IN A new report from the European Transport Safety Council, the UK has been ranked the eighth most dangerous country in you're a biker.
Although if you want to ride in a state of lovely cuddle bunny-like euphoria, get over to Norway - seems like their roads and car drivers over there are all centred around keeping us bikers alive. Marvellous. Stay away from Slovenia though. Bad place to ride a bike, apparently.
However, there is a worrying undertone to the Europe-wide report. In it, there are several measures outlined to curb what the report calls a: "Worrying trend in rising motorcycling fatalities." And whilst most seem perfectly feasible, item two in the proposal is to install MORE speed cameras to detect what the report singles out as 'speeding riders', despite recent British Government claims that speed is not the cause for most accidents.
The measure outlined include plans to:- Enforce the compulsory wearing of helmets - Install speed cameras able to detect speeding riders - Improve rider and driver training with regard to particular hazards related to motorcycling - Address specific needs of bike users in road design and road maintenance - Mandate ABS for high-capacity machines and investigate their effectiveness for smaller bikes - Investigate the extent to which airbags are viable bike safety measures - Include bike issues in the European research agenda
Richard Allsop, the chairman of the Road Safety Performance Index Programme said: "While riding a motorcycle will inevitably carry more risk than driving a car, the implementation of dedicated safety measures can substantially improve PTW safety."
To see the report in full, go to:
www.etsc.be/documents/News%20release%20Flash%207%20final.pdf
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