Winter Road - Yorkshire
Aberdeen, Scotland – Christmas a time of peace, joy, sharing, giving and hey, what the hell, listening and appreciating other citizen’s views.
It appears that the recession is affecting campaign groups big time. As members leave organisations, for economic reasons, we are left with small hard-core groups of activists who will do and say anything to get media attention and boost dwindling membership figures. In short, organisations are becoming less and less representative of the mainstream of non-members.
This leaves us with a problem. Government needs to talk to ‘representative’ user groups. After all the good folks at the Department of Transport (DfT) etc cannot consult every motorcyclist or cyclist, well not yet. So they consult the appropriate ‘representative groups’ whose spokespersons always have sudden coughing fits or are ‘unavailable for comment’ when nasty things like membership numbers come up for discussion.
If we take cycling as an issue we have an obvious disparity between what the cycling groups are saying and what your average cyclist in the ‘street’ thinks.
The London Cycling Campaign (LCC) is fighting hard to keep motorcyclists out of the capitals bus lanes. This week LCC criticised the London trial of motorcycles in bus lanes on the grounds it could lead to an increase in motorcycle traffic. Yet ask the average London cyclist what he/she thinks and most simple don’t care if motorcycles and scooters are in or out of the bus lanes, they just want to get to work.
Last week the Transport Research Laboratory published a report that concludes that between 10% and 16% of the cyclists killed on Britain’s roads in 2008 could have been avoided had the victims been wearing a helmet. The Report hints that the compulsory wearing of cycle helmets may be a good idea. The Cycle Tour Club responds with “in other countries where such laws have been introduced, the effect has been to cause a reduction in the number of people cycling”. Not exactly responsible from a road safety standpoint is it. Encouraging people not to wear a safety helmet as doing so discourages other people from cycling. Seems most cyclists I see in London choose to wear a helmet so, where’s that leave the CTC. Out of touch me thinks.
Which makes me wonder why we bother with campaign groups who play up on the anti biker, anti cyclist antagonism thing, for their own ends, when most motorcyclists, scooterists and cyclists just want to (a) get to their destinations safely or (b) don’t care.
So let’s smile, wave and share the road with care.
On Britain’s current road chaos. Thought you might like to know that Transport Secretary Lord Adonis has departed for a luxury Alpine skiing holiday in Austria. Leaving his deputy, Sadiq Khan, to face the heat over cancelled flights, train delays and the road-gritting havoc. Bet the roads are snow free in Austria Andrew, why don’t you ask why!
Also rest easy in the fact the UK Department of Transport paid out £12 million to staff in end-of-year bonus payments and rewards for performance on projects throughout the year.
I’m taking this opportunity to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a New Year when you succeed with your biking ambitions. Good luck, and may your God go with you.
© Back Roads Rider 2009
Edinburgh, Scotland – 7.5cm of snow in England and once again transport systems grind to a shuddering halt.
The fact that nothing works in England following a light, by central European standards, fall of snow is now accepted as the norm. Major motorway and trunk road systems blocked by jams, railway travel disrupted, three major airports closed, and power outs across large areas of East Anglia. Followed of course by the ‘all the usual suspects’ excuses from the PR people hauled in front of the media, while the responsible managers make a hasty retreat to count their hard earned bonuses. Still at least climate change and global warming make a somewhat pleasant change to the usual, freezing diesel, lack of salt stocks, wrong type of snow, staff shortage due to adverse weather and unexpected freezing conditions type excuses that typify the English approach to the winter management of transport systems.
Perhaps it would be a good idea if some of the court jesters who run our transport infrastructure told the truth. Its simple, they are not prepared to fund the capital investment needed to winterize out transport network. Why? Because the snow and freezing conditions only last for a few weeks and soon pass, letting things return to ‘normal’. So we just have to put up with it. While the private companies who own our public transport make nice profits, pay nice share dividends and pay nice performance bonuses. Meanwhile the Government worries about winning the next election and dressing up Iraq and Afghanistan as ‘victories’.
