on a motorcycle does. A Massachusetts motorcycle policy does not provide personal injury protection to the rider, so there is no no-fault layer paying medical expenses while fault is sorted out, and a health plan is generally the payer from the first dollar. That is true of licensed riders and permit holders alike. The consequences of that absence, which cut in the injured rider’s favour on some questions and against on others, are set out in the Massachusetts motorcycle accident law article.

Q: Is Jimmy Knows AI giving me legal advice?

A: No. This is general information about Massachusetts law, not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney client relationship. Licensing rules are administered by the Registry of Motor Vehicles and its practices and fees change without any change in the statute, and whether any of this applies to a particular situation depends on facts that are not in this article. For advice about your own case, speak with a Massachusetts attorney.

Talking to a Lawyer

A permit is a document about learning to ride. It is not a statement about who caused a collision, and the two questions get run together more often than they should, usually by the person on the other side of the claim.

If you were hurt on a Massachusetts road while riding, the things that decide the case are the ordinary ones: the sight lines, the vehicle damage, the road surface, the treatment record, and the people who saw it. Those are also the things that fade fastest.

Jim Glaser Law can be reached at (617) JIM-WINS. The line is answered 24 hours a day. The first telephone consultation is offered without charge.