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STUDY URGED ON MOTORBIKE SPEED LIMITERS
By Peter Woodman, PA Transport Correspondent
MPs called today for a Government study on the possibility of introducing speed limiters on motorbikes.
Motorcycle accident rates were "far too high" and it was time for "radical action", a report from the House of Commons Transport Committee added.
It was also "unacceptable" that the biggest motorcycles were more polluting than cars, the committee said, and the illegal use of mini motos by adults as well as children was "making life a misery for communities up and down the country".
In a report on the Government's motorcycling strategy, the committee said that motorbike accident rates had been far too high for 10 years.
MPs said a case had been made to the committee for limiting the speed of more powerful motorcycles, though some technical issues still needed to be resolved.
The report went on: "We recommend that the Government commission.....research on the viability of introducing speed limiters on motorcycles in order to stimulate a sensible debate of the options."
The committee added that the Government had to support the development of cleaner bikes and that the fact that the heavier bikes were more polluting than cars was possibly another argument in favour of "reducing the maximum power and speed that is available on these vehicles".
The report said that until 2001 the market for mini motos and other bikes that come under the heading of Motorcycles for Use on Private Property (MUPP) was small at about 7,000 new bikes a year.
But it was estimated that around 170,000 MUPPs of various kinds were imported into the UK market in 2005 and that there have been at least seven deaths due to mini motos since mid-2004, five of which were children under the age of 15.
The committee said the police had powers to seize and crush mini motos being driven illegally off or on the road and in an anti-social manner.
The report went on: "Where the police have a `blitz' on these vehicles in an area, it can lead to a reduction in the short-term.
"In the long-term, the results are not as conclusive. We recommend that the Government undertake a review of enforcement against mini motos to gauge whether police blitzes work to reduce anti-social behaviour in the longer term."
The report said that a trial to see if these off-road vehicles ought to be officially registered might help.
The MPs said it was "particularly worrying that parents are purchasing these vehicles for their children without understanding that they can be dangerous".
The committee said the Government should consider including mini motos as part of its Think! campaign on road safety.
The committee added that there should be a duty on retailers to sell mini motos responsibly and it was "irresponsible and unacceptable" that some companies had been giving them away in promotions or as free gifts.
The MPs concluded: "If the problem persists, the Government should make the case to the EU Trade Commissioner to restrict the imports of these goods if they are of a particularly low standard, as the (motorcycle) industry appears to think is the case."
Document Here
To The Email Army – 29th March 2007
Dear All
Select Committee Report
Below is the latest press release from MAG regarding the Select Committee Report on the Governments Motorcycle Strategy.
This was the committee that David Short our Campaigns Manager recently gave evidence at for MAG.
The committee has suggested some sort of power limits for motorcycles and has picked up on ISA (Intelligent Speed Adaption) or EVSC (External Vehicle Speed Control).
Although we haven't sent up a complete campaign on the issue you can find out who your MP is and email them your opinion from http://www.upmystreet.com/commons/l/
You can sign the Mulhouse Declaration on the EVSC Campaign site, if you haven't already done so at "Hands Off our Bikes" Here
Please contact David Short campaigns-manager@mag-uk.org with any contact or response from your MP.
And as always a big thanks for committing to MAG and riders' rights.
Trevor Baird
Public Affairs Director (MAG UK)
The Good and The Bad - Transport Select Committee Report on the Governments Motorcycle Strategy
The Motorcycle Action Group (MAG UK) gives a cautious welcome to the Parliamentary Transport Select Committee’s report on the Governments Motorcycle Strategy published today, Thursday 29th March 2007.
Although the report endorses various aspects of the Governments Motorcycle Strategy, MAG has severe reservations about the ill informed proposals to review speed limits and power outputs for larger motorcycles in a vain effort to reduce casualties.
MAG says that there is no hard evidence to support the notion that curbing power outputs will impact casualty rates. MAG will continue to engage with reasoned debate, on this issue to ensure motorcyclists are not disadvantaged in having their choice of machine limited by ill informed policy.
David Short, MAG’s Campaigns Manager, said, “Overall the report is a positive outcome and is an endorsement of the hard work by MAG over the years in contributing to the strategy and its support for better training for car drivers, educating young riders, use of bus lanes, a better road infrastructure and most of all the recognition that motorcycling should be mainstreamed into transport policies.”
He further added, “The committee were clearly swayed by ill informed elements of the more strident road safety lobby on casualty rates, curbing power, motorcycle engine sizes and levels of motorcycle engine emissions. The recommendation by the committee that Government should commission research to, in their words, stimulate a sensible debate, will ensure that we have a proper opportunity to debunk a lot of the myths peddled by some elements of the road safety lobby."