Back in the realm of biking. A welcome Christmas present from Brussels. A new draft standard for protective road restraint systems has been approved by the European Committee for Normalisation (CEN). This means that we will soon have a European standard, EN1317-8, for protective road restraint systems for motorcyclists, i.e. biker friendly crash barriers and under run systems. Congratulations to the Federation of European Motorcycle Associations (FEMA), and supporters for achieving this. Especially welcome in the UK as our gold plating of all things European and Standard means that biker friendly barriers will become the norm relatively quickly.
Over in Motorcycle Action Group (MAG) land that well know cat lover, biker, bon viveur and President of MAG UK, Ian Mutch, has fettled up a response to the Sussex Polices stop check and handing out hi-viz jackets to bikers campaign. According to Ian drivers should be randomly stopped and given eyesight checks to tackle so-called ‘looked but didn’t see’ crashes, they are the ones that us dressing up in yellow are supposed to stop.
Actually Ian that’s a cracking idea. But why not widen it into a national campaign to make eye tests for all drivers and riders compulsory every five years.
Right that’s all from me. I’m off to buy some shares in Spec Savers and find the bike; it’s under a snowdrift somewhere!
© Back Roads Rider 2009
Disputed UK Driving/Riding Licences Remain an Issue
Berwick Upon Tweed, England – Disputed licence entitlements, a cause celebre for UK bikers, have again been headlining.
BRR believes that, despite announcements from UK Riders Rights Groups and features in the motorcycling press, little has been achieved to assist the small minority of riders who lose their entitlement to ride because of Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) errors.
What’s new? In the future the DVLA, on request, will return original licences to motorcyclists whenever a replacement licence is issued due to change of address, loss, renewal etc. The original licence will have a hole punched through it to invalidate it.
Can’t I get my old licence back now? Well yes, you can actually. It’s a bit cheeky but if you tick the lost or stolen box on the licence application form you can actually keep your old licence.
So this means that I will automatically get a new licence showing entitlement to ride a motorcycle i.e. Category A, if I send in my licence with a Category A entitlement on it? Well the answer to that depends who you wish to believe.
The British Motorcyclists Federation (BMF) said on December 8 09 “cutting the corner off the old licence and returning the old with its replacement would provide proof of entitlement”.
Motorcycle News (MCN) said on December 8 09 “It means that if motorcycle entitlement is missing from the new licence, riders will have the old one to prove it”.
However the confirmed position of the DVLA on December 14 09 was “Referring to motorcycle licences, it is now the intention of the DVLA, if requested, to return original licences to motorcyclists whenever a replacement licence is issued, with a hole punched through the photograph of the ‘old’ licence to ensure that it is invalid. If however on interrogation of the DVLA data base the applicant is found not to have Category A entitlement a full investigation will take place, before a replacement licence is issued, to ensure that the applicant is entitled to a licence showing Category A.
The DVLA added “The Agency endeavours to ensure that licences showing full entitlement to any category are only issued to those individuals that can prove that they have passed the relevant driving test”.
So what’s changed? Well if the DVLA database shows you have Category A entitlement you get a new licence with the old one returned, if you request it.
But what if I send in my licence showing Category A entitlement and the DVLA refuse to issue a new one because a database error has removed my entitlement, won’t my original licence prove I have Category A entitlement? Well as I said that depends on whom you want to believe, the DVLA, the campaign spinners or people with journalistic licence.
So that’s position. Unless you know better of course. I really hope someone does!
Idea!! Appoint an independent arbitrator to look at the available evidence and decide if the people claiming loss of entitlement to ride a bike actually took a test. The result to be binding on all parties.
© Back Roads Rider 2009
Electric Scooters - Low Emission City Transport
Middlesbrough, England – On Wednesday last, Chancellor Alistair Darling gave his Pre-Budget Report speech to the House of Commons, promising to slash the deficit he expects will reach £611billion over the next four years.
Buried among the promises to rein in spending, protect the poor and explain why MP’s are entitled to claim expenses for slug pellets was the expected ‘green’ pleaser.
