SA Government to introduce proposed motorcycle graduated licensing scheme

[Shillas]

This is taken from the local Murdoch. The published article was accompanied with a number of post motorcycle crash scenes, not that they were trying to inflame emotions or get a particular response.

That said, some of the proposals seem acceptable, others are typical knee jerk, ineffective reactions.



State Government to introduce proposed motorcycle graduated licensing scheme reforms
Long-awaited reforms to motorcycle licensing are a step closer as the State Government proposes new laws for our most vulnerable road users.

Steve Rice
Crime Editor
November 11, 2020 - 8:00PM
The Advertiser

The minimum age for a motorbike learner’s permit will increase up to two years and riders will face extensive restrictions in a State Government plan to reform motorcycle licensing.

Road Safety Minister Vincent Tarzia will introduce proposed laws aiming to protect riders and curb the spiralling number of motorcycle deaths in South Australia to Parliament on Thursday.

It comes as new SA Police research shows inexperienced riders, aged 16 to 19, admitted being easily influenced by peers and engaging in more frequent risky behaviour beyond their ability.

The Government’s proposed changes to the motorcycle graduated licensing scheme include:

RAISING the minimum age for a learner’s permit from 16 to 18 (16 if living in regional SA and travelling for education, work or sport, and 17 if holding a provisional car licence).

BANNING passengers, vehicle towing and riding between midnight and 5am unless exempt, regardless of holding any other licence, while on a learner’s permit.

INCREASING the minimum age for an R-date licence – the equivalent of a provisional licence – from 17 to 19 while ensuring a learner’s permit is held for at least 12 months.

PROHIBITING alcohol, irrespective of holding any other licence, while on an R-date licence.

RESTRICTING riders who tested on automatic transmission motorcycles to those bikes only.

An increase to the minimum R-date licence period – from one to two years – means riders will be eligible for an unrestricted R licence when they are 21, compared with 18 currently.

There have been 17 motorcyclist deaths – 15 riders and two passengers – so far in 2020, compared with 17 lives lost during 2019 and 10 fatalities in 2018.

Mr Tarzia told The Advertiser motorcyclists were over-represented in the number of deaths and serious injuries on the state’s roads.

“It is tragic to see riders, whether they are young or experienced, lose their lives in road crashes. These incidents have horrific impacts on all road users,” he said.

“This reform is also about protecting families from that devastating knock on the front door that SA Police officers are too often forced to make after a fatal crash.”

The 24 motorcyclists killed in 2017, when Adelaide University’s Centre for Automotive Safety Research undertook a review into licensing reform, was the highest in more than two decades.

It has been almost three years since a report – commissioned by the former Labor government – was published in January 2018 with a series of recommendations for inexperienced riders.

The Motorcycle Reference Group – consisting of police, doctors, ministers, government officials, road safety campaigners and industry groups – called for immediate changes.

Labor, which lost the March 2018 state election, introduced a Bill to Parliament in May 2019 having accused the Liberal Government of failing to act on saving lives.

But Mr Tarzia said the State Government had conducted extensive consultation and “not rushed our response” to ensure it got the reform right.

He said organisations involved in the Motorcycle Reference Group were invited to participate in the process but not all provided a response.

“We need to stop carnage on our roads and protect motorcyclists. To do that we will deliver this carefully considered reform,” Mr Tarzia said.

Riders accounted for 15 per cent of lives lost and 19 per cent of serious injuries across SA between 2015 and 2019 despite motorcycles comprising just 4 per cent of registered vehicles.

There was a 12.5 per cent average yearly increase in young rider serious casualties during the same period, compared with a 7.7 per cent decrease in drivers from the same 16-19 age group.

SA Police attitudinal research provided to The Advertiser reveals inexperienced riders riding sports, naked and tail bikes were often influenced by peers and had risk tendencies.

The research found there were high numbers of 16 to 19 year olds who crashed into fixed objects or were involved in rollovers.

It found 20 to 29 year olds were fearless riders who were heavily driven by adrenaline and most prone to risky behaviour including racing in remote areas or speeding through bends.

