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PAPERS YOU SHOULD READ

I have updated my MSL report to include the latest financials and the graph as attached. It can be found on Academia at the following link:

https://www.academia.edu/106405626/The_Twenty_Year_Injustice_of_the_MSL

Regards

Steve

(The MSL is the Transport Accident Commission’s $78 a year tax that targets motorcyclists only.)

My latest road safety report, to be released soon and available free via Academia:

https://swinburne.academia.edu/SteveBardsley

March 21, 2023.

10.

TAC should sponsor secure motorcycle parking areas with lockers and pay for promoting/advertising off-street motorcycle parking in Council and commercial off-street parking facilities. As well as secure areas there is a lot of dead space that can be used for motorcycle parking in existing off-street parking facilities.

Damien Codognotto OAM. MRAA Spokesperson.

Steve Bardsley MBA. Swinburne. MRAA Road Safety Representative.

Dr Michael Czajka PhD. RMIT. MRAA Road Safety and research Officer.

March 23, 2023.

The Motorcycle Riders Association Australia (MRAA) calls on state and federal governments to invest in unbiased scientific research into motorcycling and motorcycle safety. The research should involve stakeholders and wide consultation with current road riders. 

Areas of concern are:
1.   The benefits to Australian society from road motorcycling. 

2.   A negative image of riders is promoted by media units across the country. 

3.   Motorcycle tourism is a significant contributor to the economy. Tasmania and Queensland recognise this. Click the link for touring motorcyclists https://www.rsac.tas.gov.au/visitingdrivers/ 

4.   Road motorcycle & scooter training and licensing.

5.   Road furniture and the road environment.

6.   Crash data collection and assessment from serious injury and fatal motorcycle crashes.

5.   The role of the Transport Accident Commission in caring for motorcycle & scooter riders involved in crashes and their loved ones.

“Every life lost on Victoria’s roads is a tragedy. It’s also an immense cost to the economy, with the Value of Statistical Life of just one road death estimated to be $8.56 million in 2020 dollars.” Geoff Gwilym. VACC CEO. November 4, 2022.

The number of road registered motorcycles & scooters on Australian roads has been growing steadily for decades. The number will continue to grow as cities become more crowded, the cost of living goes up and electric motors replace petrol engines. In 2023, too many Australian papers on motorcycle safety are twenty years old and more. Often they are written by tax payer funded academics who have never ridden a road registered motorcycle or scooter in Australian traffic.  Or, who threw a leg over a motorcycle half a world and half a century ago. Often they are just opinions on papers written overseas decades ago. 

In the last fifty years, the Australian road environment, traffic mix and flow has changed almost beyond recognition. That change has accelerated in the last twenty years. Road conditions in Australia are unique so papers on motorcycle safety, written in other countries, should be considered carefully and objectively with the age of the paper in mind. There has been no real consultation with the motorcycle community, at least in Victoria, since the 1990s. The latest version of a motorcycle safety committee at the Victorian Department of Transport has been silent on traffic congestion and the increase in non-car commuting.

There has been little scientific research into motorcycle & scooter safety in Australia since at 2000. Feasibility studies are not research. They do not contribute to our knowledge of road safety matters. They look at how to do specified research if the money ever became available. Feasibility studies are often tax payer funded.

Academics Duncan, Corben, Truedsson, Tingvall and others have little or no motorcycling expertise. Their claims to fame in motorcycle safety are decades old opinions of opinions and feasibility studies that do not fit 2023 roads in Australia. Steve Bardsley MBA has motorcycling expertise. He documents Australian motorcycle safety now. He is a member of the Motorcycle Riders Association Australia Executive.

https://swinburne.academia.edu/SteveBardsley

Damien Codognotto OAM

Spokeperson

The Motorcycle Riders Association Australia

Many of the research papers road authorities in Australia hold up to the road motorcycle & scooter community as Gospel are over 20 years old. A lot has changed on our roads in 20 to 30 years. The vehicle fleet is bigger. It includes a lot more heavy 4WDs/SUVs and even heavier trucks. This growth has contributed to the deterioration of rural roads. More and more road barriers have been installed reducing run-off areas and emergency stopping lanes. So the road environment, particularly in the country, has changed. Even the weather seems to be more extreme.

Many of these old papers that established, tax-payer-funded researchers promote are just summaries of older papers from countries with road conditions that have little in common with Australia. Some researchers use these published, dated works the way Kelloggs uses its’ corn flake ads. The difference is that Kelloggs ads are paid for by Kelloggs. The problem for the motorcycle community is that these papers, published mostly by people with no road motorcycling expertise, too often reduce road motorcycle & scooter safety. There are many examples but road authorities almost never admit they got it wrong.

You only have to look at the Victorian Transport Accident Commission’s (TAC) published kill rate. Year after year it goes up. The recent Parliamentary Inquiry into the Road Toll Increase documented our lack of scientific cash data and the lack of cooperation from road researchers and departments.

The rise in the number of major property damage, serious injury and fatal crashes on Australian roads is obvious and it is not all the victims’ fault.

STEVE BARDSLEY MBA is a member of the Motorcycle Riders Association Australia Executive. His papers are not old. Read them and see what you think.