While i abhor these things, and agree with the justifiable outrage felt by many, i hope the protest action does not degenerate into a 3 ring circus and is subsequently neutered by fast talking local body politicians and dept heads with vested interests. I believe the campaign needs to be coordinated,considered, achieveable and professional to succeed. The presentation also needs to be coherent, and data watertight to avoid being minimised or merely dismissed. Feedback i have had from BRONZ is encouraging and look forward to tomorrows meeting.Originally Posted by SpankMe
From Bronz (Lyn Mckie)
i promised I would update you on the National meeting discussions on rope barriers.
The issue was discussed at length - and I do mean at length. Wholehearted agreement that we all dislike these barriers but a grudging acceptance that no barrier is good for riders. We have come up with a plan of attack that is underway. Auckland BRONZ and National Prez will be taking the lead on this but Areas are encouraged to get the message out as well.
1. Meet with Transit NZ to hear from them why they use the Brifen Wire Rope Barrier and what considerations are taken into account to decide the type of road safety measure to be used - I firmly believe the cost issue is big but it will be interesting to see what they say. This meeting is being organised with the Transit rep Dave Bates and Finn - our new National President along with Les Mason - the Auckland President. We did try to organise for Transit to be at the meeting on Saturday but time was too tight - Transit have said they are keen to meet so that's a good start.
The Kiwi Biker people are also working on this but in a more visible and probably a more radical way - comments apparently of taking to the wire rope barriers with gas cutters! They are organising a protest run which is a shame really because like a strike a protest run is really your last action. Anyways the agreed BRONZ approach is to work with Govt/agencies on a reasonable and realistic basis. We won't get the use of these barriers stopped completely I believe but we need their use to be assessed to acknowledge any increased risk to motorcyclists. We need to know what the risks are for all barriers - wire rope, concrete & Armco. We also want to make sure these barriers are used appropriately - we do not agree with them being used on the outside of corners or on single lane roads (the Kapati Cost road out of Wgtn is the worst example of this in NZ). We need to make sure they are being used as they are designed to be too.
2. Set a position and get it known
BRONZ has concerns about road barriers, in particular Brifen wire rope barriers. We'll take the opportunity to meet with Transit to discuss the problem. We will be asking Transit to
a) review the deployment of the Brifen Wire Rope Barrier
b) halt further deployment until the review is completed, and
c) develop an action plan to make existing barriers "safer" for motorcyclists.
On c) - I want to see measures taken to reduce the risk associated with impact against barriers generally - a lot is being done in Europe to reduce the risks for motorcyclists. Some of the solutions are simple and can make a big difference.
I've been in contact with Transit locally - the regional manager is Mike O'Cain and he is OK to deal with. He's out of town at the moment so I'll try him again later in the week. I am also drafting a letter to the Ed for the ODT to get our position out there - it would be good if we could get a few letters in the paper about this to raise the profile locally and to show Transit motorcyclists are worried about this down here as well.
3. Petition - we understand Kiwi Biker could be putting a petition together. We will wait and see what they come up with - if OK from BRONZ perspective we will encourage members and all riders to support it.
So - at this stage we are working on building a reasonable relationship with Transit so they see us as the people to deal with over this, ultimately to get improvements in the use of wire rope barriers as well as other barriers.
More discussion at the meeting on Thursday I'm sure.
Ride safe
Lyn
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