BMF News round up May 2024

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BMF NEWS ROUND UP – May 2024

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

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



Anna Zee:

Department for Transport

Early in May representatives of motorcycling organisations met with DfT officials and Minister Guy Opperman to discuss motorcycling testing and licencing. All seemed to be in favour of conducting a review of the current system. However, since there will now be a General Election we will have to wait until the new government is in place to see if that can go ahead.



PACTS Road Environment Working Party

Included presentations on the implementation of the Safe Systems into planning major developments, and of the use of CycleRAP in Oxfordshire. This is a new tool in the Road Assessment Program suite.



Vehicle Design Working Party

Included an interesting (to transport and standards geeks) presentation on the activities of the Department for Transport international vehicle standards division. Current research topics include headlight glare.

Work is going on to introduce NCAP (New Car Assessment Program) ratings for heavy trucks. In the Netherlands testing was carried out on the visibility of Hi-Viz jackets; the vehicle cameras are black and white so this topic will warrant more consideration.

Investigations are going on into two casualties caused while Ford’s BlueCruise system (automated driving on motorways) was in operation.



Road User Behaviour Working Party

Research is being carried out into the dangers of hands-free mobile phone use while driving.

Norfolk County Council have been working on road safety education for 5-7-year-olds, teaching the teachers how best to deliver road safety in bitesize chunks.



LARA (Land Access and Recreation Association)

Engagement with Defra has been minimal for a while, largely due to a Minister moving on. Obviously, nothing at all will happen now, until well after the General Election. Complaints about anti-social use of motorcycles probably include mis-identification of electric bicycles, often illegally modified.



Intelligent Transport Address

Organised by ITS-UK. The subject of the address was ticketing in Transport for London, a bit too much history, perhaps not quite enough about the future. However, this was a chance to network a little with others attending.



ITS-UK, Connected and Automated Vehicles Forum.

This included a presentation about the Automated Vehicles Bill, which is now an Act, having been approved by Parliament. Forget the headlines about driverless cars being on public roads in less than 2 years; this Act is very much a framework and there is much secondary legislation to be written to make it effective, all of which will be consulted on. On the other hand, do expect the earliest automated vehicles to be deployed in first/last mile deliveries, and in limited geographical spaces such as bus depots or construction sites.



Paul Morgan:

Lobbying

Following the Government's announcement of a General Election on 4 July 2024 all Ministers, civil servants and Local Authorities have entered a pre-election period of "purdah" until the election is held. Purdah is a period of heightened sensitivity when all Ministers and officials must exercise caution in making announcements or decisions that might impact on the election campaign. Although BMF and NMC will continue to liaise informally with Ministerial Private Offices and with officials, the effect of Purdah and the restrictions it imposes on government activity is that all official meetings will now be cancelled and no new meetings arranged until after the election. We still intend to submit the further evidence previously requested by the Department for Transport in support of the calls BMF, NMC and other partners have made for a comprehensive review of the current motorcycling licensing regime. In respect of outstanding Government consultations, including the current Consultation on Motorcycle Default Access to Bus Lanes closing on 9 June 20024, responses should and will still be submitted in line with already published deadlines.



Parliament was formally dissolved on Thursday 30 May 2024 ahead of the July 4 election signalling the conclusion of all parliamentary activities in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords while rendering every seat in the Commons vacant until the General Election.



The NMC/BMF Manifesto "Motorcycling Matters" has been launched, with associated media announcements, and can be accessed via the BMF website. The Manifesto sets out the key priorities that motorcyclists need the future Government to deliver as a priority for the motorcycling sector. These priorities are summarised around 7 key themes which are designed to deliver a sound and sustainable future for motorcycling.



BMF and NMC's lobbying focus has now moved to our "Call for Action" to raise motorcycling concerns and priorities during the election campaign and to lobby all Prospective Parliamentary Candidates (PPCs) sign up to the priorities we have outlined in our Manifesto by formally signing the "Motorcycle Pledge" for candidates available via the website.



