Latest News

He's Doohan it for road safety

Oct 31, 2009

FORMER world motorcycle champion Mick Doohan is the new face of safe riding in South Australia.

Mr Doohan said a graphic new TV commercial, which superimposes everyday objects like phone boxes and trees on to a motorcycle track, should leave no doubt about the consequences of a street crash.

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See video here

Two wheels wins in crowded Sydney

Oct 28, 2009

Rising fuel costs, congestion, no parking, poor public transport and environmental concerns are driving up motorcycle use.

Yet, transport policy lags far behind and has failed to create equity for this growing group of road users.

Sydney Council’s move to free motorcycle parking one year ago has been widely applauded and embraced. Yet, the State Government has failed to create road toll and registration equity, and has inadequately invested in safety campaigns, according to the Motorcycle Council of NSW.

“The total spend on safety campaigns since 2003 has been less than four million,’’ Guy Stanford of the Motorcycle Council of NSW said. “But it makes economic sense to move to a scooter or small bike. The average car journey carries 1.1 people, rolling a tonne-and-a-half to shift just one person.

“Motorcycles are less than 200kg. A lot of people are shifting to motorcycles for convenience, initially because of the overstretched public transport system. But as petrol prices start to bite, it makes economic sense. There has been a big growth in 250cc bikes.’’

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Motorcycle Buyers Encourage to Take Advantage of Economic Incentives

Oct 12, 2009

Figures released by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) show 82,601 motorcycles, scooters and all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) were sold in the nine months to September – a 14.4 per cent decline compared to the same period in 2008.

“The motorcycle market has faced a period of challenging economic circumstances and although down on the record highs of last year has remained resilient,” FCAI Chief Executive Andrew McKellar 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.