On Wednesday 11th September, motorcyclists in Northern Ireland took their case for recognition of their safety needs to Stormont to put it to the people who can make the right decisions - the NI Assembly Committee for Infrastructure, which advises the Minister for Infrastructure on policy and legislation development.
The purpose of our meeting was to give the committee members the motorcyclists' perspective on for example, and hear what motorcyclists think can be done to make improvements.
Martyn Boyd, the NI Representative for Motorcycle Action Group (MAG: www.mag-uk.org) put forward our perspective on the state of our roads and road safety in general concerning motorcyclists and how we are affected by poor road conditions at a Committee evidence session. He was assisted by Colin Brown, MAG-UK Director of Campaigns & Political Engagement who attended via video link. Martyn made it clear that Northern Ireland’s roads are in crisis and, in many places, the conditions present lethal hazards to motorcyclists. he also made it clear MAG believes the Dept for Infrastructure’s (DfI) criteria for repairing road defects discriminate against the safety of motorcyclists, who are a defined vulnerable road user group, just like cyclists, pedestrians and equestrians, whose safety should be given extra consideration. Many of the road defects left unrepaired because they don’t fit the maintenance criteria put riders in peril.
Martyn told the Committee of our intense disappointment at having our detailed submission to the NI Road Safety Review, as requested by the DfI, seemingly completely ignored with none of our sensible and effective ideas for improvements being included in the new strategy. This sends motorcyclists a message that our safety is unimportant.
This meeting with the high-level people who can affect positive change on these issues for riders was the culmination of ten years of campaigning by Martyn and MAG. We believe we were heard loud and clear by the members of this influential cross-party committee and hope to see beneficial changes.
The Motorcycle Action Group Ltd (MAG) formed in 1973 is a civil rights organisation representing over 60,000 riders, dedicated to influencing political decisions and social attitudes for the benefit of motorcycling and motorcyclists.
Contact MAG Central Office on 01926 844 064 | central-office@mag-uk.org
NI Representative Martyn Boyd on 07422571992 | northern-ireland-region-rep@mag-uk.org
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