I put Five Live in contact with Patrick last night to talk about the release (below) from the Transport Select Committee – Patrick McConnon was holding up the banner for londonbikers.com – he was talking about the idiotic idea about putting limiters on bikes – the MPs are obviously off their heads and need to look at all the factor affecting accidents on bikes – not just speed… Patrick raises some very good points and the MP just keeps repeating ‘this isn’t nanny state this is about saving lives.’
You know what – I think I’m the person best placed to work out how to save my own life, I don’t need the government to tell me what I should be doing. As an ex-campaigner for New Labour I’m beginning to lose interest in this government and what it’s trying to shove down our throat
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Embargoed to 0001 Thursday March 29
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.”
end
