Sunday 2 December 2012

FRENCH BEAT HI VIZ LAW

FRENCH motorcycle & scooter riders used people power to defeat government proposals for a high visibility vest law. 100,000 rider took to roads across France to protest against bad laws including mandatory flouro clothing. 100,000 voters on bikes sent a clear message to their government that they were not going to take it anymore. They also sent a clear message to other road users that they had a right to be on the road and they were going to stay there.



Australian road authorities have gone quiet on high viz vests and compulsory protective clothing for now but they have a folio of measures designed to make it difficult and expensive to keep a bike on the road and a bike licence in your wallet.

The inquiry into motorcycle & scooter safety will release its' report at Parliament House in Melbourne on Wednesday, December 12, 2012 from 9am. The more riders that can make it in there the better.

The first FAIR GO RUN will be on Saturday, March 16, 2013. It will depart Melbourne's northern suburbs for a run up the Hume to the marginal seat of Seymour and the electoral office of Cindy McLeish MP. Then it's on to the Flowerdale Pub for lunch.

In the lead up to the next Victorian election we will target marginal seats, regardless of political party. The candidates who support or right to ride, in writing, will get our support, the candidates that don't will not.

Damien Codognotto OAM
Independent Riders' Group


Sent: Sunday, 2 December 2012 11:24 PM
Subject: Re: [New post] France: compulsory reflective clothing suspended

From:
"UK France bikers.com"
<comment+ly1rrmwfr832j0n0t9walb@comment.wordpress.com>

Sun, 2 Dec 2012 10:20:54 +0000
Subject: France: compulsory reflective clothing suspended

Good news  for  riders  in  France: the new French Interior Minister,
Manuel  Valls,  has  decided to suspend the forthcoming obligation for
all  riders (whether residents or visitors) to wear at least 125cm2 of
reflective  clothing  between  the  waist and the shoulders.

Bikers who were  caught  not wearing the appropriate reflective clothing
from 1st January  2013 would have been liable to a 68 euros fine payable
on the spot  and two points taken off their licence.

The battle has been very long  for  the  bikers to achieve such a good
result. Despite national demonstrations  gathering  over  100,000 bikers
and bringing the whole country  to  a  complete  stop, the previous Interior
Minister, Claude Guéant,  refused  to  abandon his proposals. Guéant initially
proposed the  compulsory  wear  of  reflective  jackets  and, with the enormous
pressure  he  was  put  under  by  thousands  of angry bikers who kept
blocking  the  roads  all over the country, he decided to back off and
restrict  the  reflective clothing to only 125cm2 between  the  waist  and the
shoulders. But this was not good enough - the  bikers  demanded  full  scrapping
of the proposals, which Guéant refused  to accept.

Manuel Valls, Guéant's successor following the recent elections, seems to be more
reasonable and has now accepted to  listen  to  the  bikers'  concerns  and  suspend
his predecessor's proposals.

Unfortunately, suspend does not mean scrap - the proposals will  be reviewed in
detail before Valls may decide to scrap them for  good.  This  is  one  of  the most
laughable and absurd pieces of legislation  we  have  ever heard of because a) reflective
clothing is precisely  not  reflective  during  day  light  and  b) those who ride
machines  of  up  to  125cc  would  have  been exempt from wearing any
reflective  clothing  on  the  grounds that they don’t ride a powerful
enough  bike to be considered dangerous on the roads!

Let’s not forget that  a very large number of motorcyclists who ride a moped or a
125cc bike  are precisely those who don’t hold a full motorcycle licence and
have  only  attended at the very most a one-off 7 hour training course all  together.
But,  as  usual,  bikers  who ride larger machines arealways  the ones who cause most
concern to the government because they have  been much better trained than every other
biker! Whilst it makes perfect  sense  to  educate  bikers to be more visible on the roads to
minimise  the risk of collisions resulting from car drivers not seeing (DKC - looking for them)
them,  it  also  makes  sense  to  educate car drivers, including taxi drivers,  to  share  the
roads with bikers and make them realise that they  don’t  own  the roads. Why are car
drivers not forced to apply a yellow  sticker  at  the  back (and front) of their vehicle to
make it more  visible?  Why  are riders and drivers not treated equally on the
roads  and,  more importantly, why are bikers being constantly treated as  irresponsible
and  rogue  citizens?

Statistics show that the vast majority  of  road accidents involving motorcyclists are caused
by car drivers  not  paying  attention  to  what's around them, including the presence
of  bikers.  So  instead  of  imposing  radical  and useless measures  on  the bikers and
treat them like children, governments had better address road related issues by implementing
training and safety awareness  sessions  for  all, not always and constantly victimise the
bikers.

Whilst  bikers in France are delighted to hear the good news, the battle is not yet totally over.
Manuel Valls has yet to review and consider  his  predecessor's  proposals  in detail before
he makes his final  decision,  which  will hopefully be the full scrapping of these proposals.
In  the  meantime, the French Federation of Angry Bikers - FFMC (Fédération Française
des Motards en Colère) continues to put the government under pressure to achieve the
desired full scrapping of the proposals.

If  you're based in France and want to take  part in the fight against the Government's
proposed introduction of  a  compulsory  annual  environmental  and  road  safety  test  for
motorcycles  and  their  continued  policy  to  ban motorcyclists from filtering  through
traffic, then contact the FFMC.

Please  join  and  support  the  campaign  to stop Westminster  Council  from stealth taxing motorcyclists to park before their  scheme  spreads  all  over  the  UK and the rest of Europe.
For further details, visit

http://www.motobikeparkingtax.com

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