The Motorcycle Action Group has announced its suggestion for the next meeting of the Transport Select Committee, citing an under-exploitation of the advantages of motorcycles.
The UK Motorcycle Action Group (MAG) has made its suggestion after an ‘appeal for ideas’ from the MP Iain Stewart on 17 January.
MAG’s suggestion is that the role of motorcycles has not yet been fully considered in the context of a multi-modal transport future. It says that, when people talk of restricting car use it is generally suggested that walking, cycling, or public transport are viable alternatives - but never motorcycles.
“Motorcycles do not receive any separate consideration,” MAG says. “This is demonstrated in depictions of the sustainable travel hierarchy which routinely fail to recognise the existence of motorcycles.”
As a result, MAG wants the committee to look at how motorcycles can be better utilised in the future as an alternative option to cars. This is due to their “flexibility and convenience,” MAG says, but it is also true that motorcycles offer environmental benefits, too, since they can use less fuel or energy than cars, especially commuter-style powered two-wheelers.
MAG proposes that the Transport Committee “evaluate any current policy to facilitate motorcycling in the multi-modal future,” to begin with. “MAG fully expects this to reveal that there is [no current policy],” it says.
MAG’s Director of Campaigns & Political Engagement, Colin Brown, said: “It may seem a bit late to point to motorcycling as an innovation. But we are clear that our preferred existing transport mode is not being fully exploited in the much-publicised multi-modal future of transport.
“The message is nothing new to us, but it is about time we saw some tangible policy. It is time to demonstrate that the message is being heard. It is all well and good Ministers saying warm words when challenged, but we are long overdue for some policy action. MAG will continue using every opportunity to promote what is obvious to us, but, apparently, a complete mystery to policy makers.”
