[sustran] EU laws to put brake on bikers (motorcyclists) BUT BUT BUT

[K. Tsourlakis]

Motorcycles may be "little guy" in Czechia, but Czechia (or perhaps North America) is not the whole world. In many South European and Asian cities (and in an ever growing number of African countries) motorcycle traffic is an important part of motorised traffic (and in many cases - e.g China or Vietnam- a first step towards car motorisation).

In Athens for instance, 1 million motorcycles pollute freely the city, besides 2 million automobiles - without any (unlike cars) exhaust gas and noise controls. Motorcycling is deliberately promoted (instead of biking - Athens lacks even 1 km of bike lane) in order to maximize motorised traffic. The corrupt administration favours motorcycling because they don't compete cars, but use mostly pedestrian spaces and other free spaces (parks, squares etc) - they have also recently granted them legally free access to dedicated bus lanes. They use under police immunity sidewalks and other pedestrian spaces and act more aggressively than cars, being a major component of the violence and oppression pedestrians experience in Athens in everyday life, and an important (although unrecognised) part of the pollution of the most polluted capital in Europe.

You are not right: they don't only cause damage to the motorcyclists themselves, but they also kill pedestrians and bicyclists. Even the damage they bring about to themselves shouldn't be confronted with indifference, given the efforts the motorcycle lobby makes to lure inexperienced and aggression inclined people to the motorcycle ideology. However I agree with you that fines and efforts should concentrate more to the damage they cause to others (like speeding or pedestrian rights violations) than the harm they cause to themselves (like helmet use - advising rather than penalties are more appropriate in this case).

Although carfree cities is a worthy prospect, perhaps a completely carfree world is still far away, but a motorcycle free world is already feasible (and may become a first step towards the carfree vision). For a more thorough discussion about motorcycles look at 

http://www.geocities.com/pezosgr/motocbust.rtf
or
http://www.geocities.com/pezosgr/motocbust.htm



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