[sustran] motorcycles and buses

[EcoPlan, Paris]

-----Original Message-----
From: Simon Norton [mailto:S.Norton at dpmms.cam.ac.uk] 
Sent: Wednesday, December 01, 2004 11:25 PM
To: newmobilitycafe at yahoogroups.com
 

As a bus user I strongly resent Daryl Oster's suggestion that bus drivers
abuse
other road users. In my experience they are more likely to keep giving way
to
other traffic, which is one reason why buses are so slow.

If a bus has 50 people on it, why should it have to give way to a series of
vehicles with 1-2 people in them each ? And even if it has only 5 people,
maybe
some of those empty seats could be used to replace vehicles on the street if
buses could run at a decent speed, thus helping to reduce congestion for the
benefit of all.

In my experience motorcyclists, far from being defensive, are among the most
aggressive of drivers. This was specifically stated in that article about
"motoboys". Motorcyclists demand to be able to use bus lanes even though the
purpose of bus lanes is, or should be, to give users of public transport 
priority over those who bring their own motor vehicles onto the streets.
When
pedestrians are taking advantage of a car jam to cross streets they have to
look
out for motorcyclists weaving in and out.

Motorcycles are big noise makers. By a coincidence in today's Guardian
newspaper
there were two answers to a "Notes and Queries" question about why
motorcycles
seemed to be exempt from noise regulations. One was from something called
the
Motorcycle Action Group which said that they had warned European governments

that the reaction of motorcyclists to tough noise regulations would be to
ignore
them, and another was from someone who said that he regarded it as music not
noise. Well I don't see why I should have to listen to someone's music
either,
especially if it is in a style I abhor.

The whole concept of private transport is based on the idea that the
interests 
of a single person -- its user -- should have priority over the interests of
the
whole community that has to put up with them. This is as true for
motorcycles as
it is for cars.

Simon Norton



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