It would be a good time to campaign for motorbikes

Jmoan · Brolly Dolly Joined: 18 Nov 2015 Karma :

Public transport is expensive with a lot of downsides and now with the virus bringing this to peoples attention it would be a good time to push for bikes and their benefits

The UK has a continuing attack on private transport especially bikes. Labour introduced a lot of anti vehicle laws at the start of this century. Phony litigation has been made easier.
The last EU directive was made worse than it needed to be which pushes the cost up.

Are there any bike groups left to deal with these issues or are they filled with screw you got mine types and it's left to the grey area of common law right to travel supporters?

Nobby the Bastard · Harley Gaydar Joined: 16 Aug 2013 Karma :

Ste · Not Work Safe Joined: 01 Sep 2002 Karma :

You could start a freeman of the land motorcycle group if you feel so strongly about it.

Gagged

The Shaggy D.A. · Super Spammer Joined: 12 Sep 2008 Karma :

Screw you, got mine.
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chickenstrip · Super Spammer Joined: 06 Dec 2013 Karma :

Nah, it'll be all electric bikes soon, and I'm not interested in those.
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Bhud · World Chat Champion Joined: 11 Oct 2018 Karma :

WreckTangle · Scooby Slapper Joined: 21 Oct 2019 Karma :

not too sure if there are any groups that support this idea, but it's an interesting idea. bikes take up less space than a car.

It would be good if we start some kind of group or petition for this.

Lets take a case example.

I had a friend who went to the country vietnam, and there are bikes everywhere (as people use them as their main form of transport, as the government always makes car driving expensive with car import tax's etc) He says that the traffic in the cities flowed better than they would in the uk, as bike are more maneuverable and take up less space. If you have everyone in vietnam driving a car, the traffic just would not move (but the flip side he says is that they get very little training, and you might have the inconvenience of dying, as health and safety is non existant in their bike culture)

The only problem is that the government would loose tax revenue, as bikes use less petrol than a car and cost less to tax, and the nhs will suffer as alot of people who are used to driving cars, will get on a bike and realize that bike riding is not suited for them when they find that they have become one with the lamppost
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Undinist · Nearly there... Joined: 08 Oct 2013 Karma :

Loud exhausts have made bikes so unpopular that I doubt anyone in officialdom will care about promoting them.
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Jmoan · Brolly Dolly Joined: 18 Nov 2015 Karma :

Teflon-Mike · tl;dr Joined: 01 Jun 2010 Karma :

ACU/MAG/BMF are the recognised representative bodies.
Motorcycling was in decline from the 1973 compulsory skid lid and moped laws. Even more from the 1982 125 L-Plate restrictions; BUT has actually been on the increase since the mid 90's withe the Born-Again-Biker crowd remembering they had a motorbike licence probably gained on a Vespa in the mod era. Mid 90's DAS regs swelled the numbers more, and they have been on the increase ever since, especially with urban congestion and 'cheap' Chinky scooters.

To my mind you aren't proposing anything 'new' Mag were vaunting the benefits of the bike particularly for city commuting thirty years ago, and numbers have increased. So there must be some 'win' in there.

Meanwhile; we have culture of bikes being a five year phase for most riders, getting into it, getting enthusiastic (and evangelical!) about it, re-inventing the campaign wheel... then bluggering off again...

What do you want to see changed?
Why do you think any-one might change it?
Who do you think aught to be pushing these changes?

With all the increases in the last 30 years, bikes still represent less than 1% of road transport, and a far greater proportion of the accidents than their numbers. And we are our own worst enemy on that score, with far too many bemoaning compulsory crash hats and vaunting small plates and loud pipes and still going out with rebel without a clue ideals of 'Freedom' and 'Individuality' not helping the image one little bit....

If you want to make a difference.. why re-invent the wheel... join MAG/BMF, get a bit more involved than just chucking some change in the bucket, and start by cleaning your own house. We really dont need yet another inefectual lobbying body trying to fight the same futile battles; we have enough already... so look at them and ask why they aren't doing what you hope.... its NOT entirely I'm all right Jack, egocentricity....
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Undinist · Nearly there... Joined: 08 Oct 2013 Karma :

There are a number of government plans and proposals in the UK, Germany and France to stop people using loud pipes. New noise measurement technology is being invested in. Bikes have become a pain in the arse to society just because a small number of people take the piss. This is pretty much the only motorcycle issue in the in-trays of the powers that be. As far as I know, none of our representative bodies are doing anything about this. Loud pipes make all of us look like self-centred antisocial morons.
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