NSW: Touring the Illawarra

From Guy, via the MCC list. THe brochure is available from councils in
the Illawarra area.

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"Touring the Illawarra" was launched in Woolongong today, with Wayne
Gardner as figurehead.

The brochure is excellent, with lots of good stuff for riders.

Congratulations to the rider groups of the Illawarra and to the local councils.

Wayne Gardner was impressed with the content. He has agreed to act as
the front man for any such projects with the MCC of NSW


What follows is the background to the brochure:-

There are three types of crashes that riders are involved in.
- Cars hitting motorycles
- Motorcycles hitting cars
- Motorycles going down all by themselves

The NSW State averages are:-
- cars into bikes = 45% of all m/c crashes (SMIDSY's)
(SMIDSY = "Sorry Mate I Didn't See You")
- bikes into cars = 19% of all m/c crashes
- single m/c crash = 36% of all m/c crashes (Singles)

There are significantly more crashes in the "Sydney Conurbation" of
Newcastke to the 'gong than the rest of the State.

The City of Sydney has a very high SMIDSY count (+80% ) and a low
Singles count.

In the far South of the State in Snowy Mtns and the far North of the
Tablelands and North Coast, Singles rise to +90%.

In the Illawarra, motorcycle crashes are over represented in the crash
statistics.

The local councils of Kiama, Shellharbour and Woolongong, could
have approached this in the "usual" way, of asking for severe Police
enforcement to drive motorcycles out of the area, but they didn't.

Instead, they did a remarkably intelligent thing and ENGAGED the
motorcycling community to address the problem. They already knew that
motorycle riders are good for business and that motorcycle tourism is
important to the local economy. They also knew that riders enjoy coming
to the area and the reason for the higher number of crashes was because
of the huge numbers of riders visiting the area So they asked rider
groups how to address the issues.

The MCC of NSW is addressing the issue of SMIDSY crashes with Motorcycle
Awareness Week and has obtained some support from the RTA and MAA to do
this, but addressing rider issues has in the past been left to the Police.

The brochure "Touring in the Illawarra" is full of information for
riders; tips, suggestions, warnings, technical details and practical
stuff that every rider can apply for themselves. The brochure also carries
tourism information and ride routes and how to spot "motorcycle friendly"
businesses.

This is a breath of fresh air and the rider groups of the Illawarra are
to be congratulated on an excellent production, given the opportunity
to do so by the combined local councils of Kiama, Shellharbour and
Woolongong. This is one project that has flowed from the Road Safety
Strategic Plan produced by the Motorcycle Council of NSW.


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Zebee

 

Zebee,

do you have a Web reference of a council contact person in order to obtain a
copy of the brochure.

Thanks,

Andrew

 

email either or


Safe riding,

 

You'd reckon that they'd learn how to spell Wollongong. Fuggin Biker scum.

Hammo

 

and "dickhead"!

 

It easy to knock the 'Gong! Reminds me of a uni project on Local Government
tourism Web pages I undertook some years back. When doing a comparison of
Australian and world best practice, Wollongong City Councils tourism Web
page stood out as it prominently featured an online dog registration form on
its tourism site. Must of been implying something about its prospective
visitors.

Andrew

 

Thanks for the info.

Andrew