Critical of the levels of emissions from larger motorcycles, the report urges the industry to work with government to reduce levels of pollution. However the committee did not take into account the congestion beating benefits of motorcycles over cars. No matter how economical a car is, when it is stuck or crawling along in a traffic queue it is doing no miles to the gallon with modern motorcycles meeting the latest European standards.
MAG will continue to promote motorcycling and defend the rights of riders to choose motorcycles as their preferred choice of transport. Motorcycles are the answer to social mobility, traffic congestion, and reducing damage to the environment.
Notes for editors
- MAG “Hands Off our Bikes” Campaign Here
- FEMA “Reduction of Energy Use in Transport” Here
- Committee Report Here
- David Short can be contacted on:
Mobile - 077389 48080
Office - 01347 822214
Email - campaigns-manager@mag-uk.org
One Members Own Response: -
Dear Theresa May
According to Reuters (Here), "Powerful motorcycles could have their top speed capped to try to cut the number of riders killed in accidents, an influential group of MPs".
Mr Stephen Plowden, Transport Planner, when giving evidence to the committee said he could not see why anyone needed a bike with a top speed of more than 65 mph!!
Whilst in the city I do not disagree that that level of speed is not required, it fails however to take into account that many motorcyclists use them for more than just delivering pizzas and I find this view incredibly blinkered and depressing, it is more targeting of Motorcyclists as they are seen to be dangerous, which in my view is unrepresentative of the many safe motorcyclists using the roads, there are many more vehicle crashes, however due to the nature of motorbikes and the lack of a roll cage the death rate is higher, but can we not be seen as adult enough to accept this risk?
Whilst I laud the reports recommendation that it is to revise its guidance to local authorities on the use of bus lanes by Motorcycles and sees no reason why a more permissive attitude should not be taken by local authorities when deciding whether to allow motorcycles to use bus lanes.
With the current 3rd Driving Licence Directive (Here) from Brussels making it harder for more people to join the motorcycling community, and the "Saving Lives with Daytime Running Lights (DRL)" (Here) currently under discussion in Brussels many threats to motorcycling as a whole are on the horizon and yet this select committee on transport 5th report misses out so many obvious dangers to motorcycles that could be easily fixed and save many lives each year by focusing wrongly on speed and more dangerously attempting to limit speed and thus the riders ability to accelerate out of danger (see point 5 below), I suspect that these very people making these recommendations have no experience whatsoever in this field. Far more lives could be saved by fixing the following few, but major safety issues for motorcycles:
1. Diesel Spills, (The Kill Spills Rally last year had over 7,000 motorcyclists protesting in the capital over this clear and present danger) because in a car if one of your wheels slips on diesel it is annoying, on a motorcycle that's 50% of your traction and can lead to an accident the invisible danger on all our roads, simply because many trucks overfill at the depots. By replacing all filler caps on diesel trucks we could prevent these needless accidents more information can be found: Here
2. Inappropriate road furniture, The very construction of certain crash barriers in common use, with exposed, sharp edged metal posts, the height and profile of their guard-rails, their proximity to the carriageway, and even in some instances, their use of steel ropes as the means of arresting a vehicle, could not be more damaging to a motorcyclist coming into contact with them than if they had been designed with that objective in mind. Many needless signs resulting in more steel bars at the edge of roads and ever more driver distraction. (Here)
3. Poor, badly maintained and slippery road surfaces, with all the cutbacks in road maintenance seemly happening there is more bad surfaces, pot holes and cracks in the road, which for a motorbike can prove to be devastating, even the motorway network is suffering increased incidences of pot holes, these can cause a serious motorcycle accident if the are not seen in time, or if avoiding requires moving to another busy lane and bitumen (used to join tarmac otherwise known as overbanding) can also be treacherous in the wet.
4. Manhole covers are slippery lumps of metal scattered randomly about the roads, these can lead to a loss of traction which when on a corner can lead to an accident, these easily avoidable accidents could be prevented by following the lead of Bristol city council and making anti-skid manhole covers mandatory.
5. Right of way violations account for many of these accidents and this is just not speed related, it has more to do with the growth of in car distractions and bad design, with more people on mobiles (hand free and not) and satellite navigation systems and stereos vying for the drivers attention, what little is given to the road is half-hearted at best and criminal at worst, along with the growth of car A-Pillars which now obscure most of the road where a motorcycle would be positioned in a T junction situation, all of this is causing needless death.
I implore you please can you raise this with the Honourable Transport Secretary and in your party (Chris Grayling MP I believe), some simple steps to saving lives but which would make the roads a better place for a forgotten large group of voters.
Yours sincerely
Mike Lee
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