Latest News

MEDIA RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, 9 August 2010

Office workers, mums, dads, motorcycles and scooters
to converge on Parliament.

On that day, at 12 noon, the street in front of the NSW Parliament will be awash with motorcycle and scooter riders of all ages who will have gathered to show parliamentarians their disgust at the blatant cash-grab that has become the Compulsory Third Party (CTP) scheme under the Keneally government.

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MEDIA RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NSW GOVERNMENT FAILS THE STATE’S MOTORCYCLISTS ONCE AGAIN
21 July 2010

With the arrival of new mobile speed cameras, and the RTA’s proposed new 4km/h tolerance limit for all speeding offences, it is time to take an objective look at the facts the speed-camera-revenue-addicted Keneally government is not telling us about motorcycles.

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MEDIA RELEASE

22 June 2010

The Motorcycle Council of NSW (MCC of NSW) has today described the planned increases in motorcycle CTP premiums from July 1st, as further evidence of the failure of Governments to recognise motorcycles as a unique and independent road user group.

Whilst the MCC of NSW understands that changes to the old CTP system were necessary, and even worked with the Motor Accidents Authority (MAA) on these changes, the MCC of NSW has not been provided with any evidence that those drivers or riders causing CTP claims, can justify such extreme increases in prices in some classifications.

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Solid result for motorcycle sales in 2009

Jan 11, 2010

Official figures released by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) show that 115,981 motorcycles, scooters and all-terrain vehicles were sold last year – a decrease of 13.6 per cent (18,298 units) over 2008.

“Given the circumstances, this is a very solid result,” FCAI Chief Executive Andrew McKellar said.

“The market has come off a very high base over the previous year, so the industry has certainly stood up well to the economic challenges,” he said.

“In fact, this is the fourth highest annual sales result on record and was achieved in tough economic circumstances,” Mr McKellar said.

“Some brands actually increased sales and deserve congratulations for that,” he said.

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E-Tags

More and more tollways and tunnels are becoming cashless.

E-tags are not designed for use on motorcycles. Attempts to design a safe motorcycle e-tag have stalled.

Until an appropriate e-tag is available, motorcycles should be:-

  • Not charged an administrative fees
  • Free to use tollways, as they are in Victoria

In January 2009, the RTA admitted failure of E-Tags in use for motorcycles and scooters when it annouced to the media that motorcycles would not need to carry an e-tag across the harbour bridge or harbour tunnel. (access the article here).

The informal annoucement by the RTA displayed many of the ill considered approaches of the entire e-tag strategy for motorcyclists.

1. Decision making on the run.

The "announcement" was not formally annouced, it wasn't mentioned on the RTA website and the peak motorcycling body (the MCC of NSW) was not aware or consulted on it. The annoucement is yet to be verified.

2. Illogical decision making

"However, the RTA encourages motorcyclists to travel with their tag as they will need it when travelling on Sydney's other toll roads."

Forgoing E-Tags on only 2 of Sydney's 8 toll roads is illogical. It is unclear whether the RTA tolling system is flawed compared to those on the other toll roads or whether the RTA is simply looking after it's own bad PR and leaving motorcyclists to deal with the additional charges and paperchase when using other toll roads.

This behaviour by the RTA is typical of it's approach to the whole question of E-Tags and Tolling where motorcylces and scooters are a discriminated minority that are left to deal with substandard service, higher complexity and imposed safety issues.