“Ride for Ride,” is the name of a newly introduced Dutch law allowing any student over 18 years old learning to drive a car, motorcycle, truck, or bus to offer his or her body in exchange for the accredited lessons, Metro reported Saturday.
If one has a valid escort license and pays due taxes, it is legal to practice prostitution in the Netherlands.
Government officials point out that both the student and the teacher should transact payment outside of the process of driving, for safety’s sake.
“It’s not about offering sexual activities for remuneration, but offering a driving lesson,” the Transport Minister Melanie Schultz van Haegen and Justice Minister Ard van der Steur said, according to Metro. “It is important that the initiative [to accept any proffered sexual payment] lies with the driving instructor, and focuses on offering a driving lesson, with the payment provided in sexual acts. When a sexual act is offered in lieu of financial payment, that is prostitution,” they explained.
Not everyone in the country is happy with the law. Conservatives from the Christian Union Party reportedly demanded that the national parliament criminalize the practice.