Ahead of the second week of the Copenhagen Climate Summit Darling announced tax concessions for companies purchasing electric cars and vans. Coupled with Plugged-In Places, a UK Government initiative offering funding of up to £30 million to create a critical mass of electric vehicle infrastructure, using an electric car or van in the UK is becoming a viable transport option.
Note ‘using an electric car or van’ for disappointingly neither Darlings new tax concessions or Plugged-In include electric motorcycles or scooters. Oh dear, two-wheeled transport always a bridesmaid, never a bride.
Considering the hundreds if not thousands of businesses and employees that could benefit from using an electric motorcycle or scooter, this lack of inclusion makes no sense whatsoever. Why shouldn’t our mode receive the same support as those buying electric cars or vans?
So come on Alistair be a darling and in light of the efforts that the industry is currently making to encourage people to use motorcycles and scooters Get-On too.
And for all the electric scooter owners in BRR land please plug-in, switch on and CHILL OUT!
© Back Roads Rider 2009
Kingston Upon Hull, England – Regular readers of the this blog will know that Back Roads Rider has a bit of thing about congestion charging and road tolling.
Thus it’s good, from my perspective that we are in a current stalemate over the introduction of a pay per trip regime for use of the UK’s road system. Possible impasse would be a better term to use brought on by the looming General Election, simple put politicians can see that the political risks of congestion charging and road tolling outweigh the perceived benefits. In this case ‘risk’ being they won’t get elected and ‘perceived benefits’ being thinking up a way to get around the EU Directives on road charging and tolling which state that all profit from income must be spent on transport projects. Not rather misguided military adventures in foreign climes often situated to the east of the UK.
But yet those diehard civil service mandarins down in London, no doubt egged on by a posse of ministerial special advisers, have not given up hope. Hope that someday in someway the great British public will learn to enjoy the benefits that road charging can, in their view at least, bring the nation. Yes, the Cabinet Office has produced yet another report, I think there have been five in the past six years, in which a small flickering flame of hope is kept alive that some type of road charging should be considered as a way of solving traffic congestion. I was thinking that the recession had done that, and for free!
Coincidently information from the Department of Transport (DfT) has revealed that the department has spent over £30 million on attempts to influence some of the UK’s major cities into introducing road charging in some form, and projects to test the technology needed to charge. Oh well what’s the odd £30mill matter we can always borrow some more.
Congratulations to the British Motorcyclists Federation (BMF) who have apparently solved the on-going problem of loss of entitlement to ride when applying for a replacement licence due to change of address, loss, renewal etc.
The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) will now be returning original driving licences to motorcyclists whenever a replacement licence is issued.
The new procedure (with a hole punched through the original licence to invalidate it), has been introduced because disputed entitlements over licence categories have meant that many riders have been forced to take another driving test simply because they were unable to prove previously held entitlements.
Can it be that easy? The BRR news hound has been dispatched post haste to the DVLA HQ in Swansea to sniff out the inside line on this one. We shall be reporting back as soon as we can ‘retrieve’ the story from him. Anyone seen the box of Bonio’s.
One for the road engineers and road safety engineers.
Congratulations to Saint-Gobain Pipelines, Stirling Lloyd and Bristol City Council for winning this years Prince Michael Road Safety Award for motorcycling with ‘Grip Top’.
‘Grip Top’ is a new service cover (that’s a manhole cover to you and me) that offers levels of grip comparable to the surrounding road surface and which is also capable of durable performance under intense traffic over a decade.
Yes folks it’s finally here a manhole cover that won’t cause you to take a trip through the nearest hedge.
More info here…..
Why not persuade a local council near you to fit them. Alternatively sponsor the fitting of one yourself. Bit more practical than a bunch of flowers at the side of the road.
© Back Roads Rider 2009
Kings Lynn, England – It appears that Transport for London (TfL) is up to its usual little tricks over giving motorcyclists and scooter rides access to London’s Red Route bus lanes.
Allegations are circulating that prior to the publication of the Interim Report, which reviews casualty figures for the first four months of the 18-month London motorcycle bus lane trial, TfL allowed campaigning groups the Cycle Tour Club and Living Streets to evaluate and comment upon it. It is apparent that the same courtesy was not extended to organisations representing motorcycle and scooter users from whom the report was withheld until a copy was leaked to one of the major UK motorcycle publications. TfL subsequently published the report on its website.
