President's and Safety Reports November 2018

Presidents and other reports November 2018 MRA General MeetingI attended the World Day of Remembrance for Road Trauma on Sunday 18th November and had an opportunity to speak with the Michelle Roberts our Minister for Road Safety and her Principal Policy Advisor Dr Bill Leadbetter regarding the long awaited motorcycle lane filtering legislative changes. He advised me that the recommendations have now moved from the Road Safety Commission to the ministers office for approval and legislative changes. Things do move slowly in Government but at least they do move and our legislation should be the best in the country because everyone has had so long to consider it.I have recently been working with the Road Safety Commission on a series of Motorcycle Specific Safety Advertisements, that will be made public in the New Year. These will be on social media initially and then I hope on the main stream tv outlets. I believe these ads will have more impact and retention that the last rock/grease in the road ads.I have arranged a meeting with Mr Joe McCarthy for 20th November. Joe is the CEO of Motorcycling Western Australia (the competitive sport arm of motorcycling) to investigate if we have a link between our organisations that we can foster. I believe that we can join forces to get a better safety outcome and understanding of the needs of motorcyclist if we work together.I have also arranged a meeting with our MRA Parking Sub-Committee and WALGA for December 4th to discuss improvements to the requirements of motorcycle riders regarding on street, off street parking and the use of unused spaces by motorcycles through a review of their parking guidelines.There is now an update of MotoCap as they have now tested an additional 8 textile jackets and these are on their website. As we had hoped many clothing manufacturers are keen to get their garments tested and to make improvements in order to achieve a better star rating in the future.The AMC have been busy working on the impact of autonomous vehicles in relation to motorcycle riders and have made a couple of submissions to the government review into the long term effects of semi and fully autonomous vehicles in Australia. This encompasses all road users and it is very important to remind the powers that be about road users other than cars. The latest submission related to privacy issue that will arise as cars become less reliant on drivers and who is on the road, where they travel and who will get this information.This report is a mix of Presidents, Safety and AMC reports in no particular order.Remember to always ride like your life depends on it.Dave WrightPresident Motorcycle Riders Association of W.A.