A motorcycle safety campaign “There’s a lot riding on it” – focusing on riders and specifically men – has returned to the market after a successful launch last year.

Surveys conducted with 171 motorcyclists before and after the campaign between November 2019 and February 2020 found:

93 PER CENT took away the intended message.

20 PER CENT more said they avoided “thrillseeking” riding.

17 PER CENT more said they avoid riding above the speed limit.

Superintendent Christine Baulderstone, officer in charge of Communication and Engagement Branch, said motorcyclists were among the state’s most vulnerable road users.

“It’s clear there is a need to continue educating riders about the risks of motorcycle riding and to give them pause to consider the impact of the decisions they make on the bike,” she said.

[Shillas]

The actual details:


MOTORCYCLE GRADUATED LICENSING SCHEME

LEARNER'S PERMIT
Minimum age (current) 16 years

Minimum age (proposed) 18 years OR 17 if holding provisional car licence OR16 if residing in a prescribed locality (regional SA) for education, work or sport

Restriction (current) No pillion passenger unless a supervised driver

Restriction (proposed) No passengers

Restriction (current) Permitted to tow a trailer or another vehicle

Restriction (proposed) Prohibited from towing

Restriction (current) No riding between midnight and 5am unless supervised, meet exemption criteria or holding at least P2 car licence

Restriction (proposed) No riding between midnight and 5am unless supervised or exempt irrespective of other licence held

Restriction (current) Not restricted to transmission based on testing motorcycle

Restriction (proposed) Restricted to automatic transmission only if tested on one

Permit period (current) 12 months if under 25 OR six months if 25 or over OR no minimum time if holding a licence of another class

Permit period (proposed) 12 months in all circumstances

R-DATE LICENCE

Minimum age (current) 17 years

Minimum age (proposed) 19 years

Restriction (current) Zero alcohol if holding provisional licence or below 0.05 if full licence

Restriction (proposed) Zero alcohol irrespective of licence

Restriction (current) Not restricted to transmission based on testing motorcycle

Restriction (proposed) Restricted to automatic transmission only if tested on one

Permit period (current) One year

Permit period (proposed) Two years (amendment to Motor Vehicles Regulations 2010)

R-LICENCE

Minimum age (current) 18

Minimum age (proposed) 21

Restriction (current) Not restricted to transmission based on testing motorcycle

Restriction (proposed) Restricted to automatic transmission only if tested on one

[ruSTynutz]

All ultimately aimed at reducing the number of new motorcycle riders on our roads, I believe... 

With so much road rage & hit and run incidents these days you've gotta wonder as to how many motorcyclist deaths are actually not caused by the rider but still attributed to the rider.

I believe if our "Safetycrats" were serious about reducing deaths & serious injuries they should be making roads safer for motorcyclists by doing away with much of these ridiculous wire rope barriers that seem to be everywhere these days, removing dangerous roadside furniture as such and keeping roads in good repair...

They'd also do more to educate drivers to watch out for motorcycles...

Classic case here in Victoria is the lack of educating car drivers as to the legality of motorcycle lane filtering.
In Vicroads "Road To Solo Driving" Handbook, which is required reading for new drivers, there's not one mention of motorcyclists being allowed to legally lane filter. This after 5 years of it becoming legal! To me, that's unforgiveable!
Oh, and I can't recall any advertising on TV in recent times regarding lane filtering...

That's my 2 bobs worth... 

[Langers]

These are figures from SA stats for the 5 year period 2014 to 2018:

Motorcycle Serious Casualty Crashes
On average over the 5 year period (2014-2018) there were 13 fatal and 119 serious injury crashes involving a
motorcycle each year. Of these:
 60% of crashes occurred in metropolitan area
 50% were motorcycle only crashes, that is they did not involve another vehicle
 63% of crashes in the rural area were single vehicle run off road crashes
 31% of crashes in the metropolitan area were a result of right turn or right angle crashes and 22% were
hit fixed object type crashes
 70% of crashes occurred on level roads and 92% in dry conditions
 68% of crashes in the metropolitan area and 60% in the rural area occurred on straight roads
 45% of crashes in metropolitan area and 18% in the rural areas occurred at intersections
 69% of crashes in the rural area occurred on sealed roads
 43% of serious casualty crashes occurred on a Saturday or Sunday.

