ACC calls for “greater awareness of motorcyclists”

[Little Miss Trouble]

Anyone else spot this one?

http://nz.news.yahoo.com/070611/3/lzw.html

what are your thoughts?
I think any driver education thingame aimed at making people more aware of us is good, of course whether it actually works is another matter entirely.

glad to see this bit though "In three-quarters of cases, the motorcyclist was not at fault, she said." nice change from the usual media portrayal

[MSTRS:Me]

Posters in bus shelters?? That'll be effective.
Should pass a law making it legal for us to intentionally damage cars etc in retaliation for being treated like we're not there.

[Reckless]

quote Auckland City road policing manager Inspector Heather Wells said 41 per cent of injury motorcycle crashes occurred in situations where other motorists didn't see the motorcycle. In three-quarters of cases, the motorcyclist was not at fault, she said.

Aint that the truth! you really gota watch out for the red light runners now if your between cars at the lights. Aucks getting really really bad.
I got one guy, one day, he was goin slow enough 4 me to play with! I pulled out just enough for him to have to stop, then rode around the front of him and left him stranded in the middle of the intersection with all the traffic bearing down on him!! "oh lifes good some days"

[Ewan Oozarmy]

Making drivers aware of motorcycles is great but I think that generally the poor standard of driving here is to blame.

I'm from London and have been riding for 20 years in many different countries but I have never come across such bad standards of driving as I witness here on a daily basis on my 40k round trip commute. It's literally disgraceful!

Motorcycle awareness should be part of the driving test but also that same driving test should be difficult enough that if you are not a good enough driver to be released on to the roads at the end of it then you fail.

[MSTRS:Me]

....I think that generally the poor standard of driving here is to blame.

I'm from London .....

Personally, I think it's all the foreigners that are the problem
(I agree with you - driving standards are appalling here)

[Macktheknife]

This sounds suspiciously like the same "look out for bikes' campaign from last year.....
'that was not very sucessful so lets do it again.'
I suppose we should be grateful that they are doing anything at all.

[Ewan Oozarmy]

Personally, I think it's all the foreigners that are the problem
(I agree with you - driving standards are appalling here)

That's definitely something to do with it. I am able to swap my UK license for an NZ one by answering a couple of easy theory questions. I'm happy with this for me personally, however, I don't think this should be the case.

But I think we all know it's not just the foreigners (mentioning no specific races here) who can't drive.....

Of course there's bad driving where ever you go but I've not seen such a majority in any other "developed" country.

[mazz1972]

Nice to see some "effort" being made. There seem to be so many accidents where a driver hasn't seen a bike and whammo.

From a personal point of view I feel that there are some riders that need educating too. Many a time I have been in my car and given a fright by a biker zooming past me out of nowhere from somewhere they weren't supposed to be....doesn't help the cause and can't blame a driver for not looking where a bike isn't supposed to be. Same with cyclists.

[Blackbird]

A number of us either attended or made submissions last year to the Ministry of Transport "roadshows". There was heavy emphasis from us on education, not legislation. I think most of us meant raising driving skills, not a bloody poster campaign.

I do hope it's not going to be a case of "Well, education failed, so let's legistlate - perhaps we should drive bikes off the road as they are over-represented". I don't trust M of T to do a decent cause and effect analysis.

[Sanx]

glad to see this bit though "In three-quarters of cases, the motorcyclist was not at fault, she said." nice change from the usual media portrayal

I'm surprised the figure is as low as that. The UK's Department Of Transport released a pretty comprehensive report entitled "In-depth Study of Motorcycle Accidents" in November 2004. They claimed that 38% of accidents were Right-Of-Way Violations; basically, the classic "Sorry mate, I didn't see you" manouver. They found that less than 20% of these accidents (of 681 studied) were fully or partially the fault of the biker.

Over 65% of these accidents involved a driver who failed to see the biker who was in clear view, and was in clear view to witnesses. 12% of these accidents happened when the rider was verifiably using visibility aids such as daytime running lishgts and high-vis vests; though use of such aids is felt to be under-reported by the cops.

Should anyone be so inclined, the report makes for very interesting reading. You can download the full version here.

As an aside, the study also surveyed bikers' attitudes to what constituted important safety measures. The options included "Mainting the motorcycle", "being visible", "observing the speed limit", "Not riding whilst drunk / drugged", "using correct observation techniques", "correctly positioning motorcycle", "not riding whilst tired" and "wearing pretective clothing". Three guesses which of these was rated as "most important" by just 1.2% of people and "least important" by 29.6%.

Posters in bus shelters?? That'll be effective.
Should pass a law making it legal for us to intentionally damage cars etc in retaliation for being treated like we're not there.

No no no. It would make the motorist concerned resent bikers. Having the driver strung up from the nearest tree would be much simpler.

[Drum]

Let them have their silly poster campaign. At least they're not requiring us to wear flouro (yet).

[MSTRS:Me]

Having the driver strung up from the nearest tree would be much simpler.

Steady on. That's a bit harsh. Unless you meant foreigners only?

[Sanx]

I do hope it's not going to be a case of "Well, education failed, so let's legistlate - perhaps we should drive bikes off the road as they are over-represented". I don't trust M of T to do a decent cause and effect analysis.

Well, to give you an indication of how important Land Transport rate motorcyclists and their concerns, do a quick study of the Research Papers carried out by or commissioned by LTNZ. You can find the lists here.

Not one instance of the words "motorcycle", "motorcycles", "motorbike" or "motorbikes". Not a single study looking at how bikes are affected by blind cagers or abysmal roads. However, good to know the mad mullahs in charge are concerned with important matters such as "Measuring and enhancing roadside biodiversity" and "Personalised marketing demonstration study for Birkenhead, Auckland". Useless fuckers, the lot of them.

[avgas]

98% of statistics are made up.

[WRT]

"The problem seems to be worse at intersections and on major roads. For example, in Auckland, five roads accounted for the majority of motorcycle accidents," she said.

Could at least have let us know which roads those five are so we can avoid them!