The Royal Auto Club of Victoria is big. It's really big. It has over 2 million members. The RACV magazine, Royalauto, gets to 70% of Victorian households. They print 1,474,660 copies per issue.
A story in Royalauto gets to a lot of people. There used to be a page on motorcycling in every issue of Royalauto back in the 1990s. In 2011 the magazine is more about travel and cars than anything else, but it's a good read.
The ACV's first run from Melbourne to Mordialloc on December 6, 1903. The Royal came later to make it RACV. Note the number of motorcycles compared to cars. 1903 was the year the Milledge Brothers opened the first bike shop in the famous Elizabeth Street Motorcycle Precinct. The photo is from the James Flood Book of Australian Motorcycling.
The RACV is a car club in 2011. It was started by 3 riders in 1903. It has motorcyclist members and it insures motorcycles, but most of its' members are drivers, not riders. Out of 2 million Victorians in the RACV there must be a significant number of members who ride, or did.
The new Motorcycle Advisory Group at VicRoads has been set up to advise the Roads Minister, Terry Mulder MP, on matters motorcycling. The RACV has a seat at MAG so its' influence on new laws and taxes for riders is potentially big, especially if Royalauto starts taking an interest in motorcycles & scooters again.
It follows that it would be good for riders to have a motorcyclist on the board of the RACV. Professor Marcus Wigan has been a rider for a long time. He's also a transport expert. Vote for him in the coming RACV elections. With a good number of RACV members being riders, we have a good chance of getting a rider elected to the RACV Board. It's a matter of making the effort. Raise Professor Wigan's run for a seat on the RACV Board at you next club meeting and spread the word across the internet. http://www.mwigan.com/ .
Marcus would make a very good RACV board member. He looks to the future and uses his influence responsibly.
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