RESOURCES -

At a meeting of the National Motorcycle Council held at the Department for Transport today, Road Safety Minister David Jamieson launched the Government’s first National Motorcycle Strategy (NMS).

The NMS is the culmination of five years’ work by Government in partnership with the motorcycle community, A key stage in this process was the publication of the Final Report of the Advisory Group for Motorcycling last August. This report – a collaboration between the motorcycling community and the Department for Transport (DfT), contained a large number of recommendations, many of which feature in the NMS.

The Strategy recognises that an increasing number of people are turning to motorcycles and scooters in order to beat congestion as well as riding bikes for leisure. According to the DfT, the strategy aims to ensure that

• Motorcycling is recognised as a “mainstream” mode of transport
• Transport planning and infrastructure decisions fully take motorcycling into account
• The attitudes and behaviour of both drivers and motorcyclists is focussed on looking out for each other
• Both pre- and post-test training continues to improve, making it attractive to riders

NMC Chairman Bob Doughty welcomed the Minister to the meeting saying “This document represents the co-operation between Government and its Civil Servants, and representatives of the disparate members of the motorcycle community, who have learnt to respect each other and work together towards this common goal of a safer world for motorcycling.

We, on this side of the divide have had to learn and accept how we are seen by the outside world, and those we have worked with have come to accept that we have a voice to be heard, and to be listened to.

I hope that this document, in which the many points of view have been fused into a coherent whole, will truly integrate motorcycling into mainstream traffic planning.”

22 February 2005

Copies of the Strategy are available from:

Dept for Transport
Free Literature
PO Box 236
Wetherby
LS23 7NB
0870 1226 236

or from the DfT’s website www.dft.gsi.gov.uk

Product Code 45RRLG02328