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Motorcycle Licence Recommendations for Improving Safety

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alans1100:
I heard about this on the radio today and concerns South Australia

https://yoursay.sa.gov.au/decisions/mc-licensing/about

Your feedback and comments on new recommendations to improve safety for motorcyclists will be greatly valued and will contribute to future decisions on SA motorcycle licensing laws.

StinkyPete:
Page 20 of the report summarizes the recommendations.    In the main, I would support them, but there is a Nanny State overtone to the recommendations.  However it's inevitable that something was going to change based upon the simple fact that we in SA had a doubling of motorcycle deaths last year.   I do have an issue with increasing the age to 18 as a safety measure, despite young riders being over-represented in accidents.   I've had discussions with driving instructors who would like to see young people get a motorcycle licence BEFORE obtaining a car licence.  It was their view that people who graduate from motorcycles to cars make safer car drivers, as their observation and hazard recognition skills are far better.   I expect that the other recommended strategies  would make a difference to the safety of young or inexperienced riders.

However, nothing can save an idiot, determined to ignore basic safety and the rules of the road.

Biggles:
Solution:  stop allowing newly licensed riders on the road and take 10% of the old ones off the road.

Then they'll cut the accident rate by 10%.

The increase is substantially caused by the increased population and booming popularity of motorcycle riding.

I don't like Pete's idea about making car licence aspirants get a m/c licence first.  For one thing, 90% of their parents wouldn't allow it!

WendyL:
I filled out the questionnaire, very relevant to me as the parent of an aspiring rider who now lives in SA.  I don't agree with lifting the age to 18, but do agree with most of the other recommendations, ESPECIALLY insisting on MOPEDs requiring a motorcycle licence of some sort.  They count in our accident stats, but don't get to pay the CTP insurance penalties that the rest of us do.

alans1100:
I think a lot of these so called safety ideas are just based on the number of road deaths and not the complete picture.

This table taken from the same site shows that motorcycle deaths compared to other vehicles is going down.

Table 1 by Alan, on Flickr

As Biggles says, increase in the population also means an increase in riders/drivers which impacts the numbers of people involved in incidents (errors of judgement - not accidents). There's to much variability using deaths alone as you can have less accidents and still have more deaths due to the number of people involved.

I like it when they tell us something like 10% of people who died never wore a seat belt; does that mean the 90% died because they wore a belt.

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