MAG will speak at this year’s Highways UK conference. The joint presentation with Professor Mathew Humphrey of the University of Nottingham is titled ‘The forgotten mode? The neglect of motorcycles within transport policy.’
MAG’s Director of Campaigns & Political Engagement, Colin Brown, will deliver a joint presentation to delegates at this year’s Highways UK Conference, together with Professor Mathew Humphrey of the University of Nottingham. The presentation will reveal the level of neglect that motorcycling is subject to in Local Transport Plans (LTPs).
The Highways UK event brings together the people responsible for planning, developing, managing, maintaining, and future-proofing the nation’s roads networks. The two-day conference is held at the NEC. Doors open at 9am on Wednesday 16th October.
Academic analysis of over 80% of Local Transport Plans in England has for the first time enabled a quantification of the problem. Motorcycling is not mentioned at all in one in four LTPs. Overall, the most discussed transport mode is cycling. For every one mention of motorcycling there are twenty references to cycling.
Qualitative analysis shows that attitudes and approaches to motorcycling are confused and inconsistent, betraying a poor understanding of the needs of motorcyclists and the opportunities that the mode can deliver for the UK transport system.
Colin Brown said:
“The research project has created empirical evidence to back up what I have been instinctively aware of for many years. There are opportunities being missed because of a lack of understanding and interest in what motorcycling has to offer. Back in the 1920s there were twice as many motorcycles registered in the UK compared with cars. We are unlikely to see a return to those proportions of motorcycle use, but we hope that by ending the current neglect of consideration of the mode, we can return to a healthy respect for, and understanding of how motorcycles can help deliver a sustainable UK transport system.”
Professor Humphrey said:
“Government guidance to Local Transport Authorities advises that they should consider ‘all modes’ of transport in the planning process. There is, however, one mode that is frequently overlooked, or scarcely considered, in transport planning in the UK, and this is the motorcycle. Indeed, authorities appear confused over what constitutes a ‘mode’ of transport at all. All this means that the specific needs of motorcycle riders, and the environmental and other benefits that a modal shift towards motorcycles might offer, are usually ignored in UK transport planning.”