Motorcycle Serious Casualties
On average over the 5 year period (2014-2018) there were 127 motorcycle riders and 4 pillion passengers killed
or seriously injured each year. Of these:
 93% of riders and 32% of pillion passengers were male
 4% were not wearing a helmet at the time of the crash
 28% of motorcycle rider fatalities had a blood alcohol reading of 0.05 or greater
 23% of motorcycle rider fatalities tested positive to cannabis or ecstasy or methamphetamines, or a
combination of these.

The last two are pretty scary. I sure hope I don't come across any heading my way at warp speed.

The full details are at: https://dpti.sa.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/247329/Motorcycle_Crash_Fact_Sheet.pdf

[ruSTynutz]

The figures look really bad when looking at just the percentages...
But, when you look at the percentages of the actual figures as in deaths etc, they don't appear anywhere near as bad...

Don't get me wrong, one death is too many but just pointing out that just looking at the percentages without taking into consideration of the total can give you a bit of a false impression.

That's where stats can be a pain...for example,  say there were 2 motorcyclists killed last year and this year there was only 1, then that's a 50% reduction...Wow!!! sounds fantastic until you look at the actual total.

Is any of this making sense?? 

99.9% of my brain hurts now... 

[Brock]

Percentile stats actually dont mean a thing.

There is a lot of missing information, as to causes , involvement of cars or animals etc

[Williamson]

All ultimately aimed at reducing the number of new motorcycle riders on our roads, I believe...

Really?   Do you really think that they wanna reduce the number of motorcyclists?   I can't see any logical reason for that.  My glass is a little more half-full, I reckon the motive is to reduce motorcycle crashes.  Whether or not these changes will achieve that, at least to the extent they would like, is another matter.

[ruSTynutz]

I guess you're not as jaded as me when it comes to our Safetycrats, Michael...

But yep, it probably will reduce motorcycle crashes, especially if these extra impediments to getting a motorcycle licence results in less learners..

It's certainly an easy way to reduce the death toll long term...Less bikes on the road, less accidents...

Taking a look at Vicroads, can you tell me anything they do or have done to encourage the use of motorcycles?

We pay pretty much the same for rego as we do for the family car so that's not encouraging them.

Vicroads are obsessed with their mighty wire rope barriers...in spite of objections by motorcyclists so that's not encouraging more motorcyclists either.

They tried with all their might to design a working front number plate, this in spite of there being only one other country in the world that requires them on motorcycles. If they'd succeeded our choice of motorcycles would have been very much reduced as manufacturers would not bother to totally redesign the front of their motorcycles with us being such a small part of their market and not being required elsewhere.

And of course then there was the admission that came out of the "Inquiry into Motorcycle Safety in Victoria" way back in 1993...
"VicRoads has a stated policy of not implementing any programs that could be construed as encouraging motorcycling"
This has "supposedly changed now but I suspect they are just being a bit more careful about who they admit things to...

 So yeah, nothing would surprise me when it came to our Safetycrats...

[Langers]

And of course then there was the admission that came out of the "Inquiry into Motorcycle Safety in Victoria" way back in 1993...
"VicRoads has a stated policy of not implementing any programs that could be construed as encouraging motorcycling"
This has "supposedly changed now but I suspect they are just being a bit more careful about who they admit things to...

 So yeah, nothing would surprise me when it came to our Safetycrats...

Rusty, I now get where you are coming from, I wasn't aware a publicly funded organisation had come out with such a position (albeit 27 years ago). Mind you, back then, and even now, I suspect they have no idea who they are up against.

[ruSTynutz]

Cheers Mark, trouble is, most motorcyclists are a pretty apathetic lot...unlike back in the good ol' days when we'd protest at the drop of a hat!!!   

[Williamson]

I guess you're not as jaded as me when it comes to our Safetycrats, Michael...

But yep, it probably will reduce motorcycle crashes, especially if these extra impediments to getting a motorcycle licence results in less learners..

It's certainly an easy way to reduce the death toll long term...Less bikes on the road, less accidents...

