Cycling in Croydon
    

Cyclists all over the country are facing the very real threat of local councils voting to allow motorbikes into pedal cycle facilities such as advance stop lanes and bus lanes. In Bristol where this has already happened, the results have been disastrous. Fatal motor cycle accidents in the area doubled  from eight deaths in 1996 to sixteen in 1997, and the City Council is now providing motorcycle training in an attempt to cover for it's own tragic mistakes. Most of the problems have been brought about because a significant proportion of city council and former county council officers and members are also committed motorcycle campaigners. One has recently joined the BMF full time, whilst a former Avon labour councillor infiltrated the group with the sole aim of getting motorbikes into bus lanes. He left politics shortly after to work for the motorcycle lobby. Unfortunately Bristol's ruling labour councillors do not have the guts to admit they were conned and rectify this fatal error.

In the City of London where the use of motorbikes has rocketed, they now acount for half of ALL pedestrian and cyclist injuries. Not surprising when they ride large and powerful machines illegally in bus and cycle lanes, and sometimes even on the pavement, with the police appearing not to care about the situation.

Motorbikes also produce far higher levels of toxic fumes and noise than cars or vans because they are not subject to the same legal controls, and per passenger mile motorbikes are no more fuel efficient than a small diesel car. Indeed motorbikes with two stroke engines, including those new trendy scooters, produce 10 to 25 times as much poisonous carbon monoxide as a diesel car, and between 45 and 110 times the level of partially burnt hydrocarbons. Nepal has even banned the import of two-stroke motorcycles in an attempt to improve air quality.

Motorbikes are also far more likely to be involved in accidents with pedestrians and cyclists. DETR figures consistently show that per mile travelled two wheeled motor vehicles are twice as likely per mile travelled to kill or seriously injure a cyclist as a car and four times more likely to kill a pedestrian than a car, van or HGV. One particular reason is the speed at which they travel, in a 40mph limit motorbikes are four times more likely to be exceeding 50mph than cars and a quarter of those motorbikes will be exceeding 60mph.

Resource Material

See the briefing note Motorbikes in cycle and bus lanes - CPAG Briefing

The environmental damage from motorbikes has been recognised by the German government. Their publication, Motorrad und Umwelt, has concluded that motorcycle use should be discouraged and propose that all urban motorcycle parking should be removed, that cobbled surfaced should be used to deter motorcyclists from using residential streets, along with other measures to limit engine revs and power output.

If your German is none too good you could try accessing an unofficial copy via on-line computer translation.

There is further good material on the excessive levels of motorcycle pollution from The California Air Resources Board detailing how motorcycles produce up to 15 times the emissions per mile as the average new car or light-duty truck.

See also:-

• BCC reply to Bristol LTP (Word 6 - large file)

Also useful inside info and lists of the lies being put out by the motorcycle lobby can be found at http://www.bmf.co.uk/indexes/indexbrief.html and http://mag-uk.org/ (follow the links to the FEMA site). Finally, to see a web site which on it's front page blatantly encourages motorcyclists to break the law you can visit http://www.ditco.co.uk/magsw/.