French motorcycle & scooter riders feel they have been badly treated by their government so they get on the road and let people and government know they are not happy. It's called people power. Organised properly, it works.
Some one wrote to me. "Looks the same all over (France), wish we had those numbers here."
We do have those numbers here, relative to population of course. There are 1.3 million motorcycle licence holders in Australia and that number is growing. Most can and do vote. That's a lot of political muscle.
Since the 1980s the number of road bikes has doubled but rider apathy has more than doubled. Many riders are too old to feel that righteous rebellion against injustice. "She'll be right. I'll just roll over shall I?" Too many are defatist. "Why fight the government? You can't win." And a lot are more interested in polishing ponies and looking at their reflections in shop windows as they sit at the lights than in riders' rights. "Gosh I look good."
The Mayday Run to State Parliament in Adelaide in the 1980s.
Australian rider representatives are often old too, even some of the young ones. Most go to government cap-in-hand so we get public service results instead of what's good for the majority of riders. Much of the motorcycle & scooter community seems to have forgotten that public servants are employed by the taxpayer. They work for us. Politicians are supposed to set policy and we elect them.
The park-in run to State Parliament House in Melbourne in the 1980s.
Among other things the park-in run won us the Victorian law allowing us to park on footpaths at no cost, with no time limit. It works. There have been minimal complaints over 25 years. The point is, in a democracy numbers win. Apathy is a threat to any free country. The loss of freedom begins with the nanny state.
Still, times change. History is inclined to repeat itself. People power works. Maybe there's some of that French rider spirit left in the lucky country's riders?
Damien Codognotto OAM
Independent Riders' Group
MRA HLM
Melbourne
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