England – Last year Rick Hulse the Chairman of National Association for Bikers (NABD) wrote an article published in the bike magazine Back Street Heroes regarding his participation in the Highways England Motorcycle Safety Working Group.
As Rick explains, “Just occasionally I have been involved in consultative committees or working groups that have actually made a positive difference for motorcyclists with disabilities and in some cases for motorcyclists in general but these have been few and far between.”
Ricks initial thought was, “I’ll go along to the first meeting and if it’s just another talking-shop, I’ll bugger-off and leave them to it!”.
However, after two years sitting on the group there seems to have been some rather gratifying results so far.
The Highways England Motorcycle Safety Working Group
Over the 26-years that I have been the Chairman of The National Association for Bikers with a Disability (NABD), I have been co-opted or cajoled onto all sorts of consultative committees, advisory groups and stakeholder symposiums, looking into issues relating to motorcycling and/or disabilities.
Sadly the majority of them have proven to be little-more than talking-shops where lots of discussions and buffet lunches have produced recommendations that are then roundly ignored as whatever government department that has assembled the group go on to do exactly whatever it was they were planning to do before they set-up the consultation.
Just occasionally I have been involved in consultative committees or working groups that have actually made a positive difference for motorcyclists with disabilities and in some cases for motorcyclists in general but these have been few and far between so, over recent years, I have become far more reticent about accepting invitations to join these types of activities, because my time is very precious to me and I prefer to use it on more productive endeavours.
Just over two years ago I was asked to join a working group that was being brought together by Highways England to look at measures to reduce the number of motorcyclists that are being killed or seriously injured on what is known as ‘The Strategic Road Network (SRN)’ in England. The SRN comprises approximately 4,300 miles of motorways and major ‘trunk’ A-roads in England (so that’s all of the motorways and most of the dual carriageways).
My initial thought was, “I’ll go along to the first meeting and if it’s just another talking-shop, I’ll bugger-off and leave them to it!”.
At that very first meeting there were about a dozen people present and I was immediately struck by the eclectic nature of the interested parties that were represented there. I was even more impressed when we were given an assurance from the Chair of the meeting that this would not be a pointless talking-shop and that Highways England had set-aside a fairly substantial budget to implement improvements that we, as a group, could identify as being relevant to the safety of motorcyclists using the SRN.
Delegates to this group include people from Highways England, the Highways Engineers, the British Motorcycle Federation (BMF), the Police, The Department for Transport (DfT), Tyresafe, the Institute of Advanced Motorcycling (IAM), The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (ROSPA), the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL), the Motorcycle Action Group (MAG), the Motorcycle Industry Association (MCIA), The Driver & Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) and of course, the NABD.
Such wide-ranging involvement is in itself very unusual in these sort of consultations and I think it fair to say that it felt pleasantly different and far more promising than any of my previous experiences!
Over the past two years or so we have been involved in lots of discussion, research and development on a surprisingly wide range of issues relating to the safety of motorcyclists, some of which came from a public consultation in the first few months and some that have been raised by the delegates from their particular areas of expertise.
In addition to the work of this main group several delegates, including those from MAG, the NABD and the BMF have been involved in a sub-group with the Highways Engineers to look at improvements that can be made to infrastructure of the SRN to make it safer for motorcyclists and this has included looking at such issues as, the use of non-slip coatings on manhole covers, more impact-friendly road furniture, the properties of paints used to mark the roads, the repair of potholes & other road defects and motorcycle-friendly crash barriers.
So, here we are two years later and we have just had a rather gratifying presentation of the results so far.
I think it fair to say that every delegate present at the latest meeting felt proud of what has been achieved thus far. Such is the scope of the measures that have already been put in place that I simply do not have space in this article to list them all, let alone explain them in great detail.
Perhaps the best thing to do is to include a few of the highlights here and follow them up with a more detailed explanation of specific measures in future articles?
Here is just a taster of the measures this Motorcycle Safety Working Group have been involved in developing that are now being put into practice by Highways England…
In response to potholes and decaying road surfaces:
Highways England have now signed a £3.3bn deal with contractors across England to respond more quickly to resurfacing. This will cut out the old lengthy bidding processes to get the work done and the deal also involves local authorities, resulting in greater collaboration and fewer potholes.
In response to concerns about polished drain covers and spray patching:
Design elements specific to motorcycle safety have been passed onto maintenance and repair teams for major projects and routine inspections will now take into account the requirements of motorcyclists.
In response to concerns about the dangers of impacts with road furniture:
When maintenance teams are replacing and renewing signs etc. they will consider motorcycle specific features like bike guards for signage.
In response to concerns about younger riders not wearing protective clothing when riding:
In the Autumn of 2017 Highways England launched the “Distressed” campaign which was targeted at riders aged 17-23 to show them the importance of wearing the right gear when riding. It was initially launched in the southeast region and has more recently been rolled out in the south west and east.
