Scooter News ADVERTISEMENT  The policy of no policy Some timely editorial from man himself, Jeremy Bowdler.
Scooter The problem with democracy is that it is rule by the masses or, as my favourite misprint goes, them asses. Where it bothers me is that I’m not one of the masses. I ride a scooter. I am very definitely in a minority and I am sick of having decisons made on my behalf by others who neither understand my particular situation, nor care about it.
Anyway, up to a certain level, there is a lot of good work done by a lot of clever people in the public service. There are all sorts of research, data, findings and recommendations made in many different areas, especially in road safety. So what happens between that good work and the disasters foisted upon us end-users?
How can the policy-makers get their policy so wrong so often?
While I’d really enjoy writing an editorial about the great conspiracy designed to discourage scooter use and remove us from the road, I’m convinced
that would give far too much credit to far too many people. If there’s a choice between a conspiracy and a stuff-up, I’ve always taken the stuff-up option. And
it’s mostly been the right choice. It’s a fact of democracy that politicians want votes, and they don’t want to introduce unpopular measures because they are in the business of populism.
Many senior public servants above a certain level are employed in contract positions and so it is in their interests to please their populist masters and mistresses. This antagonistic situation results in much filtering, spin or plain disregard for the departmental work done lower down.
Take the 50cc scooter rule. On the face of it, it’s a piece – or several – of legislation that makes sense. By allowing anyone with a driver’s licence
the freedom to use a cheaper, less polluting, less damaging means of private transport has to be good for everyone, right?
I’ve just returned to the office after a month in WA, an enlightened state where the 50cc rule is in full force and the road system is completely unsuited to it. With 50s restricted to 50km/h (on a good day on the flat), riding around the suburb I was staying in would have been fine. Getting across town, where almost every arterial road was signposted 70-90km/h, would have been a nightmare of either being tailgated by idiots in cars or else hugging the kerb and praying that the traffic whizzing past was on the look-out. Neither is ideal.
How much easier would it have been to think about the policy first and have a simple 50cc limit.
Unrestricted, many will do about 75km/h – which would be safer than being restricted to 50. It would make the scooters cheaper, since there wouldn’t be the need for special restriction for the local market, it would stop people breaking the law by derestricting the scooters so they could at least keep up with traffic rather than act as a moving chicane, and it would relieve the police of having to enforce the rule.
Would it result in more causalties? Possibly fewer, since disparity in traffic speeds is an issue for road safety.
I’m a great believer in the 50cc solution, but it makes far more sense in Sydney or Melbourne, where traffic flow is restricted by volume, than in States and cities where traffic speeds are generally in excess of the 50km/h limit. How hard would it have been to figure this out before enacting the legislation?
But that’s not the worst of it. A leaked report of a VicRoads feasibility study into the national implementation of frontal identification for motorcycles and scooters has raised some serious issues for us, and serves to highlight that scooters are never taken into account until it’s too late.
Check the March issue of twowheels for the gruesome detail. I can’t help but wonder what a wonderful world it might be… if only they asked us first. ✽
As published in TW SCOOTER MAGAZINE - 5/06/2008
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