Alderney bikers to be forced to wear helmets?

[Bob]

The island of Alderney is the only place in Britain where it is not illegal to travel in a vehicle without a seatbelt or ride a motorbike without a crash helmet. But the island’s bikers may soon be forced to come in line with the rest of Britain if proposals being put forward to the local government are accepted.

According to State Member Ralph Burridge, who has put forward the proposal, he thinks the original attempt may have been rejected because it included both the compulsory wearing of crash helmets and seatbelts in the one proposal. He believes some members may have supported the wearing of crash helmets on bikes but not the mandatory wearing of seatbelts.

[moko]

For the benefit of the Kiwi guys here Bob any idea of the number of bikers on Alderney? I doubt if it`s very far into double figures.

[Bob]

For the benefit of the Kiwi guys here Bob any idea of the number of bikers on Alderney? I doubt if it`s very far into double figures.

I've just managed to track down the 2001 Census on Jersey - the largest of the Channel Islands, of which Alderney forms a part - and it states that 170 households had at least one motorcycle or scooter.

Alderney is one of the smaller of the inhabited islands, the total number of bikes/scooters is going to be a fraction of this. To give an idea of scale, the total population of Alderney is just 2,400 - compare this with Jersey's 87,000 and you get some idea of the (lack of) scale.

If you use 170/87,000 (bike owning households/population) as the ratio for judging the level of bike ownership, then it would work out that Alderney's 24 miles of land would be travelled by about... 5 (five) bikes.

Somehow I don't think Arai/Shoei et al will be cracking open the champagne if crash helmets are made compulsory...

... I wonder if there is a MAG branch there? After all, it was the proposed compulsory helmet law that led to MAG being formed in the first place.

Maybe someone should let them know and see if they take up the battle?

(The things I do on my day off...)