ROYALAUTO

I saw the letter in the October Royalauto on the "Motorcycle' Safety Levy". I think it is the only place in the mag where the word motorcycle appears.

As a long standing member of the RACV I resent the absense/avoidance of motorcycles & scooters in the members' magazine compared to bicycles. It is especially galling that we do not rate a mention in the annual report, in the same issue. Bicycles do. Bicycles get massive coverage in Royalsuto. Why don't we?

My family has been paying lots of membership fees and insurance premiums to the RACV for decades. I reckon a lot of other riders' families have been contributing to the RACV too. I reckon we deserve space in our mag every issue as in the past.

It's time for a letter writing campaign to get a fair go from Royalauto.

Damien
IRG
www.damiencodognottooam.blogspot.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoJvui8viW4

https://www.facebook.com/steve.bardsley1?ref=name#!/events/468146693299823/ 


RACV's SUPPORT OF ANTI-MOTORCYCLE MEASURES

As an ex patriot Victorian- who still has many friends and relatives in Victoria- I am disgusted at the RACV's support of the Victorian Government's continued motorcycle tax.

The tax is euphemistically known as a safety levy. It is a discriminatory rort administered through Vic Roads as part of the TAC's insatiable greed.

Here are several facts regarding the tax that the RACV no doubt wishes the public to remain oblivious to:

• We are told-amongst other dickslip- that the tax exists to protect motorcycle riders by repairing "accident" (a misnomer) black spots. All road users from car drivers to gelati truck drivers to operators of gay madis gras floats benefit from the improvement of roads that this tax pays for yet motorcyclists are the only group footing the bill.
• The exact amount of money that is actually spent on abovementioned road repairs is a closely guarded secret. There is nothing transparent about the administration of the tax. Therefore one can safely guess that almost all of it is shovelled into consolidated revenue coffers.
• Furthermore, regarding spending of the tax, the TAC, the evil that is, have (mis)used the tax to produce several appaulingly inaccurate and vilifying advertisements on TV portraying motorcyclists as irresponsible hoons clad in thongs and siglets whose bikes inexplicably highside on straight roads with disasterous results.

One such ad showed a typically truth-bending police officer implying how when a car fails to give way to a vehicle at a stop sign, it is the other vehicle's fault...provided the other vehicle is a motorcycle!

That the RACV would support such an insult to a group of road users, let alone the families of those motorcycle riders who have been killed or injured at the hands of of car drivers is inexcusable.

I also understand that the RACV applauds the Victorian oligarchy's will to introduce vehicle transponders (electronic identifiers) on motorcycles.
Here are some facts regarding same;

• The government does not expect to (re)introduce FRONT REGISTRATION PLATES on motorcycles. These will not work given the different shape and characteristics of different models of motorcycles. If I have to explain to the RACV that all motorcycles are not the same then your 'organisation' has no right calling itself an authority on anything to do with modern vehicles.
• The number of motorcycle riders using the absence of frontal identification to evade speed cameras (something which the RACV now seems to endorse?!) is infinitesimal. The claim that this is justification to introduce identifiers is ludicrous in the extreme. In fact there are probably far more corrupt police at large in our 'community' than people on motorcycles riding at insane speeds with impunity.
• If speed camera evasion was the primary concern here the simple, easy and cheap solution (to a non existent problem) would be to turn the cameras around, photographing vehicles from behind where there is a number plate. 
• I suspect that there are more ulterior motives at work as is the case whenever the government  subjugates the population, especially in the name of security. Such aims are easily achievable when applied to a minority and the majority is misinformed. How much more easily achieved when victoria's motoring (anti motorcycling?) group endorses same?

The RACV in its support of these draconian, unnecessary measures has plumbed new depths of  un- Australianness and its members who either ignore the RACV's stance or agree with it have plumbed new depths of bovine stupidity.

The RACV has nothing to lose from getting me offside given that I no longer reside in "The Place To Be" , however I shall make it my business to implore everyone I know to reconsider their support of RACV through roadside assistance, all types of insurance and consumption of goods and services advertised in Royal Auto magazine should the RACV fail to withdraw its support of these anti-motorcycle measures.

Warmest Regards,

Lindsay Swift

http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/abolish-tac-antibike-tax.html