The report found that there were only three collisions between motorcycles and cycles on the trial bus lane routes in the first four months of 2009 compared to five during the same period in 2008, motorcycle pedestrian collisions stayed the same at 16. The reports findings do not support predictions from the pedestrian and cycle campaigning groups that allowing motorcycles bus lane access would be detrimental to their member’s safety.
It is more than 10 years since allowing motorcycles and scooters to use bus lanes in London first came on the agenda and TfL are still pratting about with trials (we must have had more than Judge Jeffreys conducted by now!), adjustments to data, and pleasing their ‘sideman’. We have a Motorcycle Unit, well two men a desk and a phone in Victoria. Doing what?
TfL are only too pleased to flaunt their best practice at meetings of the European Safer Urban Motorcycling project (eSUM), nice little jollies for the two men in Victoria no doubt. However, when it comes to something tangible for motorcyclists and scooterists in London, like access to bus lanes on the Transport for London Roads Network or parking facilities TfL are sadly lacking in their commitment to get something done. Boris where are you!!!
Moving on.
I have often wondered if the Governments obsession with promoting cycling was more to do with social engineering than encouraging use of a healthy and allegedly green form of transport. Are we in fact the subjects of some mad socialist attempt at a cycling field experiment thought up one of Tony Blair’s cronies in a ‘blue sky’ ‘think tank’ and pushed forward with no thought for safety.
This week saw the publication of a report on cycling casualties by researchers from the University of Surrey who have analysed English hospital admissions for the six years i.e.1999 to 2004. Said report appears to add some weight to my, admittedly slightly off the wall, theory of a great cycling experiment being perpetrated on the British public.
Key findings:
Cyclists are 20 times more likely to be killed or injured on England’s roads than motorists.
Cyclists in the UK are more than three times more likely to be killed or injured in traffic accidents than bike riders in Denmark or the Netherlands.
Only a minority of riders are injured in collisions with motor vehicles – 32 percent of adults (5,850) and just 19 percent of children (3,035), although in seven percent of cases the cause is not recorded.
On average, 71,099 car occupants seek hospital treatment in England each year for injuries sustained in road accidents, compared with 34,652 cyclists. But an average of 637 trips per person per year are made by car, compared with just 15 by bike.
Almost as many child cyclists (under-15s) are injured as adults – an average of 16,395 a year compared with 18,257.
Interesting stuff, sheds a new light on a number of safety issues. It appears for instance that most accidents are caused by people simple falling off their cycles, which leads to the question why aren’t cycle helmets compulsory. We must however consider that the data used is over five years old, we can only hope that matters have improved, but against a background of a 17 per cent increase in cycle, perhaps they have not.
Also this week in a response to a Parliamentary question Paul Clark, Minister of State for Transport, said that 12 children under the age of 15 were killed on “pedal cycles” and a further 405 were seriously injured in reported road accidents in 2008. The total number of children killed on the roads was 124 and the total number of cycling fatalities was 115.That means that ten per cent of the children killed on Britain’s roads in 2008 died while cycling.
My point. The Government is unwilling to whole-heartedly promote motorcycling and scootering as a legitimate form of personnel transport because of safety issues. Yet has spent two to three billion pounds in the last ten years promoting cycling which is the UK’s second most dangerous form of personal transport. In numerous briefings, the UK Department of Transport has stated that motorcyclists are 40 times more likely to be killed than motorists, citing biking as Britain’s most dangerous form of transport.
Discuss…………….
BBC News UK Crash Statistics more…..
© Back Roads Rider 2009
Norwich, England – It must be me but didn’t my tutor in statistical analysis point out in the course that the more you undertake a hazardous pursuit the more likely you are to be injured.
Well that point on statistics does not register on the radar of a number of UK cycling and cycling safety pundits. Apparently the fact that there was a 12 per cent increase in cycling between 2007 and 2008, and that the UK is enjoying its highest level of cycling in 17 years is not connected to the 19 per cent increase in the number of cyclists killed or seriously injured in the three months to July 2009.
