{"id":65,"date":"2007-03-29T08:43:48","date_gmt":"2007-03-29T08:43:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thelondonbiker.com\/blog\/?p=65"},"modified":"2007-03-29T08:43:48","modified_gmt":"2007-03-29T08:43:48","slug":"patrick-on-five-live","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelondonbiker.com\/blog\/2007\/03\/patrick-on-five-live\/","title":{"rendered":"Patrick on Five Live"},"content":{"rendered":"

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<\/a> – 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.’<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

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\t\tClick To Play<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/center><\/p>\n
Talking to Anita Annan on Five Live on 29th March.<\/div>\n

Right click here to download and save this file<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

Embargoed to 0001 Thursday March 29<\/p>\n

STUDY URGED ON MOTORBIKE SPEED LIMITERS<\/p>\n

By Peter Woodman, PA Transport Correspondent<\/p>\n

MPs called today for a Government study on the possibility of introducing<\/p>\n

speed limiters on motorbikes.<\/p>\n

Motorcycle accident rates were “far too high” and it was time for “radical<\/p>\n

action”, a report from the House of Commons Transport Committee added.<\/p>\n

It was also “unacceptable” that the biggest motorcycles were more polluting<\/p>\n

than cars, the committee said, and the illegal use of mini motos by adults as<\/p>\n

well as children was “making life a misery for communities up and down the<\/p>\n

country”.<\/p>\n

In a report on the Government’s motorcycling strategy, the committee said that<\/p>\n

motorbike accident rates had been far too high for 10 years.<\/p>\n

MPs said a case had been made to the committee for limiting the speed of more<\/p>\n

powerful motorcycles, though some technical issues still needed to be resolved.<\/p>\n

The report went on: “We recommend that the Government commission…..research<\/p>\n

on the viability of introducing speed limiters on motorcycles in order to<\/p>\n

stimulate a sensible debate of the options.”<\/p>\n

The committee added that the Government had to support the development of<\/p>\n

cleaner bikes and that the fact that the heavier bikes were more polluting than<\/p>\n

cars was possibly another argument in favour of “reducing the maximum power and<\/p>\n

speed that is available on these vehicles”.<\/p>\n

The report said that until 2001 the market for mini motos and other bikes that<\/p>\n

come under the heading of Motorcycles for Use on Private Property (MUPP) was<\/p>\n

small at about 7,000 new bikes a year.<\/p>\n

But it was estimated that around 170,000 MUPPs of various kinds were imported<\/p>\n

into the UK market in 2005 and that there have been at least seven deaths due to<\/p>\n

mini motos since mid-2004, five of which were children under the age of 15.<\/p>\n

The committee said the police had powers to seize and crush mini motos being<\/p>\n

driven illegally off or on the road and in an anti-social manner.<\/p>\n

The report went on: “Where the police have a `blitz’ on these vehicles in an<\/p>\n

area, it can lead to a reduction in the short-term.<\/p>\n

“In the long-term, the results are not as conclusive. We recommend that the<\/p>\n

Government undertake a review of enforcement against mini motos to gauge whether<\/p>\n

police blitzes work to reduce anti-social behaviour in the longer term.”<\/p>\n

The report said that a trial to see if these off-road vehicles ought to be<\/p>\n

officially registered might help.<\/p>\n

The MPs said it was “particularly worrying that parents are purchasing these<\/p>\n

vehicles for their children without understanding that they can be dangerous”.<\/p>\n

The committee said the Government should consider including mini motos as part<\/p>\n

of its Think! campaign on road safety.<\/p>\n

The committee added that there should be a duty on retailers to sell mini<\/p>\n

motos responsibly and it was “irresponsible and unacceptable” that some<\/p>\n

companies had been giving them away in promotions or as free gifts.<\/p>\n

The MPs concluded: “If the problem persists, the Government should make the<\/p>\n

case to the EU Trade Commissioner to restrict the imports of these goods if they<\/p>\n

are of a particularly low standard, as the (motorcycle) industry appears to<\/p>\n

think is the case.”<\/p>\n

end <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 … Continue reading “Patrick on Five Live”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-ramblings"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelondonbiker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelondonbiker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelondonbiker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelondonbiker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelondonbiker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelondonbiker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelondonbiker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelondonbiker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelondonbiker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}