Ministerial Roundtable with Guy Opperman (Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Roads and Local Transport) (In Person Meeting attended by BMF, IAM RoadSmart, MAG, TfL, MCIA, NMC. Plus, DfT officials and Mark Winn from DVSA)



3 key items on the agenda

i. Bus Lanes:

The Minister made it clear from the responses so far received to the Bus Lane Consultation (over 11,000) that there was "broad consensus that default access for motorcycles should be allowed but he also made clear that Ministers would need to give due weight to other safety arguments, such as the potential for increased conflict with other road users. BMF will emphasise in our official response to the consultation that in the various trials conducted over recent years that such a conflict was not seen and given the "safety" focus by Ministers and officials that default access for motorcycles offers significantly improved safety outcomes for motorcyclists, removes the current confusion between differing LA policies (a safety issue in itself) as well as delivering reduced congestion and pollution outcomes.

ii. Licensing reform

The Minister agreed that a review was long overdue and he confirmed, subject to the agreement of the Secretary of State, a motorcycle licensing review would be announced in June (any announcement is however now unlikely as we have entered the Purdah period in the run up to the General Election). Any review will be to inform a much wider Government Transport Bill to be delivered post General Election (which may or may not gain traction with an incoming Labour government). It was clear from the Minister's statements that he was currently feeling a "lot of pressure" on the "large cohort of riders who are riding in a dangerous and anti-social way and causing lots of accidents" and that he was concerned that any licensing "simplification" would leak into the "anti-social rider" area, where "simplification was not required" but rather what was required was "stronger enforcement."

ii. CBT Changes

Only a brief discussion. Mainly for stakeholders to emphasise that the changes are already agreed and not part of the review, though some aspects of the individual proposals may need to be revisited.



The meeting closed with an agreement that the Motorcycle Strategic Group should be convened (now cancelled following the announcement of the General Election) to consider the outcome of this meeting and to start considering a few things in advance of the official announcement of the Review (now unlikely)

Any action in these areas will now be subject to post-election consideration by the new government.



National Young Riders Forum

The NYRF is the first forum to specifically look at young riders aged 16-24 years who ride motorbikes of less than 125cc. Chaired by Heidi Duffy MBE the meeting was attended by representatives from DVSA, DfT, the Police and Fire Service, various Local Authorities, NMC, MAG and Mental Health Motorbike, as well as various road safety representatives, including ROSPA.





Key Highlights:

Colin Brown MAG and I gave a short presentation on the current Government consultation on granting default access to bus lanes for motorcyclists, emphasising the significant safety benefits for motorcyclists of doing so, and that current access by motorcycles to 48% of bus lanes plus various other trials carried out over the years had shown there was no detrimental effect on other vulnerable road users, such as cyclists, by granting motorcycle access. There have been over 11,000 responses to the current consultation to date with almost a month to go before the consultation closes on 9 June 2024.

A representative from SHARP, the helmet safety scheme launched by the DfT in 2007, gave an update on their recent research into motorcyclist head injuries. Of 253 motorcycle accidents reviewed, 38% of serious injuries to riders were down to head impacts as were up to 80% of deaths. In particular, the temporal fossa side region of the skull was particularly vulnerable to injury. By increasing energy absorption of helmets by 30% it was projected that this would reduce 50% of severe currently un-survivable injuries. The SHARP rating index accessed through their website gives a useful indication of the overall safety performance of current motorcycle helmets.

Paul Oxborough from Mental Health Motorbike (MHM) reported that MHM had seen a trend in much younger riders, and parents on behalf of young riders, approaching MHM mental health first aiders for advice and support. MHM planned to support the National Highways and National Police Chiefs' Council "Project Apex" Bike Simulator initiative for young teens, by erecting their own gazebo next to that of the Police to provide mental health advice as the motorbike training simulator toured the UK.



PACTS Road Environment Working Party

Anna has reported separately on this meeting. I would add:

DfT confirmed at the meeting that the Government intends to commission further independent research into the issue around current concerns by road users around road headlight glare despite the fact that Police collision statistics do not show any underlying road safety issue. The additional research to identify the root causes of deriver glare and identify any further appropriate mitigations follows a petition calling for the government to "review the brightness of car headlights for safety" which garnered over 11,000 signatures from the public prompting a DfT investigation.

