Westpac Rescue Helicopter Charity Ride under threat

[Dadpole]

"Operating" a stop/go sign would be fun for a day.
A bike = priority
Desirable women = wait a while
When bored = brake testing

I had to do the certification thing in order to "safely" put up two warning signs when I had some guys working on a fence on a corner. This was miles up a dead end gravel road out the back of Martinborough. We had about 6 cars go past but the powers-that-be insisted that I had to be qualified to assess the situation and follow all the rules and regulations.

[Fub@r]

How qualified do you actually have to be to hold up a sign that says "Stop", turn around look to see the last bike has passed then spin aforementioned sign around to read "Go".

I have two lever arch files containing all the Transit rules for various "works" on Transit Roads.

For example I'm a Land Surveyor. Technically I'm supposed to lodge a Traffic Management plan with the Council 2 months prior to the date I want to do what I need to. These plans can only be done by a qualified person in Traffic Management. If I was to follow the letter of the law say in a 50km area and place one boundary peg for you to build your garage I have to setout 60+ road cones, warning signs, thank you signs etc etc. It would probably take me two hours to set the road cones up to do a 15 minute job. So we don't do it.

Most firms I'm aware of disregard these Transit rules and are waiting for someone to be prosecuted to see whether they should bother, a test case.

I have lodged objections but to no avail.

You may have noticed the sudden increase in Traffic Management companies around, this is all because of Transit Rules. Its a license to print money now.

Another example of this bullshit:

Transit used to specify a 600mm high road cone, with the new rules they changed this to a minimum 900mm high with two reflective strips on them.........it became illegal to use the 600mm ones, they now sit collecting dust!

I like the previous suggestions:

You have a specified weekend eg 2nd weekend in February and people go for a ride..........its just a coincidence that 2000 bikes turn up for it and end up riding on the same bit of motorway at the same time If you really want to make a point ride at a sedate speedas the motorway has no real minimum speed limit.......that would get peoples attention.

Yes you could use Great South Road but with all the traffic lights the group would be extremely fragmented defeating the purpose of the ride and I bet there would be more than 1 complaint if you did.

Also who pays for closing the bridge for these bloody Hikoi's etc? The Taxpayer!

Sooner the government and all this PC bullshit get turfed out the better as I'm getting bloody sick of it..........everyday Aussie looks more appealing

[sexy beast]

yea one complaint all right. thats what it was but it did go high up in govenrment for them to make this an issue. what i heard today was it was from someone who got stuck at the on ramp for 20mins as the bikers went by and their reason for making the complaint was the lady wanted to see one of her parents who was sick...would have been really sick i guess if it led her to make the complaint.
well i guess if someone spends a little amount of money on advertising that the ride will take place on a given sunday between these times and air it on the radio and tv then probably everyone non-biker would have advance knowledge of it so they can get to their coffees and shopping and what not from a different route!!! thats what im talkin about!
oh and they (TRANSIT) were saying that the traffice needs to be controlled by proper traffic people rather then volunteers!!! what a load of crap!!!...

[Fub@r]

Hell get rid of Taito Phillip Feild and use the money we save from not paying his salary to sit on his arse doing nothing to fund the next 10 years of Westpac Rides!

If we take this lying down we might as well all book a flight to Aussie and leave the Helen Clarks of this world with their Kumara and silver fern

[KLOWN]

Vote national or even better maybe a letter to the head of the national party, hes always looking at ways to get one over on labour.

[Lou Girardin]

They (LTNZ and Police) were also very obstructive over the HOG thunder ride on Sunday. There's even a requirement for St John's to be present on the ride because part of the route is a 'long way' from medical assistance. Waiuku, that is.
Ulysses should take a leaf from the Hoglets and Steve Crow situation and tell the nay-sayers that the ride will go ahead with or without their help.
The authorities cannot prevent road legal vehicles using a public road.
Just as an aside, everytime people say "there should be a law" about riding gear, party drugs, what have you. They provide more ammunition for the kill joys and other petty beaurocratic empire builders to further restrict our freedoms.

[James Deuce]

The authorities cannot prevent road legal vehicles using a public road.

Bingo!

Took you guys too many pages to get there.

If they interrupt the progress of a charitable activity, a vaguely competent spin doctor should be able to have an absolute field day to the point of affecting Labour's chances of being voted back in.

"Helen Clark's Labour Government won't fully fund Rescue Helicopters and uses Government workers, taxpayer funded workers, to prevent the people of NZ collecting money to keep the service operating."

[Ixion]

Well, why do the organisers of such events involve the authorities at all? Is there some legal requirement? What about rallies do they also have to deal with this?

And I still want to know who is responsible. Variously it is reported as Transit,or the police (presumably, police in Wellington, not the local plod who actually do the work)

And what is actually the requirement about having St John at such an event? I see them there , but so what if they weren't?

It seems to me that the people organisng these events have been conned into thinking that they must march to the bureacrats' tune. Back in the 70s I took part in a number of protest rides. There were many hundred of bikes (perhaps thousands) involved but I am pretty sure that noone sought official approval or sanction (it would certainly have been denied). The police did turn out, but not "by invitation" they came along to protect the public from al the "bikies". There were certainly no marshals closing ramps or any such. When you have a thousand bikes in formation ramps and traffic lights and such like become pretty irrelevant.

[Will]

There are answers to all of this but I think we are all a bit shell-shocked at the moment to come up with a real plan.

Let's just get as many bikes out on the Ride on Sunday. That is the first positive step.

[RiderInBlack]

Will try my best to get down for this. Might leave the placard behind this time, but if this gets canned next year, I will be there with bike & a placard

[sunhuntin]

And what is actually the requirement about having St John at such an event? I see them there , but so what if they weren't?

.

dunno the answer to this, but im thinking theres gonna be at least 1000 bikes there...in fairly tight formation. all it would take is for one to arse off and bring down whoever is behind. look what happens when close knit cyclists cock up.
at the very least, the arser-offer is gonna be a little scraped and bruised from being run over by those who can avoid him. those who cant and end up coming off as well will be the same as the first person.

besides, i thought st john was all volunteer [ie free]

[dwnundabkr]

i say fuck em lets ride

[kevfromcoro]

iam with u ..dwnunder,,,fuck them.....i will b there on sunday..and next year 2....they cant stop us...scorpygirl put a good post in here.....look at wot we are going to raise..and its all for a good cause.....will b interested to c the sastistics next week..and the dam cops are worried about $10000.smile and wave at the mayor of Auckland..hes on it....Ride Safe.....KEV

[NordieBoy]

besides, i thought st john was all volunteer [ie free]

St John is volunteer - The individules don't get paid.
The St John Ambulances running in and out of A&E all the time are a totally seperate outfit and shouldn't really use the name