October 2014

Hi Guys I hope you are all enjoying the absolutely brilliant riding weather we are having at the moment and gettingout to enjoy some of our great back roads during the spring.We are holding our Motorcycle Safety Week this year from November 22nd – 30th more detailed are in the SafetyReport of what is planned. But I would ask all motorcycle riders to take their motorbikes to work for that weekinstead of your car if that is possible, we believe the number of motorbikes on the road for that week if we all dothat will help with drive home the message that we require some consideration by other road users andGovernment agencies.As I mentioned in the last edition of The Edge we are changing the way we deliver our newsletter to you. All future editions of The Edge will be sent to you by email unless we don’t have a valid email address for you, so can you please update your email address with our Membership Officer Michelle. If we have your current email we will also send you updates of rides and other events going on. If you do want a paper copy of the newsletter then please contact either myself or the editor Jeff. We are taking this step in order to keep your annual subscriptions down at their current rate for as long as we can.I have had some meetings with the Department of Transport and the Ministers office to try and get them to see the error of their ways and allow motorcycles to park in car bays a train stations or build more motorcycle parking. The current situation is that you must park in a designated motorcycle bay, but if none are available and you park in a car bay you will be fined $80.00 for illegal parking, so you take your motorbike to your local train station and there are no motorcycle parking bays available, your choice is to park illegally or ride home and get your car and then go back to the train station to park and be late of work. Most people would only do this once and not bother with their motorbike again and compound the parking problems. My argument is that if they are serious about encouraging people to use our public transport system and reduce the cost to taxpayers by building expensive and ever increasing parking areas then motorcycles must be part of the solution. Put in more motorcycle bays close to the station; make motorcycle parking free at stations, and when there are no motorcycles available allow us to park in car bays. From my meetings with the Ministers office they are looking at taking the first step and allowing us to park in car bays, but we must still pay the full fee, so if this happens I suggest that we park only one motorcycle per bay instead of the usual 3 motorcycles per bay otherwise they will be getting triple payments for that bay. I will keep you informed on the progress.I received a call from a MRA member a few weeks ago enquiring about a particular situation he found himself in and police powers. It seems he was booked by a motorcycle police officer for overtaking in a dangerous manner between moving traffic at speed. The officer seized the SD card from his go pro camera that he had attached to his helmet, and he asked me if the police could legally do this. I called my contact at the Traffic Enforcement Group and it seems the police can seize an SD card under seizure of evident legislation, they will then make a copy of your SD card to be used in court against you and the SD card will be returned to you after you do all the paperwork. I also believe under some circumstances a mobile phone can be seized under the same legislation. Handy too know.That’s about all from me for this issue, so ride carefully, ride well and ride often. I hope to see you out on the road soon.Dave Wright01