G'day All
I recently sat down and sent off a rather long email about a number issues that the Qld Government is considering lumping on top of Motorcyclists, This was sent off to the Qld Minister for Transport, I mentioned a number of issues, including poor quality roads, poor driver training and licensing, Getting police out from behind the speed Cameras and on the highway, More red light cameras on well known dangerous intersections, pointless and dangerous logic behind Front number plates, I highlighted the fact that a recent OECD summit on Motorcycle safety was shown to use Vic Roads many proposal's and Ideas (EG: Front number plates, Safety Levy and many other proposals) were shown to have NO safety credibility at all.
And yet, we as a state are going to go down that same route.
This letter was long with no name calling and citing many European studies and us studies.
I tried to highlight as much as they would not want to hear it, that this insane focus on speed and raising money was not helping save lives, and no twisting of the Statistics would or could convince the general public otherwise. We have more problems on our roads than a speed camera would or could fix.
I also highlighted that in recent weeks, Vic roads had been considering backing away from the front number plates issues due to continued flack from the public, The Army (My brother in law is high up in the Army and has been following this proposal closely and they strongly disagree with it, they have a decent sized fleet of Dirt bikes), Australia post (Single biggest bike customer in Australia) Public Liability considerations and high ranking politicians questioning the logic behind such an expensive and ill-conceived bunch of proposals
And after all that, This was my response
Dear Mr Keys
Thank you for your email dated 18 June 2008 to the Honourable John Mickel
MP, Minister for Transport, Trade, Employment and Industrial Relations
regarding your concerns with the VicRoads proposed initiative for front
number plates on motorbikes. The Minister has asked that I respond on his
behalf.
The Queensland Government recognises the importance of road safety to all
road user groups, including vulnerable groups such as motorbike riders. It
is also acknowledged that excessive speed does contribute to a proportion
of crashes involving motorbikes. In fact, in the 2006 Queensland Road
Safety Summit, representatives identified improving speed enforcement of
motorbikes as a high priority action.
Queensland Transport supports initiatives that will improve vehicle
identification, which is an essential component of effective speed
enforcement. The issue of the requirement for a front identifier for
motorbikes was most recently raised by Victoria and is currently being
considered at a national level. Queensland Transport representatives are
aware of this project and have raised a number of practical concerns that
must be addressed in order to identify the best and most appropriate means
of having motorbikes identified from the front.
I am advised that there are a number of issues to be considered prior to
the making of a requirement for a front number plate to be fitted to a
motorbike. Among those issues is the current design of motorbikes which
in many cases does not easily allow for a front number plate to be
attached.
Queensland Transport advises that options being considered include the use
of adhesive backed decals showing the registration number of the motorbike
and, methods of fixing brackets to hold a number plate to the front of a
motorbike.
It is necessary to investigate each of these types of identifiers and the
method used to fix the identifier to ensure that there is no impact on the
safety of the motorbike, rider or other road user through an alteration of
the handling, cooling or operation of the motorbike.
If you require any further information, please call Mr Andreas Blahous,
Land Transport and Safety on (Edited)
Yours sincerely
JON PERSLEY
Assistant Policy Advisor
Correspondence Management
Departmental Liaison Unit
Phone: EDITED| Fax: EDITED | Email:
Correspondence.Management.QT@transport.qld.gov.au QUEENSLAND TRANSPORT |
Corporate Office Division | Executive and Ministerial Services Branch
So after all the other Issues I raised, they could only focus on one thing, raising money.
Typical make the beast with two backsing useless politicians, and they wonder why I refuse to vote for the make the beast with two backswits!
I sent a reply back asking if they even read my Email, I don't need another Form letter sent which tells me they have no Idea what is going on. And my Email/Letter was addressed to the Minister, I don't need one of his UnderLings answering my question's.