As I said, these are just a few examples of new initiatives being taken-up because of the work of this Motorcycle Safety Working Group; others include measures to combat diesel spills; Providing access to & promoting the uptake of enhanced riding skill courses; Providing dedicated secure motorcycle parking bays at motorway service stations; and many more measures to make the SRN a safer and more biker-friendly road network.
It should also be remembered that this is an ongoing project.
These measures, and other improvements in the future, will benefit all motorcyclists throughout the UK and your rider’s rights groups, the NABD, MAG and the BMF, are right there at the heart of it all.
Rick Hulse
This article was first published in Back Street Heroes magazine in October 2018
Motorcycle Minds – NABD – Ability or Disability? – That is the question…
Back Street Heroes – the original custom bike magazine. Fantastic feature builds, ‘How to’ articles, rallies, shows and readers’ rides.
Facebook – The (official) group
The National Association for Bikers with a Disability or NABD – is a Registered Charity (No. 1040907) in the United Kingdom and (No. SC039897) in Scotland. The NABD gives technical advice and financial grants to help to adapt motorcycles, sidecars and trikes for use by disabled riders. It also gives advice on training and rider assessments. It owns a fleet of learner-legal motorcycles adapted for various disabilities, which it loans free of charge for training and tests.
Highways England – the government company charged with operating, maintaining and improving England’s motorways and major A roads.
“Our ambition is to ensure our major roads are more dependable, durable and most importantly – are safe. We work hard to make sure our road network is:
free flowing – where routine delays are infrequent and journeys are reliable
safe and serviceable – where no-one should be harmed when travelling or working
accessible and integrated – so people are free to choose their mode of transport and can move safely across and alongside our roads
We further aim to:
support economic growth with a modern and reliable road network that reduces delays, creates jobs, helps business and opens up new areas for development
ensure our activities result in a long term and sustainable benefit to the environment”
Realising the Motorcycling Opportunity – A Motorcycle Safety and Transport Policy Framework – November 2016 pdf 1.57mb
Distressed – Younger Riders
Hi Paul
So sorry to hear about you problems and your hopes to get on a motorcycle.
The only suggestions would be for your first port of call is to contact NABD featured in the article:
The National Association for Bikers with a Disability or NABD – is a Registered Charity (No. 1040907) in the United Kingdom and (No. SC039897) in Scotland. The NABD gives technical advice and financial grants to help to adapt motorcycles, sidecars and trikes for use by disabled riders. It also gives advice on training and rider assessments. It owns a fleet of learner-legal motorcycles adapted for various disabilities, which it loans free of charge for training and tests.
http://www.nabd.org.uk
On Facebook
They may be able to help or try to put in contact with people who could help!
After a few years of trying to save for a used bike and just not being able to live on the benefits I get.
It frustrates me that if I had a car licence I would have a choice of brand new cars and full insurance including full breakdown cover with the government mobility scheme but I see no provision for bikers.
The longer that I am trapped in my housing association flat feeling like a prisoner the less and less will to live I have.
I am recovering from Cancer but prior to this and still now I have various crippling lower back pain.
I have Sciatica down both sides, kidneys that were damaged by my local hospital after nearly dying due to misdiagnosis of IBS instead of Kidney Stones which eventually filled my left kidney and the right kidney was having to do the work of both and also struggling until I was rushed into hospital and when I came round from the general anaesthetic the Urology Surgeon said that if the ambulance was called half an hour later I would have been dead on arrival with renal failure.
It took 18 months to shatter the biggest stone and all this time I had a JJ Stent fitted which was a tube tied off in my Kidney and bladder to keep the kidney draining but the 18months of this tube rubbing caused loads of scar tissue and cysts in my Kidney.
I also have some problem with my lower spine which makes walking or just standing for more than a couple of minutes , my legs just crumple up underneath me. I used to get a warning of my legs wobbling prior to collapsing but I just get a twinge in my lower back and I am on the floor like a sack of spuds.
I am on a bunch of painkillers including anti inflammatories but I am still in agony when I stand or walk for any length of time.
I receive PIP for both home care and mobility but as I said, I only have a bike licence and please excuse me for saying this but it is true, I’m 58 and I am losing the will to live.
I saw my Mum for the first time in 3 years since my Dad died as I was receiving treatment for the Cancer and I am not able to walk with bags from train to train. A kind lady drove from Cirencester to Bath to pick me up and drove me up to Wolverhampton door to door and told me to call her to take me back. She is a pensioner who is very prone to heart attacks and only has the use of one eye and I don’t think that it is safe or fair to expect another long journey like that and she got lost on the way back home on her own.
Is there any help that anyone knows of that can grant or loan me the money to get a used bike of decent size engine as I am 21 Stones now due to being inactive because of the pain of standing and walking.
Yours sincerely,
In hope,
Paul Keeling