A Guide to Motorcycle Insurance in New Jersey (NJ)
New Jersey is called ‘The Garden State’ with good reason, because although New Jersey is relatively small and densely populated there are still a surprising amount of open spaces, and the highways are amongst the busiest in all of the United States. In fact, the George Washington Bridge has over 300,000 vehicles cross it EVERY DAY! And motorcyclists are well represented amongst that number.
In this article I am going to be looking at New Jersey Motorcycle Insurance and explore what your choices are when it comes to getting covered.
What are the states minimums for New Jersey Motorcycle Insurance?
There are certain state minimums for motorcycle insurance in New Jersey that you will at least have to have if you want to ride your bike legally.
These are:
$15,000 – Bodily injury Liability for one person
$30,000 – Bodily injury liability for one accident
$5,000 – Property Damage Liability Cover
This is typically referred to as 15/30/5 cover.
Are the NJ Motorcycle Insurance Minimums adequate?
One question that it is well-worth asking about the New Jersey Motorcycle Insurance minimums is whether or not they are high enough. In other words should you get more cover?
The real answer is that you probably should, because they are actually considerably lower then most other states, and in some cases multiple times lower. Maine for example has a minimum of 50/100/25 cover, so demands at least three times as much cover in each of the three categories (five times as much for property liability cover), and even then those numbers were not designed as the optimum amounts of cover that you could possibly buy.
These are minimums, so it cannot help but lead most normal people to wonder why NJ demands so little insurance? Without delving into the minds of the state’s legislators it is impossible to answer that question, but it should at least make you think that getting at a minimum of Maine levels of cover might be a good idea.
In addition there are other types of cover that are not included in basic motorcycle insurance policies in NJ and so you may want to add them in.
Firstly, in any more comprehensive New Jersey Motorcycle Insurance you would need cover for if your motorcycle was stolen, because this is a far more common event then you may realise (a motorcycle gets stolen every seven and half SECONDS in the United States); and it is primarily built up suburban communities such as you would find in the big cities of New Jersey like Newark, Jersey City or Paterson that suffer disproportionately from motorcycle theft.
It is also important to realise that these motorcycle thefts largely go unsolved in the US, and only about one in five motorcycles that are stolen are ever returned to their rightful owners.
Secondly would be cover for vandalism, accidental damage and fires. This cover also would generally come with full coverage New Jersey Motorcycle Insurance but would not be in evidence if you were simply aiming to be road legal, but were not all that concerned at the overall depth and usefulness of the motorcycle insurance which you were purchasing. So it is a good idea to check in with any potential policies that you are looking to get and see what is included.
A third element that you should look into is underinsured/uninsured driver cover. This has been made much more necessary in recent years because there are now a significant minority of people who drive without any insurance (it is estimated to be about 15%). And so if you find yourself in an accident with a driver who does not have any insurance, then ordinarily that would be a big problem. However if you have taken out special cover to allow for that possibility then you would be covered.
Overall it is essential that you apply some common sense to the subject of getting your New Jersey Motorcycle Insurance sorted out, because $5000 of property damage cover is not going to buy a whole lot if you have an accident with a Mercedes Benz! And even if you were ‘road legal’ when you had the accident, that is not going to be a very comforting thought as you write out the check to cover the balance of any accident not covered by the small amount of insurance you purchased.
Instead, take action right now and get a variety of NJ Motorcycle Insurance Quotes and compare and contrast the different types and levels of cover to see what you can really afford.
Firstly, in any more comprehensive New Jersey Motorcycle Insurance you would need cover for if your motorcycle was stolen, because this is a far more common event then you may realise (a motorcycle gets stolen every seven and half SECONDS in the United States); and it is primarily built up suburban communities such as you would find in the big cities of New Jersey like Newark, Jersey City or Paterson that suffer disproportionately from motorcycle theft.