On CycleRAP in Oxfordshire, which aims to analyse data about the features of road, street or paths to evaluate the risk of crashes for bicyclists and light mobility users and thereby reduce crashes, it was reported by Rachel Aldred University of Westminster that the analysis was hampered by chronic under-reporting of bicycle crashes by the Police and those involved in such accidents. Key findings were that intersections were 3-400% riskier than straight roads, main roads were associated with a 300% greater risk for cyclists, roundabouts presented a 3-400% greater risk than signalled junctions and bus lanes were associated with an increased risk of 200%. Petrol stations and car parks presented an increased risk to cyclists as did guard rails at the side of the road. Lowering speed limits in urban areas does not significantly reduce the risks to cyclists if the other factors are still present. Planners needed to adopt a much more holistic approach to road safety, which is what BMF has pushed for in terms of future planning and design for the UK's road network.



PACTS Road User Behaviour Working Party

Anna has reported separately on this meeting. I would add:

The Chair Professor David Crundall said that there was now wide acceptance amongst road safety professionals that a system of Graduated Driver Licensing (GDL), whereby a phased approach to driving is adopted which gradually builds experience and competence and incorporates minimum and ongoing periods for learning, enhanced testing and training to help minimise the risk to young and novice drivers, was a sensible approach to safeguard young and newly qualified drivers.



LARA (Land Access and Recreation Association) SCM & AGM

Anna has reported separately on this meeting. I would add:

There was some discussion around Bamford Clough "the steepest road in the world" which has been "temporarily closed" by Derbyshire County Council (DDC) since 2013 and which has undergone extensive works by DDC in tarmacking its surface in 2020 and 2021 at a reported cost of £225K. It was agreed to provide a LARA financial contribution to a fighting fund to support the obtaining of further Counsel advice on fighting the extended closure of the Bamford Clough byway.

There was general agreement at the AGM to update and redesign LARA publications, the website and future Press Releases on the use of green lanes by the motorcycling community in order to highlight the benefits of access for all to the UK green lane network.









In Other News:



What’s going on with the ban on sales of new petrol-powered motorcycles? If a report in the Daily Telegraph was to be believed, the date will be put back from 2035 to 2040, but since that report, the General Election has been announced, putting all government policy on hold. What any future government will do, after 4th July, remains to be seen. Meanwhile, the government withdrew the plug-in grant for electric mopeds in April 2024. Why? Because they made up 40% of all moped sales in 2022 and were deemed no longer needing support – however, e-moped sales dropped in 2023... The grant for electric motorcycles continues though. Craig Carey-Clinch, Executive Director of the National Motorcyclists Council (NMC) has been appointed Chairman of the Motorists Forum by DfT Transport Minister Guy Opperman – this could be good news (assuming the appointment holds good after the election) as the Forum engages with ministers and top civil servants, so having motorcyclist in the top chair can’t do any harm.

Suzuki’s Bandit 600 appears to be as popular as ever, ranked as the most viewed naked bike test in MCN, followed by the Yamaha MT09, Husqvarna Vitpilen and Triumph Trident 660. Honda was the most viewed brand and the Africa Twin topped the model charts. While we’re on statistics, according to Autotrader, the fastest selling used bike currently is the Lexmoto LXR125, taking an average six days to find a new home, followed by the Triumph Sprint ST 1050 (8 days). Own a Yamaha YBR125? That averages 20 days to make a sale. And Britain’s most stolen bike? According to insurance website GoCompare it’s the Honda PCX125 scooter, at 87 thefts per 1000 registrations, putting it way ahead of the Yamaha YBR125 (19 per 1000). Most at risk big bike was the R1 (13 thefts per 1000).

Smart Motorways are being updated, with additional Emergency Areas added every 1km – the work should be complete by March 2025. After a series of collisions (and some fatalities) the government decided to halt the spread of smart motorways and upgrade the ones already in place.

BMW is going clutch-free. You won’t see a twist ‘n go flat-twin, but the German company will be offering ASA (Automated Shift Assistant) on at least one model later this year. ASA eliminates the clutch lever but keeps the gearbox, with gears shifted by a rotary actuator. And if you ever fancied a two-litre BMW, an R20 flat-twin concept was shown recently at the Villa d’Este concours – on past experience, ‘concept’ BMWs shown at this event (and there have been a few) really do make it to production.



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