April-May 2013

Hi Guys I hope you are all enjoying the great weather we are enjoying at the moment and getting your bikes out to enjoy our great riding conditions.Now the election is over I have contacted the ofce of Troy Buswell requesting another meeting with him and his staf to discuss some of the issues that we have been pushing for some time. I wrote a letter leading up to the election to both major political party’s transport and safety ministers and spokes people asking for a response to a series of questions on motorcycle and scooter safety. The letter and response is on our website for you information. Some of the issues I wish to raise with the minister when I get a meeting are-1/ The establishment of a Motorcycle Safety Strategy to complement the existing Towards Zero 2012 – 2020 Road Safety Strategy with specific target reductions in the number of fatal and serious motorcycle and scooter crashes in W.A.2/ Establish a criteria and fund a motorcycle specific black spot and black length road rectification programme.3/ Appoint a full time motorcycle and scooter safety manager at W.A. Main Roads Department to audit roads specifically from a rider perspective, Advise state and local governments on world’s best practice for road treatments for motorcycles, provide an in depth investigation into all motorcycle fatal crashes with recommendations based on the Towards Zero ideals.4/ Promote motorcycle and scooter as an alternative to car use to reduce congestion on our roads and promote safety through awareness and education of all road users because road safety is a shared responsibility.We have now wound up the Motorcycle Road Rules working group that was set up after our meeting with Troy Buswell last year to look into the challenges of permitting motorcycles and scooters to 1- use emergency lanes on the freeway, 2- allow motorcycles and scooters to use bus lanes and 3- to allow motorcycles and scooters to lane filter (not lane split) past very slow moving or stationary traffic. We now have a policy paper to present to the Minister and are proposing that the use of the emergency lanes on the freeways at this time is not possible. The lane filtering proposal be put on hold until after the conclusion of the trail in Sydney and the proposed trial in Victoria, that we look at a trail of riders using bus lanes in W.A. this policy paper will be sent to the Road safety Council for consideration and I have asked that I be present at that meeting. I will of course keep you posted on the progress of this.We have updated the status of the 50 actions from the series of forums that some of you would have attended in 2011. The latest status report is on our website along with the actions from our 5 forum and some new actions that are being introduced to the Motorcycle and scooter Safety Advisory Group.One of the actions from our original forums was to produce a W.A. version of the Victorian publication Making Roads Motorcycle Friendly (a guide for road engineers, designers, and maintenance managers) this was produced last yearand distributed to all local councils throughout W.A. by the WA local Government association. I am happy to announce that the WA Main RoadsDepartment (MRD) now has funding to produce a DVD on Making Roads Motorcycle Friendly that will I believe get the message across to the people who are responsible for our road network to better understand the special problems faced by riders that they may not have considered when designing, building or carrying out road maintenance. The Main Roads have asked me to travel to the 10 regions in W.A. to deliver a presentation on the challenges faced by riders on WA roads and what can be done to reduce the risk of a motorcycle crash through road engineering and planning and design and to distribute the DVD to the MRD and local road engineers.I recently received a copy of the Victorian Governments report of their inquiry into Motorcycle Safety. I find it very encouraging that many of the recommendations in their report are issues that we have already tackled or areworking on at the moment. I had a meeting with the Victorian Parliamentary Committee when they were in Perth as part of their inquiry. They also attended our 5th forum held at the RAC and it is pleasing to see that one of their main recommendations of the hold a series of OLA forums based on the success ofour forums.As always I will keep you informed on these and any other issues that arise through this newsletter and our website but feel free to contact me if you have any questions on rider issues.Dave Wrightemail- davmar08@bigpond.com Phone 0418 954 424RIDE LIKE YOUR LIFE DEPENDS ON IT.