G’day Damien
It is a concern on what the French pollies have done, especially when
it is not wide sweeping to encompass all riders of both motorised or
manually powered scooters, bicycles and motorcycles, or perhaps even
pedestrians for that matter.
I couldn’t help but wonder where some of the people buy their ride
gear from.
All my synthetic ride gear has a lot of silver iridescent piping
around many of the seams and is even highly visible inside a room
during the day when sunlight strikes it. Some of my jackets even have
hidden interwoven iridescent patches that become visible at night when
lights shine upon it. My soft luggage also has iridescent patches on
them. I can also choose a variety of brightly coloured gear such as my
red and black mesh fully armoured mesh jacket I wear while city
running.
I often notice people riding on scooters in particular but also
motorcycles with their fluoro vest, but no actual personal protective
ride gear and in fact they’re often in shorts and t-shirt with thongs
on. Why they wear the brain box is beyond me with nothing inside to
protect. Oh that’s right, the law requiring it.
I am all for personal choice if people want the false feeling of
safety in a fluoro vest, lost among all these people wearing
fluoro/day glow clothing and/or vests on a daily basis. Council
worker, courier, truck driver, police officers, ambulance, fireman,
traffic controller, construction worker, cleaner, postal officer,
first aiders, road construction workers, event volunteers and it seems
that the list continues to grow almost monthly.
The risk in this is the desensitisation of the general public from
taking notice of fluoro clothed people as it becomes a general
clothing article, instead of a safety awareness tool.
As for police calling for mandatory fluoro personal protective gear.
It really amuses me when you rarely ever see a motorcycle police
officers riding with a protective jacket on, let alone a fluoro vest
(NSW). Usually They’re in short sleave uniform shirt in summer,
seemingly bullet proof. Just another bunch of squids in my eyes.
It amazes me that the motorcycle clothing industry hasn’t held a
violent protest in France for the curtailing of their fashion
industry.
Fluoro may be fine to some, but rider position is paramount in
defensive riding skills and I also notice how the fluoro wearers often
place themselves in blind spot positions, instead of in more visible
positions to other motorists depending on varying driving situations.
My old bike was mostly white and rose coloured and my current larger
bike is black. Both being 95 models have head light hard wired and yet
I immediately noticed how my larger bike was provided much more
respect over my multi coloured mid-size bike, even though it is pearl
black.
Regards
Peter Hawker
PO Box 4062
KOGARAH BAY NSW 2217
Mobile: 0422 923 825
Email: peterhawker5@bigpond.com
http://mcssac.blogspot.com/
http://petesrallyadventures.blogspot.com/
Hello Peter.
Thanks for the email. Can I put it on my blog?
In my opinion, the move by VicRoads/TAC/VPOL to make protective, hi viz
gear compulsory for motorcycle & scooter riders has little to do with
road safety. If they were fair dinkum they'd be wanting more
protective gear for pushbike and power-assisted bike riders too. And,
hi viz vests for pedestrians. But they target us.
Again, in my opinion, among contributory factors to the French
hypocrisy (their law only applies to big bikes!) and the Australian
stupidity (this is not evidence based law-making), are bike bigotry,
do-gooder desire to save people from themselves, lust for power and
greed for fines.
The fact is there is no scientifically demonstrated need for hi viz
protective gear. It is available. Many riders wear it, especially in
the cooler months in cooler climates.
Another fact is that in about a decade the number of road riders has
doubled while casualties have significantly decreased. Motorcycle &
scooter riding has never been safer.
Victorian Motorcycle Council (VMC) graph submitted to the Parliamentary Inquiry into motorcycle & scooter safety in 2010.
We can say with some confidence that the lack of hi viz protective
clothing for motorcycle & scooter riders is not significantly
contributing to bike casualties in Victoria, so why the push for new
laws? ... see above.
G'day Damien,
No worries mate. The Bear is also going to use it on his ARR blog.
As I noted to Pete. You could add a footnote of the fact that my old
mid-range bike was written off in a crash, when a P plater saw and
identified a motorcycle approaching in the right lane at night in
rainy conditions and he pulled out from the left lane cutting me off
when I was inside 10 meters from him. Thanks to my protective gear I
was at work the next day and the only fluoro was the iridescent piping
and interwoven patches. Not that it mattered because I was identified
as a motorcycle before he cut me off and crashed into me. He got
booked and his insurance had to pay out mine.
Regards
Peter Hawker
PO Box 4062
KOGARAH BAY NSW 2217
Mobile: 0422 923 825
Email: peterhawker5@bigpond.com
http://mcssac.blogspot.com/
http://petesrallyadventures.blogspot.com/
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