It’s think of a reason why cycle casualties are rising and couple our wagon to that time. The latest being that its cyclists who ride around insulated from the road environment by listing to their iPods who are the problem. Well just to reiterate, the real problem is that more people are cycling and thus the increasing the likelihood of casualties.
That is a fact that does not sit well with the UK Governments policy of encouraging cycling at all costs. For years we have been fed the ‘critical mass’ theory on cycling casualties. This states that a high level of cycle usage can be achieved without a casualty increase as road user awareness of cyclists and cycle safety increases proportionally with the number of cyclists on the roads. Well if the current trend in cycle casualties continues that theory appears busted.
Back to the drawing board at the Department for Transport. While there perhaps the road safety mandarins should at least consider the voice of the lobby on the introduction of mandatory cycle helmet wearing for the under 14-age group.
Meanwhile the London Cycling Campaign (LCC) continues its fight to have motorcyclists and scooterists thrown out of the capitals bus lanes.
11 months into the latest usage trial both cyclists and motorcyclist are successfully sharing the lanes. Unfortunately the diehards at LCC do not see it that way and are now citing a fatal road crash between a cyclist and a motorcyclist, which did not happen in a bus lane, as a reason to end the trial.
Cyclists, motorcyclists and scooterists are all vulnerable road users and are safer in bus lanes. Are LCC so desperate to make a political point that they are playing with people lives? The answer apparently is yes. So what about a little sharing and caring when it comes to bus lanes and road safety.
Sad news from the US Dr. Hugh Hurt Jr has died, he was 81.
Dr Hurt was one of the world’s foremost authorities on motorcycle crashes and their causes. He was the principal investigator of the Hurt Report, an in-depth, on-scene investigation of 900 motorcycle accidents in Los Angeles from 1976 to 1977. Published in 1981, his groundbreaking research continues to form the basis of many of the United Sates motorcycle safety programs. His work, which inspired similar investigations in a number of other countries, has been and is credited with saving countless lives not only in the US but also globally.
Among the Hurt Reports major findings were that speed was not a factor in most crashes; that helmets were very effective in preventing brain injuries and deaths; and that two-thirds of motorcycle crashes involved cars and two-thirds of those accidents occurred when a car driver failed to see the motorcycle and violated the cyclist’s right of way.
Hurt, a lifelong motorcyclist, was, as a graduate student, involved with a project to develop a crash helmet that forms the basis for helmets used today, a hard exterior shell lined with an energy-absorbing material and soft inner padding.
Although he is best known for the Hurt Report, his more recent work included a large-scale motorcycle accident causation study in Thailand. He also ran the Head Protection Research Laboratory a non-profit organisation he established to evaluate helmets and other forms of head protection equipment.
Dr Hugh Harrison “Harry” Hurt Jr. Born December 13, 1927. Died November 29 2009.
R.I.P………. Ride In Paradise brother, where the fuel is free, the tarmac is good, the sun always shines and the tyres never wear out.
© Back Roads Rider 2009
Ipswich, England – Authoritarianism – A form of government in which the governing body has absolute, or almost absolute, control. Typically this control is maintained by force, and little heed is paid to public opinion or the judicial system.
Why this stuff on authority? Last week I met up with a friend of mine who is well into the climate change issue, she’s a real climate change denier. Since she hangs out, academically speaking, in one of the UK’s better universities she has a well argued case. Thus she’s grinning like Cheshire cat over the mess that the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit (CRU) has got itself into over the leaking of private emails sent and received by Professor Phil Jones, the CRU’s director. In them he discusses massaging the raw temperature data on which the CRU’s predictions of global warming are based in an attempt, presumable, to belittle the sceptics and deniers case.
This adds weight to another of my friend’s theories on climate change and authoritarianism. She reckons that the intellectual cranks involved with the anti communist movement and nuclear disarmament all decamped to the ‘green movement’ after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Bizarrely she believes that these people have become an authoritarian clique of climate change protesters with little tolerance of minority opinion or personal freedom. She may have a point here, if taken to extremes. No nuclear power, no coal-fired power stations, no cars, no cows and the government of the day charging everyone a carbon tax, a green authoritarian state.
