Some more motorcyclist Activist Stuff - Victorian Issues

Below is a letter that I've emailed to whoever I can think of, who may
or may not take any notice of. It concerns the speed camera campaign
here in Victoria, the reduction in the road toll and who/what is
responsible for this.

Feel free to pick the shit out of it, to use it in your letter writing
campaigns, or whatever.

---------[start of original letter]-------------

The government is somewhat loose with the truth, it appears. It was
represented on television on Wed, 8th Oct and again on ABC Radio's Jon
Faine's program (Fri, 10th Oct) crediting speed cameras for the
reduction in the road toll while trying to defend the massive take in
revenue.

Figures to date suggest that more people than ever are being pinged for
speeding. And that projected revenues are set to increase. How then, can
the government claim that the speed camera program is a success in terms
of road safety, if the numbers of people speeding haven't changed?

If anyone cares to examine the statistics, they'd discover that
driver/passenger fatalities have barely shifted from last year. The
reduction comes from lower motorcyclist and pedestrian fatalities.

Motorcyclists represent about 2 percent of all traffic. It's hard to
imagine then, that speed cameras have had that much of an impact on the
road toll, given the low representation of riders on the roads. The
government claims that riders are evading speed cameras because they
don't have front number plates. It then infers from this that riders
speed with impunity. Why then, isn't this reflected in the road toll,
where to date, 30% less riders have been killed compared to last year?
And this is in a year where motorcycle sales have boomed.

The government may claim that the $50 TAC levy is justified, because the
motorcyclist toll is down. But to date, not one cent of that forced
discriminatory levy has been spent on motorcycle road safety.

It's probably much to the chagrin of the government and road safety
authorities that there is a road user group which is making itself safer
without any input at all from the taxpayer funded bodies who are
supposed to oversee road safety improvements.

 

<Snipped>

Interesting read that.

The bugger is it won't work here in Tassie. We've got a ridiculous
bike fatality rate here this year... another guy died a few days ago.
I don't know of anyone who can give me a good reason for it. Even
taking statistical aberrations into account it is crazy. I can't find
the specifics at the moment but we are way up on last year, and way
over-represented in the stats ....

Hopefully that means there will be zero bike deaths next year ...

Cheers



-------------
Kevin Gleeson
Technical Director
Blue Rocket Productions
Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
www.blue-rocket.com.au

 

Interesting stuff... here in unzud the government raised the ACC levies for
bikes... they ACC is the government funded accident compo corporation...
over here you don't sue for damages ala Aussie third party... your compo
gets paid automatically regardless of blame...

The result is that motorcycle rego is about 20% higher than cars... and the
justification was that bikes are a higher risk... of course they didn't take
into account that many or even most bike accidents here involve a car and
are the fault of the driver not the rider... so the extra payment is
unfair...

Good luck!

kiwipete

 

Haven't these people in the government noticed the the subcontractors
they pay to put the speed cameras out set up the speed cameras to
take photos from the rear? That's right, you don't notice much when
you a cheffeured eh?

In fact better than that. If you check the draw TAC figures, we, and
pedestrians are responsible for 95% of the reduction in the road toll.
They should be paying US $50 for that I reckon!

And how to they wish to spend it, on ad campaigns, studies and radars
(see the note on the MRA website about it). None of these are saftey
things. Do people base car saftey buying decisions on advertising,
studies and how well the car shows up on a radar... no.. doesn't add
up. Does driver training help reduce accidents... provably (which is
why some insurance companies are offering discounts for those with
training courses). So here's a dumb question. Why isn't the TAC
offering exemption from the levy for accredited riders (eg: if you
have gone and done all the courses to a certain level, you are exempt?).
Or better still rather than try the carrot and stick approach, try
'the $50 you pay a year is redeemable on driver rider training courses'.

- Jase

 

The mags have been advertising Tassie for Riding holidays and I think more main land riders are going over for a look see. It would
be interesting to see if they are locals or furriners going down for the count.

Or it could as you say be statistically a bad patch.

Statistics.......
It really is amazing how often coincidences don't happen....

UT

 

Mostly locals actually, and there doesn't seem to be a definite age
group either. None of it seems to make sense...

A bloody orrible one at the moment.

Cheers

-------------
Kevin Gleeson
Technical Director
Blue Rocket Productions
Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
www.blue-rocket.com.au

 

You guys have had more rain this year as u were in drought conditions
before.
Could it be the weather conditions?

 

Possibly. I know at least one guy died in the rain, but I don't really
think it was the main cause.

Don't know enough about the weather conditions for the other ones, but
somehow I doubt it. We may be getting more rain, but it is still
fairly dry here (despite most northern islanders perception of Tas).

Cheers



-------------
Kevin Gleeson
Technical Director
Blue Rocket Productions
Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
www.blue-rocket.com.au

 

There's a lot of oil accumulations on the roads. Because no vehicle ever
has to pass a roadworthy test as long as it is in registration, there's a
lot of shitheaps wobbling around oozing oil. The oil accumulates then when
a bump is hit, it drops onto the road. When the road is damp, you can't see
it, and it's like ice. It's possible that some of the crashes are due to
that.

It could also just be a blip in the statistics, as Kev suggests - there have
been plenty of ATV deaths which are lumped in with bike deaths, and
dirt-bike deaths that are included in the road toll (it seems).

 

Here is a link to a recent and interesting report from the Association
of British Drivers "Speed Camera Policy Responsible For 5500 Deaths"
says the ABD. (http://www.abd.org.uk/pr/376.htm)

An extract from the report is "ABD Chairman, Brian Gregory commented
"This makes me so sad and angry. We have been warning for years that
speed cameras make the roads more dangerous. How many more will have
to die before we return to traditional and proven road safety values
based on skills, individual responsibility and consideration? This
speed camera madness must end right now""

Cheers
Conrad