BMF New Roundup Sept 24

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BMF NEWS ROUND UP – September 2024

The monthly news round-up, brought to you by the BMF​

Meetings attended for the BMF by Paul Morgan and Anna Zee in September.



Paul Morgan:

National Highways Road Safety Panel

National Highways (NH) gave an update on ‘The Road to Zero Harm’ which seeks collaboration of groups to reduce the numbers killed or seriously injured on our roads, with an ambition of zero. A roadmap is being developed with 60+ countermeasures and will be launched later this year through a co-ordinated best practice campaign targeting all road users.

Red X Sign Enforcement. Compliance of Red X (all vehicles prohibited) road signs and no-vehicle zones was on average above 90% with slight improvements in compliance over the period. NH wanted to make it easy for road users to comply with the signs (there was evidence that not all motorists understood the current Red X sign) and were considering publishing new guidance for motorists aligned to wider publicity campaigns.

Vehicle Warning Lights and Safety Guidance. The aim of this work is to reduce preventable breakdowns on main roads and increase safe behaviours by drivers during unplanned stops. Consistent guidance would encourage drivers to take the safest course of action during a breakdown.

Also, guidance regarding vehicle warning lights and what they mean would reduce unnecessary stops on the road. Worryingly, 34% of motorists indicated that they would be inclined to stop in a ‘live’ motorway lane if a warning light started flashing on their car’s dashboard.



Anna Zee:

Incident investigation that runs in parallel with the Post Collision Fatal Reporting (PCFR) process is to be run for all fatal and some serious collisions, co-ordinating work from multiple sections of National Highways and sharing learning across NH – it has also resulted in better working with police forces. The main lesson from one example was ‘do not blindly obey the satnav,’ and resulted in a coroner recently issuing Reports to Prevent Future Deaths notices to three satnav companies.

Currently all safety campaigns are on hold while the new ministers get their heads around them. Of particular interest to us, a new BikerTek campaign is in development which will feature a motorcycle.

Finally, a number of proposals have been put forward to ministers with respect to penalties for some motoring offences, proposing new offences and additional police powers.

Land Access & Recreation Association (LARA) Steering Committee

LARA has sent a response to South Gloucestershire Council about their Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) which would ban ‘car cruising’. Peaceful meets should not be affected.

Map errors: Efforts are being made to correct errors on OS maps. Active travel plans: LARA’s monitoring shows that a number of schemes are causing concern about closing some roads to vehicles in favour of walking/cycling. Cut-off date for registering Rights of Way: No real action yet on repealing the cut-off date. The Trail Riders Fellowship (TRF) is concerned that the questionnaire could be hijacked by the anti-motor lobby. HoTR: LARA is to host the Hierarchy of Trail Routes website, initiated in Cumbria, a great example of a local initiative coming up with a good management scheme. The scheme assesses all routes and determines how they can be sustainably used and has proved quite practical.

Road Safety Education Forum (Department for Transport - DfT)

Good Practice Guidance for Road Safety Education, Training and Publicity is being tested and improved by feedback. DfT’s view based on experience was that doing something is not necessarily better than doing nothing.



In Other News:

Triumph is to compete in the Enduro World Championships next year – it’ll be campaigning its TF 250X enduro (developed from the existing MX bike) in the FIM SuperEnduro, EnduroGP Championships, plus the AMA EnduroCross. Jonny Walter has signed up to ride. Meanwhile, next project for the Sidecar Guys (Matt Bishop and Reece Gilkes) is a sidecar themed event centre in the North East – a competition to help raise funds is offering a new Ural Sahara outfit as first prize. On the other side of the Atlantic, four new speed records for electric motorcycles have been set on the Bonneville Salt Flats – rider Louis-Marie Blondell hit 180.065mph over the flying mile on a Voxan built by the University of Ohio. Mind you, that’s a country mile behind Max Biaggi’s outright electric record set in 2012 – 283mph.

Still on battery bikes (albeit of the slower sort), British manufacturer WMC has unveiled a tilting three-wheeler electric based on Yamaha’s Tricity 300 – with a claimed 100mph top speed and a 100-mile range of “aggressive” riding on a 15-minute charge. The secret? Aerodynamics and CCS fast-charging.

We hear that drink drive casualties are rising in the UK, with fatalities in 2022 at their highest level since 2009 – 6800 people were killed or injured when at least one driver was over the limit. Put in that light the latest generation of Bosch rider aids sound like a good idea. Advanced Rider Assistance Systems (ARAS) can slow the bike and warn the rider if other vehicles are getting too close – radars convey data on position and speed to the bike’s ECU. ARAS will debut on the top-rank KTMs in 2025. Headlight glare is being taken more seriously by government, with an independent investigation promised. Similar issues are being experienced across Europe, with a review into headlight glare recently launched in Germany and by the FIA (Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile) who see this issue as a pan-European problem). Ultra-bright LEDs mounted high on SUVs, are causing problems for motorists driving smaller cars and can be very bad news for motorcyclists peering through a rain-spattered visor at night. Modern LED headlights are up to 20x more powerful than halogen and, with some motorists illegally swopping out their existing halogen headlight bulbs for brighter LED bulbs sourced on the internet, the problem of headlight glare and its impact on wider road safety is growing.



Save London Motorcycling is aiming to raise £20,000 in its campaign to reverse Hackney Council’s decision to charge bikes and scooters for parking. Backed by the BMF, it organised a petition of 7500 bikers protesting against the move. Newcastle-Under-Lyme is attempting to prevent vehicle gatherings on its streets – it’s not aimed at bikes, but at ‘car cruising.’ Staffordshire Police sought to calm fears that this might prevent motorcyclists meeting up or riding in convoy.

And finally, new technology to speed up pothole repairs is being trialled by Blackpool Council. New Transport Secretary Louise Haigh was on hand to publicise the equipment, pledging to support local authorities to fix up to one million more potholes per year.



Written by

Peter Henshaw – Editor BMF editor@bmf.co.uk

Anna Zee – Political Technical Services Director anna.zee@bmf.co.uk

Paul Morgan – Government Relations Executive paul.morgan@bmf.co.uk