MOVE TO MAINSTREAM MOTORCYCLING

[Kickstart]

Hi

Further to the above, I do not expect motorcycles to be banned in the short term. I do expect their use to be slowly restricted, either through legal restrictions or costs.

I am also fairly certain that similar restrictions will be applied to cars. For example the company that runs the M6 tolls has just bought all the ITV television transmitter sites, which cover 93% of the country. A perfect basis for a road charging network.

In September the report on "Intelligent Speed Adaption" is due out. Note that this has been leaked a few years ago and they seemed very happy to ignore the increased risks they had observed in poor conditions. Also the person in charge of this study has excluded motorcycles from it and he believes that they should be banned. It is fairly certain that ISA will go ahead for cars, and it would be difficult to justify an exemption for motorcycles.

The UK has signed up to Kyoto, and this is going to force reductions in CO2 emissions. Of man made emissions transport is responsible for ~20% so is a major target. While it is virtually impossible to restrict vehicle use for business without crippling the economy, targeting leisure use would be cheap. I would expect easy targets to be track days and racing, and restrictions on visiting various areas (this has already been proposed for Snowdonia, forcing people onto buses to visit there). Fuel prices will rise quite steeply, and it would not surprise me if VED rates were dramatically increased towards those of cars based on a banding system for CO2 emissions.

As part of the EU we are obligated to enact various bits of legislation, and the EU has a bad habit of choosing the harshest regulations. As such German style type approval (even down to the make and model of the tyres fitted) seems likely. It could get worse as in Austria you cannot buy oil in quantities to allow you to do your own oil changes, just tiny amounts to allow for top ups.

Training can and will get more extreme. While if you have passed your test this might not apply to you, it could get nasty if you have to retake your test (even for medical reasons). The changes already in the pipeline for the motorcycle test will involve more off road training and will greatly increase the costs.

As you might guess, I am not that optimistic. I hope the BMF and MAG can delay these things, but I do not expect them to defeat them in the long term. I also think that any restrictions put on car users will filter through to hit motorcyclists as well, so targeting cars to deflect trouble from ourselves is just shooting ourselves in the foot.

All the best

Keith
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