Raising riding/driving standards

[Blackbird]

Long before all the latest ACC mayhem broke cover, I wrote to Steven Joyce, Minister for Transport expressing dismay at the generally low standard of riding/driving in NZ. I won't detail it all here but suggested a number of approaches (some quite simple) which could be used to raise standards. I also mentioned the Kiwi Biker mentoring scheme as an example of where a sector of the community wasn't prepared to just sit around and wait for officialdom to do something. Today, I received a letter from him (see attachment). not sure what's going to happen but at least I got a reply.

Failure to address root cause is the main reason why I'm so hot under the collar regarding ACC fee increase proposals. It's simply an irresponsible use of taxpayer money if it isn't linked to addressing underlying causes of accidents.

Rant over

[Ixion]

Joyce was at the BIKEOI! meeting in Nick Smith's office. He seemd much more interested and switched on than the Nickster

[slofox]

Well done BB.

I notice he refers to "the increasing number of motorcycle deaths...."

I seem to recall that the number per 10,000 vehicles is actually lower than it was..?

Let's hope he does something sensible, not just something that will catch votes...

[Blackbird]

Joyce was at the BIKEOI! meeting in Nick Smith's office. He seemd much more interested and switched on than the Nickster

Hi Les,

My riding partner and fellow KB'er Freebird is Senior Mechanical Engineer at NZTA. He's had a fair bit to do with Steven Joyce in recent times over illegal mods to boy racer cars and rates him highly. Says he's very approachable, actually listens and has a good brain on him.

[Ixion]

Well done BB.

I notice he refers to "the increasing number of motorcycle deaths...."

I seem to recall that the number per 10,000 vehicles is actually lower than it was..?

Let's hope he does something sensible, not just something that will catch votes...

About the same. Slightly lower fatalities , slightly higher injuries, per 10000 bikes. We made that point, left him with a nice info sheet.

[MacD]

About the same. Slightly lower fatalities , slightly higher injuries, per 10000 bikes. We made that point, left him with a nice info sheet.

Ixion, could you arrange to have the info sheet made available as a download on the BRONZ site? There are many versions of numbers available on KB, but it would be very useful to have a consistent set of numbers to use in letters to the editor and similar.

For example, Nick Smith gave the figure of 5000+ in response to a question in the House the other day regarding the number of motorcycle ACC claims in the previous year, yet I understood the number of new claims was only in the order of 1337. So at best he was also including the number of still active claims from previous years, at worst he was purposefully misleading the house.

[Ixion]

Here. I've asked outlawtorn to add it to the BRONZ site also