Letter in Saturday's Harold - Police to target motorcyclists

[Ixion]

i carry this with me.. copy of the internationally recognized ISO standard for sound testing...





if they got all that.. im happy to pony up

Yup. That's nice. Might be useful in court. But, the cop doesn't have to take any notice whatsoever of any of that. He can just say "Don't give a stuff. It sounds too noisy to me. Here's your ticket, here's your green sticker (or pink or yellow or whatever homo colour it is), that means you can't use the bike on the road. Have a nice day.". And NZ law doesn't recognise the ISO standard for in service operations. Noice, eh.

Lots of boi racers have been down that path. Never works.

[Gummie]

How about this 10 year plan includes cages being taught that there are other vehicles on the road to. I for one paid them no mention when i had only a car licence. I was taught only to look for cars and trucks, and always drove that way. Since then i have paid us more attention, and respect for all road users.

[SARGE]

Yup. That's nice. Might be useful in court. But, the cop doesn't have to take any notice whatsoever of any of that. He can just say "Don't give a stuff. It sounds too noisy to me. Here's your ticket, here's your green sticker (or pink or yellow or whatever homo colour it is), that means you can't use the bike on the road. Have a nice day.". And NZ law doesn't recognise the ISO standard for in service operations. Noice, eh.

Lots of boi racers have been down that path. Never works.

kinda makes you want to cooperate and pull over then, dont it?

[Swoop]

I can see The Amazing Fuckoffski Brothers putting in plenty of appearances in the near future.

[Ixion]

Fortunately, cops don't seem to be too anal about exhaust noise on bikes. Much less so than cars. Maybe because they are not familiar with bikes and find it harder to judge when the noise is excessive(and risk being shown up in court by a defence lawyer "So officer, you admit that you actually have no experience of how loud a motorcycle may be as standard . Yet you etc ".)

However, there have been a few folk got done on that count. And are not at all happy about it.

Cops will always be a bit cautious about charges where the basis is subjective, because the burden of proof lies on them to show that the bike was noisy/driving was dangerous etc, beyond what the court might consider reasonable. So it's a bit of a gamble for them, and they'll generally not go down that road unless (a) you appear an easy target - young, uneducated etc ; (b) they have so much else on you that no court is going to listen to you ; or (c) the case is so way over that it can't easily be defended (" I considered the noise excessive M'Lud , cos when I stopped him and the boike was idling, my windscreen blew out , my ear drums ruptured and the windows in 10 houses around shattered").

[swbarnett]

Anyone not wearing the right riding gear shouldn't get Acc coverage for that part of there body that gets damaged..

This path leads to the banning of motorcycles completely! Don't go there!

[Ixion]

Well, as none has any idea what Mr Richards was talking about, I shall assume that he was a bit confused, and the item was just the usual "wah wah bikers need to take care, must e more careful wah wah" stuff.

[Tone165]

Welcome to my world!

2 years back, we had a similar "Blitz" on bikes in Qld.

It was a nightmare..

Bikes WERE plucked from traffic flow and hit with speeding fines, Groups of coppers were dispatched to known bike haunts to bulk issue "excessive noise" notices, and many dubious accusations were made. The newspapers went along for the ride, and it verged on comedy sometimes!

I had 2 tickets for speeding, when I wasn't! I do speed, but I always assumed that the Police actually had to prove that I was at the time of the ticket...not so!

Qld Police have no reason to lie.........so I must be!

My dealings (limited) with NZ Police, by comparison to the Jackbooted Nazi that is the Qld Policeman...as Fred Dagg used to say.."You don't know how lucky you are!"

I got pulled over on Sunday by a real pleasant cop, (who also rides) he gave me a warning and a freindly attitude, so there are still some good ones out there..but the odds are not great!

[Katman]

Plus if half of what gets posted on here about the exploits of some of the "Legends" is only part truth, you got say, it had to happen.

See now, when I say that I get

As for the exhaust issue - it could still end up going a whole lot further.

If the government wants to get really nasty we could quite easily see - 'No motorcycle exhaust shall be replaced with any component not designed by manufacturer as OEM equipment'.

[scumdog]

"The sky is falling..the sky is falling...."

So sayeth 'the man'.

[Big Chim]

If your being targeted, watch out for the U turn!!!!

[schado]

One should wonder why it is that the police are instructed to target motorcycle riders. We are road users that at least likely to kill anyone else except for ourselves if we make a mistake or an error of judgement - be it failing to judge corner or braking distance, or be it our judgement to cause a bit of extra tunnel vision & wind speed. I suspect that the government is predicting a massive increase in the use of motorcycles on NZ roads due to individuals economics.ie; we are all getting poorer. Oh goodie... nice place to gather even more than the current 42m bucks the extort out of us.

[Marmoot]

I don't think that you would get done for the riding in the right wheel track, as the road code says, that is where you are meant to ride. ie the front of the car's driver's main vision.

Hmm...i've been riding it wrong all these years. Guilty as charged.

Next time I see cars I'd better do what I am required to do: overtake the cars and ride in the front of the cars' drivers' main vision.

And as for bikers being targeted, the cause would only be one: recession!

[Tony]

And as for bikers being targeted, the cause would only be one: recession!

I don't think there is anything vindictive or recession related in targeting motorcyclists. Their charter and mandate is to reduce the number of road deaths. Road deaths increased significantly for motorcyclists last year. Yeah I acknowledge that at micro level some cops may need to hit their quota targets from time to time and increase the number of tickets instead of warnings they issue.

If your responsibility was to reduce road deaths it would make sense to take a closer look at what's killing us.

I believe that some of the new proposals being put forward are excellent while others are counter productive or just punitive.

Perhaps it would be fun to create a thread with our own wish list for new rules to make the roads, otehr drivers and ourselves safer.

I would start by making protective boots, gloves, jackets and pants compulsory (ATGATT).

Perhaps it would be nice to see a police target on signalling, following distances, unreasonably slow drivers. Perhaps this could be an advisory campaign where drivers are pulled over and given warnings and a mintie for there mintie moment. These warnings could be written up and included in a traffic officers indivdual quotas - so their bosses know they are out there pulling their weight.

Oh and while I am it, make defensive cognitive (theory) and vehicle skills handling tests compulsory for all drivers as part of the GDLS. And for god sake up the ante on the basic motor cycle skills handling test, its a joke. I did mine on an automatic scooter and never exceeded 5mph! The tests at the minimum should include emergency skid control for cars (easily to do safely on a skid pan) and emergency braking tests for car drives and bikes.

Every driver should also have to read. "Down with Speed" (Ignoring the introductory propoganda summary which actually contradicts some of the real information in the document.

Oh and one more rule: for every new rule enacted the person putting forward the rule should nominate two rules to be scrapped.

Boy with all the new rule ideas I've have, I am going to have my work cut out!

[Badjelly]

I don't think that you would get done for the riding in the right wheel track, as the road code says, that is where you are meant to ride. ie the front of the car's driver's main vision.

Doubt you *would* get done. But you *could*. Do a search here, it's been well covered. Legislators forgot about bikes. Again. Road code disagrees with law. Road Code is right.

I did do a search--quite a few searches actually--and didn't come up with anything relevant. Can you give me a hint?

As far as keeping left on unlaned roads , the Road Code says

To stay well out of the way of oncoming vehicles, always keep as close as possible to the left side of the road.

and follows it with a picture showing cars and bikes on an unlaned road, with the bikes not keeping as close as possible to the left side of the road.

http://www.landtransport.govt.nz/roa...laned-road.jpg