Safer Journeys, interesting...

[bogan]

Motorcyclists don't like them because they usually sever limbs or heads with a heavy impact. Pretty nasty.

If you read the Monash University report they cite, they compare the relative accident rates of the barriers. The short story is that very few motorcyclists have a collision with the wire barrier at such an angle that they do loose a limb (how many have we had in the last 5 years in NZ, one?).
I don't know the number of motorcyclists killed because someone crossed the centre line, but I would be pretty confident the the number would be much higher.

Personally I don't like the idea of cheese cutters because of limb dismemberment. But I like the idea even less of the higher probability of being killed by a drunk crossing the centre lane and killing me head on.

So I guess I begrudgingly accept we need to get barriers on as many roads as possible with a flow of 10,000 cars per hour as possible, and then look at upgrading them to safer concrete barriers.

So I'm saying do what we can to save as many lives as we can now, and then work on making it better. If we aim for the best option first probably hundreds of riders will be killed before we can complete the project of upgrading the busiest roads.

But the onus is on those putting in the barriers to provide statistical evidence that bikers are better off with them, they haven't, why not? I assume because it doesn't exist. Sure head on collision deaths will be higher simply because there are more roads without cheescutters on them than with. For example if 0.1% of roads have cheesecutters then statistically every biker killed by a cheesecutter is approximately equal (haven't taken traffic density into account) to 1000 bikers killed by other motorist crossing the centerline.

[Swoop]

"In general, submitters placed more emphasis on initiatives aimed at road users than on roading, vehicle, or speed initiatives."
Comments?

Yup. It appears that the gubbinments STILL haven't twigged to the simple fact that the populace know that the kiwi driver is crap.
Licencing standards are low and the driving skills/roadcraft which started out pretty low, are decreasing to new depths.

Luckily the police ignore areas which could affect this, and simply go for the easy answer of "speed kills".

[koba]

Changing driver behaviours will have a bigger influence on road safety then all other measures put together.
Spend all the millions you like on making roads easier etc...won't help if drivers are still 'asleep'.

Abosolutley, and very well put. It sounds a wee bit like thats not the answer 'they' were looking for tho!

[koba]

Yup. It appears that the gubbinments STILL haven't twigged to the simple fact that the populace know that the kiwi driver is crap.
Licencing standards are low and the driving skills/roadcraft which started out pretty low, are decreasing to new depths.

Luckily the police ignore areas which could affect this, and simply go for the easy answer of "speed kills".

Yeah, pretty much aye. That answer I posted just blew me away because its seems so telling of a stinky attitude.

[MSTRS:Me]

So I guess I begrudgingly accept we need to get barriers on as many roads as possible with a flow of 10,000 cars per hour as possible, and then look at upgrading them to safer concrete barriers.

Bugger off! That's just playing straight into 'their' hands. Accept second-rate up-front and that's all you'll ever get. There will be no upgrade later. This country refuses to even put a second rail on existing armco that has killed bikers. Besides, solid concrete does not cost hugely more than the guillotine/garrotte shit, PLUS no ongoing cost for maintenance.