So, wodda we going to do about? It's down to us

[k2w3]

They usually end with "merde"

[kave]

You need to know the crash stats of people with French licences. Odds are if its one of the hardest places to get a Motorbike licence in europe then plenty of people there will be riding on international licences.

[k2w3]

Agree. I know lots of guys that ride into or thru France from the UK on their way to somewhere nice. Most begrudge the ride home, though.

[Waxxa]

1) I would like to see the conditions of our roads improved.
2) Better training for cars towards motorbikes awareness
3) cc restriction for new car drivers like we have restrictions on bikes for a time period
4) Seperate the non-road motorbike accidents from road motorbike accidents for true statistics about road accidents
5) A change in attitude for ALL road users in NZ

I havent mentioned extra training for motorbikes because the cost of defensive driving courses are too prohibitive for most of Joe Public to absorb and besides not all the emphasis should be placed on motorbike riders too, because the problem has to be shared with road users (of all vehicles), councils, government, LTNZ, ACC etc.

[The Stranger:Me]

The on that's on this weekend, its organised by the hamilton motorcycle club and I heard that it was part-funded by ACC but under closer observation there's no mention of ACC on this page.

You're right it does look interesting. Thanks for that.

[JohnR]

ATGATT is to motorcycling what seat belts and airbags are to cars...
so why not make it compulsory and part of the WOF?

Before anyone says "But you can't make people wear it.", you can't make people wear seat belts either...but it can be policed.

At the risk of sounding like Katman (no offense) but I can't help but find it more than moderately amusing that many of the suggestions (tougher penalties, stricter license conditions...) are all things that we normally bitch and moan about there being too much of!

[MSTRS:Me]

At the risk of sounding like Katman (no offense) but I can't help but find it more than moderately amusing that many of the suggestions (tougher penalties, stricter license conditions...) are all things that we normally bitch and moan about there being too much of!

Ah, but the thinking on that, right now, is that it will be cheaper than the levy hikes, and a certain amount of 'I've got my full, so it won't apply to me'.
The howls will start if and when such a scheme is imposed, across all licence levels, and at a cost to the person.
However, that's a bitchfest for another day.

[NinjaNanna]

Heavily subsidised track days run fortnightly through-out the country.

If you get weekend warriors like me off the roads and onto "safe" tracks where we got our adrenilin rush cheaply then presumably we'd chill out on the road.

I know personally I'd all but abandon the roads if track days were more affordable ie $50 for the day rather than $120.

[carl freimann]

make the roads safer for all by making it compulsory to do your first two years for any licence on a motorcycle of not more than 20 Hp . then the idiots will only take themselves out instead of all their mates and the innocent .(this idea derived from my experience in the fire service scraping up the dickheads of the country)

[ManDownUnder]

Before the accident happens - do what can be done to prevent it. Lower the chances of having one through:
* Motorcyclist Training
* Intensive and enduring campaigns raising the awareness of m/cs to the public
* Tougher penalties for the guilty party in a M/C accident.
* Lower Alcohol levels for motorcylists
* Mandatory headlight on full time (done now of course - but thank them for it)
* Simplification of rules around bus lanes. We're either allowed to use them - or not. Not the present system which confuses motorists and potentially increases the odds of an "I didn't see you"
* Get rid of cheesecutters
* Tougher penalties for leaving slutter on the road (loose gravel, oil, diesel etc)
* Requalify on a practical test every 5 years. Make the test tougher for bigger/more powerful bikes to pick up the "born again bikers"

If an accident happens, mitigate costs and injuries
* Have the guilty party pay an elevated ACC premium
* Mandatory lid, footwear, gloves and jacket of an acceptable standard, and High Vis

[mister.koz]

The education needs to be across the board I reckon and not restricted to new riders/drivers - its completely silly to expect that people learn all they need to know when they start out. I can honestly say that I have done allot more learning since I got my full and onto a 1000cc bike...

I have to say that the average skill of the riders I have seen easily outweighs the average skill of car drivers, that fact may be smoothed off and left pointless though because the average speed is equally different.

[mister.koz]

And yeah definitely more requirements for safety equipment.....

Its quite ridiculous to only require "an approved" helmet wtf!

It would be interesting to see the average cost of a knee/ankle/shoulder/wrist/etc injury that is protected by gear compared to the average cost of those injuries that is protected by nothing.

[ManDownUnder]

Age old question - does training translate into safety?
The govt don't believe so. So how you going to sell this one?

I don't know if it's available or if the data supports the hypothesis... but I'd suggest looking at accident frequency as a function of time ridden... however the fuck that could be derived.

[DidJit]

What are French motorcycle crash rates like? (asking cos I don't know). No point just having tougher tests if they don't actually mean fewer crashes.

Difficult to find accurate stats regarding crash rates in Europe... (a problem the world over?) Bugger.

[mister.koz]

I don't know if it's available or if the data supports the hypothesis... but I'd suggest looking at accident frequency as a function of time ridden... however the fuck that could be derived.

I think that allot of the statistics available (including the once ACC has posted as evidence) aren't really sufficient enough to prove anything, statistics are often recorded based on the ideals that were required before rather than the information we require now. I heard that of the accident statistics less than half of them had the motorcycle's cc rating, the type of bike (road/offroad etc) or noted the license held by the rider.

I think that the training thing is simple logic though, if we are educated in anything we are better prepared to handle the event - think about trigonometry & contraception; its easy when you know how but a reasonable proportion of idiots will never be able to understand either.

Same goes with the gear question, get someone to punch a brick wall with a boxing glove on and then ask them if they would be prepared to take the glove off and do it again.