All this discussion on authoritarianism set me to thinking about biking and authority. Traditionally bikers have not liked authority, got a bit of a bad boy/girl image, and lets face it the ‘industry’ has cashed in on that sales wise over the years. These days bikers anti authority gig is more likely to be doing 32mph in a 30 mph speed limit rather than shooting it out ‘cow boy’ style in Hastings, High Street.
It’s not as if we being stopped for simple being in possession of a motorcycle and thrown into some festering jail. But authority is showing its hand. 400 bikers stopped each weekend over the summer by North Wales Police. Last week Sussex Police stopped 150 motorcyclists and after giving road safety advice offered them a free hi-viz vest. Presumably using good old Section 163 of the Road Traffic Act. Tightening up the training and testing regime won’t, belong before you need a PhD to ride a bike or at least a National Rider Standard NVQ. Endless, endless road safety campaigns sending the message to non believers that if you bike you die.
Hang on a moment, I don’t seem to remember anyone asking me about this and I didn’t vote for it. My MP seems to be in the dark as well, I asked.
What was that about authoritarianism? Ah yes, little heed is paid to public opinion or the judicial system.
© Back Roads Rider 2009
Myths - We're behind you, is it a ghostly mail coach or an umarked police bike!!
Colchester, England – Myths, the spooky tales kind. The ones about riding alone at 3.30am on an autumnal morning with the sun just glimmering on the horizon.
That bit of road, I’m sure you know it, about 15 miles from home a little eerie, runs though a wood. Whichever season whatever time of day you ride there its always chilly, autumnal mist gathers in the surface dips just before dawn. The bike always runs well there, but you get that strange feeling you are not alone, you get that hairs on the back of the neck thing, that feeling when you’re in the middle of getting a prostate exam and you realise that the doctor has a hand on each of your b**ls.
No I’m not going there. I’m on biking myths of the urban kind. Here’s a few of my particular favourites:-
Bikers Like a Few Beers – Nicely dispelled this week by the Motorcycle Industry Association (MCIA) who in supporting Road Safety Week, yes folks it’s this week, have pointed up research shows that motorcyclists are half as likely as other motorists to take the risk of drinking before riding.
Other Drivers Don’t Care About Motorcyclists – Actually, other drivers don’t care about other drivers either so it’s not really big news is it.
Loud Pipes Save Lives – The only way loud pipes would work as a safety device is if they faced forward. Loud pipes simple p**s people off.
A Skilled Rider Can Stop Better with Conventional Brakes than with Anti-Lock Brakes – Anti-lock brakes pulse far, far faster than any rider could ever think to pump the brakes. That’s the reason tests show that anti-lock brakes out perform conventional brakes in reducing braking distance and above all in maintaining control during hard braking.
Meantime on planet bike some good news.
Obviously the Motorcycle Action Group (MAG) hiring Paddy Tyson MA to front their UK General Election campaign is having positive results. Yep it’s out with the old boring strap line ‘Bikers are Voters’ and in with the scintillating ‘Riders are Voters’. Not only that, but the British Motorcyclists Federation (BMF), MCIA and MAG joined forces to launch said campaign which will encourage motorcyclists to vote in the forthcoming General Election.
MAG, BMF and MCI want to know what riders think are the key issues that the campaign should focus on. So if you are attending the International Motorcycle and Scooter Show at Birmingham’s NEC in the next 10 days whip around to their stands, CX10 Hall 2 (MAG) and 1D72 Hall 1 (BMF) and let the campaign organisers know your views via the Riders Are Voters ‘ballot box’.
Who knows your ideas could appear in the motorcycling manifesto; ‘Britain Needs Biking’ that’s going to be dropping through a prospective parliamentary candidates letter box somewhere near you.
Might be an idea if one of the campaigners popped down to London and had a chat with some Tory Back Benchers. The ones who talk to me reckon that biking is not doing too badly and bikers should stop whinging to each other. Might also be an idea to weave in few manifesto strands that appeal to the general populace on the basis that it’s always a good idea to preach to both the converted and the non-believers.
