I don’t often read the newspapers, and when I do, I’m
reminded of why I don’t. For all the pages that are used, there doesn’t seem to
be a lot that is . . . well . . . news. However, today I did read something that
caught my eye, even though the headline is tacky. “On yer bike for L plates”,
p16 in the Herald Sun, Saturday February 13 2016. (The online version is given a better headline: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/victorian-motorcycle-riders-face-licence-road-test-for-the-first-time/news-story/b058710c19aba0ab5d4c0852475ba3da)
In this article the writer, Ian Royall, lets us know that ‘Training
for Victorian learner motorcyclists from next month will include for the first
time an on-road element.’ Now, I have no real problem with this idea. I know it
has some issues practically, but when I got my learner’s permit I did feel
unprepared for life on the road.
What concerns me about this article is the connection made
with a recent spate of deaths on motorbikes. “The new rules come after a horror
start to the year with 11 riders, all male, killed on Victoria’s roads . . .”
This is tragic, and we who do ride need to consider carefully how we ride and
if we are contributing to the problem. But please, please do not suddenly
change rules and expectations that have no connection to this problem. Were all
11 riders learners? I don’t know, but I don’t believe so. The fact that this
number includes at least 4 men in their 40’s would suggest they weren’t all learners.
So changing the learning regime would have made no difference.
My second concern is simply the contradictions that the
article contains. I continue a paragraph I quoted earlier:
“The new rules come after a horror start to the year with 11
riders, all male, killed on Victoria’s roads, the latest a 27 year-old
Gladstone Park man who died after a collision with a car. . . on January 27.”
The
latest? Really? But Ian, what about the final paragraph in your article which
reads, “Seven motorcyclists have died in Victoria in February alone, including
four men in their 40’s and one 18-year-old.”
I’m all for better training, although I’m not sure all the
measures suggested in the article are the best. I don’t want people dying just because
they choose to ride a bike. And I’m pretty sure that many of these deaths weren’t
completely the fault of the rider, so again, the measures suggested in this
article might not prove to be the best. The best comment in the article belongs
to Doug Fryer, Assistant Commissioner for Road Policing when he is reported as
urging bikers to ride according to their skill levels and to wear protective
clothing. I agree.
If only that would stop drivers from pulling out in front of
riders, or road surfaces being left to decay. But that’s another story.
One more thing. On page 36 of the same edition of the Herald
Sun are a number of comments from people complaining about traffic congestion.
What a difference it would make to travelling time if more of us rode
motorbikes.
