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BMF WARN ON DRIVING LICENCE THREAT
Posted: Mon Dec 18, 2006 1:14 pm
by Kwackerz
1st December 2006
BMF WARN ON DRIVING LICENCE THREAT
Despite last-ditch efforts to head-off the adoption of stringent new EC driving licence regulations, the BMF is warning that without a miraculous change of fortune, motorcycling is about to face it’s biggest threat ever.
This follows a recent transport committee meeting at the EU Parliament in Brussels where, despite several amendments being submitted to moderate the motorcycling proposals of the 3rd EC Driving Licence Directive, only some procedural amendments submitted by the Rapporteur Matthieu Grosch were accepted. After voting on the amendments, the final vote for the substantive Directive was to accept it by 31 votes to 2 against and 2 abstentions.
It will now be considered by a plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg on 12th December when an amendment to reject the whole directive will be put by UK Conservative MEP Phillip Bradburn, ‘but the outcome is not hopeful’ said the BMF’s Senior Government Relations Executive, Trevor Magner.
Known as the TRAN Committee, the only members of the Committee to speak for motorcyclists were Philip Bradbourn and Dutch MEP, Mrs Wortmann-Kool. Their amendments related to direct access; limiting the age that member states could choose for moped licences; eliminating one of the extra tests on progressive access and removing minimum engine capacities for minimum test vehicles. Mr Bradbourn also tabled a proposal to declare medical condition as an alternative to mandatory medical checks. The meeting was witnessed by FEMA General Secretary, Aline Delhaye, Trevor Magner BMF, Trevor Baird MAG UK and Wim Taal MAG Netherlands.
Rapporteur Matthieu Grosch now wants to progress the Directive so that it will be implemented by member states by 2012.
“In spite of the BMF having written to every MEP, there was a display of ignorance about motorcycling that beggars belief,” said the BMF’s Trevor Magner. No note has been taken of an improving safety record or of the European MAIDS study that proved that the majority of bike accidents are caused by other drivers.” In what has been a difficult and complex fight he added, “I fear the implications for the future of motorcycling are dire. Through its costs and complexity, this directive will be a big disincentive to anyone considering taking up motorcycling.”
The BMF will be supporting FEMA in asking national motorcycling organisations to again lobby MEPs to call for rejection at the plenary session, but there is little prospect of the Council of Ministers rejecting the Directive since despite the BMF’s massive postcard campaign to UK Transport Minister Stephen Ladyman, the UK Government is unlikely to object.
To lobby your MP, please see BMF Campaigns Live.
ENDS
Issued by Jeff Stone: t: 0121 709 1040 e:
jeff.stone@bmf.co.uk
Posted: Mon Dec 18, 2006 1:15 pm
by Kwackerz
Posted: Mon Dec 18, 2006 1:19 pm
by Gio
I have no objection to making it more difficult to get a bike licence, as long as its applied to car, bus and lorry drivers.
Posted: Mon Dec 18, 2006 1:20 pm
by Kwackerz
MAG's view on it:
Europe Pushes Through Directive
14th December 2006
Today the European Parliament voted in favour of the 3rd European Driving Licence Directive.
A final amendment submitted by UK MEP Philip Bradbourn (Conservative) calling for the rejection of the directive was defeated.
A big thanks to all of you who lobbied their MEPs, the European Commissioner, signed the petition and took part in the poll during this issue.
We have left the information page on the Directive "live" as an archive and the licence graph, which tries to give an overview of the complexity of the licence regime.
You can still sign the petition which we can still use in the coming months.
What happens next?
We have already been in communication with the rest of the motorcycle community in the UK - Training Representatives - Motorcycle Industry - BMF.
Government has already stated that they will consult with motorcycle representatives, to deliver the motorcycle aspects of the directive in the UK.
At this stage as defined in the directive this should be by 2013.
We now face a long haul to get the best deal for young and new riders!
Campaign website
Here
Issued by
Trevor Baird
Director Of Public Affairs
The UK's Leading Riders' Rights Organisation
www.mag-uk.org
More information or comments contact MAG Public Relations or Public Affairs
Posted: Wed Dec 20, 2006 10:18 am
by lazarus
I reckon the directive is a positive way forward. The BMF might be interested in how many bikers are on the roads but I am not - so a reduction in numbers doesnt seem to me to be important. What does matter is making it more difficult to get a license because like it or not, bikers are 16 times more likely to die in an accident than car drivers. Simply a function of more protection in a car, and a good reason why bikers need training to a higher standard than car drivers. Better risk avoidance and one reasopn why I'm in favour of all youngsters having to learn road sense in a car before getting a bike license.
Immediately post test is when you are most likely to have an accident and combined with the immortality of youth this means that the person most at risk is the youngster who has never been on the road before and who has just passed his bike test. Dont know about you, but both my kids had minor bumps in their cars just after passing their test as did I. In my daughters case, had she been on a bike, she would have been dead / badly injured.
It was for this reason that my father gave me a car at 17 on the uderstanding I didnt go near a bike, which I didnt until age 30. I've put the same pressure on my kids.
Bikers often moan about accidents caused by cars (even though 50% of bike accidents are bikes running of the road in a single vehicle prag) and I've just had one myself. Sure more training for car drivers will help but I'm not convinced that it will make a lot of difference. Car drivers dont deliberately cause crashes with bikes. Mostly (as with me) its the routine bumps and bangs that are inevitable, which just cause panel damage with cars but which cause much more injury to unprotected bikers. No amount of training is going to avoid these incidents and the best focus is on rider training to recognise the risk type situation.
So as far as I am concerned, bring it on. The tougher the better as long as it is practical. The alternative practical way to reduce bike accidents is to ban bikes and none of us want that.
Posted: Wed Dec 20, 2006 12:54 pm
by Kwackerz
Agree totally, Laz!
Posted: Wed Dec 20, 2006 10:02 pm
by snapdragon
can we make blind car drivers re-test? and idiots on mobiles? and pull out merchants? whats the point of training new riders to the enth degree when guys who passed back in the part I and II days - and before !! can return to riding forty years after they gained their licence with no experience in between
can i get a soapbox emoticon here?? ;)
Posted: Thu Dec 21, 2006 5:49 pm
by lazarus
Its a very fair point Snappy. I took my bike test aged 30, got bored after a few years and returned 20 years later (dont bother adding up, I'm 61 now
). So I chose to do the IAM as a way of re-training myself, though it still didnt stop me being knocked off this year.
I reckon it ought to be a compulsory re-test after every driving offence except parking. That would slow down the weekend warriors!
