President's Report April 2019

MOTORCYCLE RIDERS ASSOCIATION OF W.A. INC.Presidents and other reports March/April 2019I hope you are all well and not put off riding too much by the change in the weather.The Easter Long Weekend break is coming up fast and I would encourage all riders to take extra care on our roads as this is the time when many car drivers take to our country roads for the first time in a year and we unfortunately have to make allowances for there lack of highway knowledge and skills to survive.Motorcycle Lane Filtering is progressing very slowly through the Road Safety Commission (RSC) and will then be sent once more to the Road Safety Council before the recommendations from those two groups are sent to the Minister for Road Safety Hon. Michelle Roberts MLA for consideration. We have been promised to be part of the consideration process with the Ministers Office. Once the recommendations have been accepted, it will then require legislative changes. I do call the minister’s office and the Road Safety Commission on a regular basis to pester them for updates and will let you know as soon as we see some light coming towards us from the end of a very long and dark tunnel.Motorcycle use of Bus Lanes, this is another of those issues that I raised over seven years ago that got some initial traction from our Government agencies, to the extant that they agreed to a twelve month trial to two road in the metro area. That twelve month period ended about 3 years ago and since then they have added two new roads to the short list of bus lanes that we can legally use. They have also not closed of the trial so that at least we can continue to use those bus lanes. The good news is that the RSC has now taken responsibility to progress this action, after many years of arguing who should take this action on. I am also on the backs of the people at the RSC to get progress reports and to be involved in the discussions.Motorcycle Safety Campaign. The Road Safety Commission recently produced three motorcycle safety video’s that are at this point on social media although there is some talk of having them shown on mainstream tv.The links are below for you to view and shareCarbon fibre suit - https://youtu.be/zCTplezq_xcTraining wheels - https://youtu.be/5mC_eqKHZtoAirbag - https://youtu.be/g5H8eQ4YdaMRoad Safety Strategy 2020 -2018. The Road Safety Commission along with the City of Stirling and the Motorcycle Riders Association of WA Inc. will be running a half day motorcycle public consultation session in June. This is to get input from motorcycle riders regarding the Road Safety Strategy 2020- 2018. This is the only consultation that is aimed at a specific road user group and will be your chance to influence what the strategy will look like and how it can benefit motorcycle riders in WA. I will be sending out the information and invitations once the date has been finalised.MotoSafe Incursions. In partnership with Motorcycling WA, I have been conduction MotoSafe incursions for years 6 to 8 in primary schools regarding motorcycle safety, with the emphasis on wearing the correct protective clothing and showing these kids just how much fun riding a motorcycle can be. These are sponsored by Smarter than Smoking. To date I have been to Calista, East Byford and Two Rocks Primary Schools, the future schools include Darkan, Toodyay, Bakers Hill, Burekup, and Wundowie. I must say that I am really enjoying the enthusiasm of these children for junior motorcycle sports riding.Motorcycle Parking continues to be an ongoing issue that we are working on. A few months ago we held a informative meeting with the Western Australian Local Government Association (WALGA)who gave us some useful information on changing the regulations regarding motorcycle parking. It seems that WALGA can not force local councils to provide motorcycle parking bays, only recommend that they do so. Our next step is to approach the State Minister for Local Government to alter the local Government laws to provide for adequate motorcycle parking in all local government area’s but particularly in the metropolitan area.MotoCap. As I am sure most of you know we now have a star rating for motorcycle protective clothing and I would urge you to check to their website if you are considering buying any new protective clothing as cost is not always a good indicator or the level of protection any garment will give you.An additional 19 MotoCAP safety ratings have now been published. The new ratings are for:thirteen textile jacketsthree pairs of textile glovestwo pairs of leather glovesone pair of textile pants.The results again highlight the important of MotoCAP to inform the consumer to highlight the level of protection of gear. No garments scored over two stars in the protection rating. There was more variation in the thermal comfort rating, with ratings ranging from one to three stars, with five different textile jackets gaining three stars for thermal comfort.Many of the garments were also advertised as water resistant, and were tested for their ability to keep the rider dry in wet weather. There was significant variation in performance in this category. The highest performer was the MotoDry Airmax textile jacket, which scored 9 out of 10 for water resistance.The new ratings can be viewed at www.MotoCap.com.au by scrolling down to “Latest Rated Products”.Australian Motorcycle Council (AMC). As you may be aware the AMC is the peak body representing motorcycle riders at the federal level with delegates in all states and territories Including the Motorcycle Riders Association of WA. They have done some great work over the years including pushing through the European helmet regulations and working for homogenised Australian Road Rules. However over the past few years the AMC has become relatively inactive other than holding an annual conference, this has caused some unrest from many of the AMC delegates who all agree that we need a strong voice for motorcycle riders at the federal level.It has been requested of the AMC Chairman, Shaun Lennard that we hold an emergency General Meeting to elect a new AMC Committee to reinvigorate the work with the Federal Government and all of its agencies.Remember to ride like you life depends on it. (it does)This report is a mix of Presidents, Safety reports in no particular order.Dave WrightPresidentMotorcycle Riders Association of W.A.