Talking of whinging – my turn. Sheila Rainger, MCIA Director of Communications, is quoted in the MCIA press release pushing ‘Riders are Voters’ as saying: “It’s clear that despite the limited actions taken in the last ten years and the occasional warm words from Ministers, the motorcycle community expects much more”. Now Sheila the first part of that is a little disingenuous. What about the UK Governments Motorcycle Strategy developed over two years and published in 2005, with updates in 2008. What about the Institute of Highway Incorporated Engineers’ Guidelines for Motorcycling, published in April 2005. Both documents now considered as global best practice. OK implementation should have been better, but then the motorcycle campaigners should have insisted on legislation that made that compulsory.
HTH!
© Back Roads Rider 2009
Chelmsford, England – Harriet Harman MP for the London constituency of Camberwell and Peckham and deputy leader of the UK Labour Party is to be charged with driving without due care and attention and driving while using a mobile phone, the UK Crown Prosecution Service has announced.
Ms Harman, a former solicitor, who is also Cabinet Minister for Women and Equality, Party Chair of the UK Labour Party, Lord Privy Seal and Leader of the House of Commons and formerly Solicitor General, is alleged to have crashed her car into another vehicle while talking on her mobile phone in Dulwich, London, on 3 July 2009. Driving without due care and attention carries a maximum fine of £5,000 and an endorsement of up to nine points on your licence.
Ms Harman has previous driving convictions. In January 2003 she was banned from driving for seven days and fined £400 after admitting speeding at 99mph on the M4 near Swindon, Wiltshire. In April 2007 she was fined £60 and given three penalty points for exceeding a temporary speed limit while driving on the A14 near Ipswich, Suffolk.
It thus seems surprising, to this observer at least, that the usual “good for a quote” road safety zealots have remained hushed on the subject of Ms Harman’s driving skills. Yes, Road Safety GB, Brake, Road Peace, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, the AA Foundation, the RAC Foundation, and the Institute of Advanced Motorists etc etc etc has maintained a notable silence on the issue.
Is this perhaps because a considerable number of the zealots are currently on a jolly boys and girls outing attending the Global Ministerial Summit on Road Safety in Moscow. Where, incidentally, Minister for Development Gareth Thomas has announced his intention of giving £1.5 million to third world countries to assist with “road safety issues”. That’s in addition to his previous announcement of £3.5 million to assist with “transport issues”. Don’t get me wrong I’ve no issues with humanitarian aid, but £5million on road safety and transport to regimes that spend considerable amounts of their GNP on purchasing military equipment to secure their power bases. £5million could sure build a lot of flood defences! I digress. Or is it because said zealots are funded by the Government, via various grant schemes and simply don’t want bite the hand that feeds them.
The point I’m making here is one of double standards. These same road safety zealots are only too pleased to jump on the bandwagon of criticising motorcycling and motorcyclists. Remember all the comments in the media when the police nick riders for excessive speed. Don’t worry about the niceties of commenting on court cases, wham straight in with the good old road safety rhetoric even before the ink is dry on the summons. Ok doing a ton and half down the A9 is not particularly responsible sensible or safe, but didn’t I read somewhere about a fair hearing. So come on you zealots either we going to shoot Ms Harman down in flames or shut up about those nasty horrible bikers.
Will Ms Harman resign over this? I doubt it. Unlike politicians in the EU, Canada and Australia who have committed traffic offences and resigned, even before being taken to court, I don’t think she will go. This of course sends the message that it’s all right to do anything on the road as long as you can get away with it. Then there’s the issue of respect for the democracy. You see when you hold a Ministerial post it’s the post itself that the post holder and the people must respect. Thus in the opinion of this writer Ms Harman is simple sticking two fingers up at our democracy and by definition everyone whose fought to keep it.
Of course the real irony is the fact that the law banning driving while using a hand held mobile phone was introduced in 2003 when Ms Harman was the Solicitor General.
So don’t do as I allegedly do, do as I allegedly say.
© Back Roads Rider 2009