Taking a look at Vicroads, can you tell me anything they do or have done to encourage the use of motorcycles?

We pay pretty much the same for rego as we do for the family car so that's not encouraging them.

Vicroads are obsessed with their mighty wire rope barriers...in spite of objections by motorcyclists so that's not encouraging more motorcyclists either.

They tried with all their might to design a working front number plate, this in spite of there being only one other country in the world that requires them on motorcycles. If they'd succeeded our choice of motorcycles would have been very much reduced as manufacturers would not bother to totally redesign the front of their motorcycles with us being such a small part of their market and not being required elsewhere.

And of course then there was the admission that came out of the "Inquiry into Motorcycle Safety in Victoria" way back in 1993...
"VicRoads has a stated policy of not implementing any programs that could be construed as encouraging motorcycling"
This has "supposedly changed now but I suspect they are just being a bit more careful about who they admit things to...

So yeah, nothing would surprise me when it came to our Safetycrats...

Having commenced working in road safety and traffic management in mid-76 at RoSTA (Road Safety and Traffic Authority) and progressing through RTA, VicRoads and now in a similar role at Local Government, I feel I can comment from an informed position.

Let's go back to 1969 when the VIC State Government Declared War on 1034, for those of you too young or interstate and know not that means, it was an era when VIC had 1,034, yes 1,034 fatailities in that year.

The State Government responded with injecting $M's into road safety (research, programs, infrastructure) and transitioned the Traffic Commission to RoSTA.  The start was shakey with 1,061 fatalities in 1970, but quickly got on track as the number of fatalities start dropping, pretty steadily but some slight set backs.

Year    Fatalities
1969       1034
1970       1061
1971        923
1972        915
1973        935
1974        806
1975        910
1976        938
1977        954
1978        869
1979        846
1980        657
1981        766
1982        709
1983        664
1984        657
1985        683
1986        668
1987        705
1988        701
1989        776
1990        548
1991        503
1992        396
1993        436
1994        378
1995        418
1996        418
1997        377
1998        390
1999        384
2000        407
2001        444
2002        397
2003        330
2004        343
2005        346
2006        337
2007        332
2008        303
2009        290
2010        287
2011        287
2012        282
2013        243
2014        248
2015        252
2016        290
2017        259
2018        213
2019      266

Pretty impressive, aye!   

These results didn't follow one single initiative, it's just the cumulative result of the three "E's" - Engineering, Education and Enforcement.

Engineering - better roads and roadsides (clearing of hazards), roadside hazard protection (guard rail, wire rope barriers), intersections (traffic signals / roundabouts), vehicles (seat belts, helmets, ABS, airbags, crumple zones, 5 star ratings, etc...).

Education - driver / rider trainer (I'll let Sue comment on the former; I've previously commented on the latter), 0.05 BAC, 0.00 BAC, sealt belt and helmet wearing, etc ...

Enforcement - speed and red light cameras, BAC enforcement .....

Medical advances, (surgeons' skills, doctors, nurse, ambos and first resonders) fit in here, somewhere.

Crikey, how many have I missed?  (It is 11:00pm).

If you take into account that VIC's popluation has (approximately) doubled over 50 years, without any of the intervention, a reasonable forecast of fatalities for 2019 would be in the order of 2,100.  Another way of looking at could be, some additional 40,000 to 50,000 fatalities may have occured, if not for intervention.

And where did the intervention come from?  Not from teachers, bankers, builders, shop keepers, factory workers (all good, honorable and worthy people).  Probably as a result of the Safetycrats research, investigation, trial (and error) making informed decisions on road safety.

Rather than being jaded and banging your head against a wall when you think of Safetycrats, you could probably just say thank you.

Safetycrat?  Proud to be one of 'em.

[ruSTynutz]

But...what have any of the safetycrats done to encourage motorcycling???   

[Bodø]

Restrictions to be lifted early.

[ruSTynutz]

Good news for you lot...but is this perhaps in the wrong thread?

[Bodø]

I don't what I did there other than I posted in a hurry as the news broke just as I finished my lunch break and must have clicked the wrong thread in the haste.

[Bodø]

Oops.