Arizona Motorcycle Safety Course
Verified against MVD-approved motorcycle education program ·
Compiled and verified against primary state DMV/DPS/BMV sources by GetMotorcycleLicense Research Team — cite-or-deny, with no invented figures. How we source & verify →
Arizona does not require any rider to complete a motorcycle safety course before getting the license. This page covers who runs the course, what it costs, how long it takes, and exactly which tests completing it can waive.
Arizona's motorcycle safety course requirements — including completion waiving the state skills test — are verified against MVD-approved motorcycle education program (see Arizona Department of Transportation — Motorcycle License (testing waiver)), current as of 2026-07-28.
Arizona Motorcycle Safety Course at a Glance
| Program | MVD-approved motorcycle education program |
|---|---|
| Who runs it | More than thirty privately operated schools approved by the Arizona Motor Vehicle Division, supported by the Governor's Office of Highway Safety through the Motorcycle Safety Fund (A.R.S. § 28-2010) and guided by the Arizona Motorcycle Safety Advisory Council |
| Delivery model | State-approved sponsorsThe state licenses sponsors, who set their own tuition; the rider picks among them at market price. |
| Typical cost | — |
| Course length | — |
| Mandatory under age | No — not required at any age |
| Waives the riding skills test | Yes |
| Waives the knowledge test | Yes |
Arizona has no single state-run training program; MVD approves and lists more than thirty independent driving schools that offer motorcycle courses, findable on MVD's interactive driving-school map, each setting its own class schedule and tuition. The Motorcycle Operator Manual is reprinted, with ADOT's permission, from the Motorcycle Safety Foundation's national manual, and is funded jointly by the Governor's Office of Highway Safety and the Arizona Motorcycle Safety Advisory Council through the Motorcycle Safety Fund, into which $1 of every motorcycle registration fee is deposited under A.R.S. § 28-2010. An applicant under 18 may complete this education program, or have a parent or guardian certify 30 hours of riding practice instead, so a course is never the only route to a license below 18.
What Arizona’s course covers
Arizona teaches the Basic RiderCourse (BRC), developed by Motorcycle Safety Foundation. Full detail here.
The Motorcycle Safety Foundation's Basic RiderCourse is designed for beginning riders aged 16 and up, pairing about five hours of classroom or online learning with about ten hours of on-motorcycle training, and it ends in a written knowledge test and a rider skills test.
Once you complete the course, see license requirements in Arizona.
Source Notes
Where a source is stale, conflicting, or required a judgment call, we document it here rather than presenting a single confident-sounding number. See our methodology for how these calls are made.
- Licence classes, ages, fees and testing requirements come from the Arizona Department of Transportation's Motor Vehicle Division. Training facts come from MVD's list of approved driving schools and the Motorcycle Operator Manual's own front matter. Helmet and eye-protection rules come from the Arizona Revised Statutes.
- Arizona has no single state-run motorcycle training programme. MVD approves more than thirty independently operated schools, each setting its own price and schedule; no statewide tuition figure is published.
- Completing an MVD-approved motorcycle course and presenting the Motorcycle Safety Foundation completion card waives both the written and the road test for an applicant of any age.
- Arizona's helmet law applies only to riders under 18. An operator or passenger who is 18 or older may ride without a helmet.
means no primary source publishes that figure — left blank on purpose rather than estimated or copied from an unverified aggregator.
Sources
- Arizona Department of Transportation — Motorcycle License (testing waiver)
- Arizona Department of Transportation — Driving Schools
- Arizona Motorcycle Operator Manual (17th revision), ADOT/Governor's Office of Highway Safety front matter
- Arizona Revised Statutes § 28-2010 (Motorcycle safety fund; administration)
Data last verified: 2026-07-28 (verified by: agent) | Source: Arizona Department of Transportation — Motorcycle License (testing waiver)