Category: Organisations

1. BMF Man Takes On New Role At FEMA

   Posted on 12:00am Friday 4th Mar 2011

   Chris Hodder, the BMF’s Government Relations Executive, has been elected as Director of Communications for the Brussels’ based Federation of European Motorcyclists Associations, FEMA.

   Chris, 31, has been with the BMF since 2007 and has been the BMF’s representative at FEMA since then. He takes over the role from Morten Hansen, General Secretary of NMCU Norway, who has stood down.

   This is Chris’s second year on the FEMA board, a task he undertakes in addition to his BMF role. In his previous role as FEMA’s Director of Public Policy, Chris directed FEMA's lobbying work and helped devise campaign strategies on issues such as the latest Type Approval regulations.
   

   The new role involves working with the other three directors and the FEMA president in helping to improve FEMA's communication both internally and externally. Chris will primarily provide oversight, but will often be directly involved with developing communication.

   Speaking after his election Chris said:  "I am very happy to have been re-elected to the board by my European peers and hope that this year will result in many campaign victories for FEMA and consequently for BMF members."

   This is a role funded and supported by the BMF as a show of its commitment on campaigning for UK riders’ rights at the EU level.

2. BARB – Wire Rope Barriers

   Posted on 12:00am Wednesday 2nd Mar 2011

   In July last year we reported that it appeared that Northern Ireland was getting wired up with the fitting of Wirerope/Cable barriers (Vehicle Restraint Systems).

   We first noticed these barriers in Belfast, situated at the junction of Tesco’s at Newtownbreda, however stretches of wirerope barriers have been and are now being fitted on the A1 Dual Carriageway between Belfast and Newry.

   We also reported that A1 Beech Hill to Cloghogue dual carriageway (Newry By-pass), a 12km stretch at a cost of just over £150million which was part funded by the European Union, TEN-T (Trans-European Network Transport) Programme, seemed to have ignored the exposure to risk of motorcyclists by installing a wire rope barrier system.

   On Wednesday 23rd February the Roads Minister Conor Murphy, officially opened the £45million A2 Maydown to City of Derry Airport dualling scheme.

   At the launch the Minister said: "The completion of this £45million project is an important step forward for the people of the northwest. The new dual carriageway will help ease congestion, resulting in improved safety and journey times for traffic travelling on this route.”

   However what is clear at Right To Right is that when the Minister says that the “project” will result in improved safety for traffic travelling on this route, he has again forgotten about one mode of transport and that is the motorcycle and their riders.

   At Right To Ride our position on wire rope barriers is clear and what is considered by riders’ organisations around the world, which is that these road restraint systems are seen as the most dangerous type of crash barriers because of the exposure to the lethal upright posts.

   A2 Bikers against Rope Barriers - (BARB)

   Local members of the motorcycle fraternity have now been spurred into public action and they have formed into an organized group called, A2 Bikers against Rope Barriers - (BARB)

   The group has unanimously agreed that a wrong and lethal decision has now been made by Roads Service, supposedly on our behalf, resulting in a 100% rejection by bikers, of this type of Vehicle Restraint System chosen for this stretch of road.

   BARB continues by saying, “Either by a mistake or design, this decision has resulted in exposing a fundamental safety flaw. It is our view as lay people that instead of decreasing a greater daily risk to us motorcyclists, it has multiplied the daily risk who have to use this stretch of road in the future. This is compared to other types of safety barrier choices that were available to the engineers at the time.

   Right To Ride along with the British Motorcyclists Federation (BMF) in Northern Ireland, are 100% behind BARB and are supporting BARB’s  mission, "to stop DRD Roads Division from updating/upgrading our roads infrastructure with any more anti motorcycling safety rope barriers until an alternative suitable barrier has been agreed by all parties for this road and past and future development."

   For further information BARB can be contacted on [email protected]

   And also via the Facebook page - Bikers against rope barriers A2

    

3. KillSpills Campaign To End

   Posted on 8:57am Sunday 13th Feb 2011

   Thee KillSpills campaign, founded in 2003 to counter the menace of diesel spillage and particularly the danger it presents to motorcyclists, has come to an end.

   Announcing the end of the campaign, the KillSpills team leader Stephen Edwards said that the increased pressure of his ‘day job’ coupled with family domestic needs meant that he could no longer give the campaign the time and resources it needed.

   Although sponsored and supported by the BMF since 2005, (and from 2008 also by the IAM) the small volunteer KillSpills team remained just that and it is to their credit that they achieved so much in raising the profile of the spilt diesel menace.

   Highlights over the past seven and a half years included the annual London KillSpills Rally, at one time attracting over 7500, riders converging on Parliament with regular reports and petitions taken to the Prime Minister’s office at 10 Downing Street.

   Thanks to KillSpills, the Highway Code now includes a section on the danger of diesel spillage and due to the Highways Agency support, leaflets and guidance were issued to fleet operators and drivers. The DfT also came on board and commissioned and funded a study into best practice on cleaning up diesel spills.

   The high profile campaign also presented annual awards to companies who had done the most to lessen the risks and improve awareness of diesel spills. Recipients included big fleet operators, ASDA and Sainsbury’s, and TruckProtect, the makers of an innovative and now widely adopted anti-spill device. Awards were also presented to the Highways Agency and to the DfT in recognition of their work on the topic.

   Speaking on the announcement, KillSpills founder, R1 riding Stephen Edwards, a 45 year old Accountant from Lancashire said: “This has been an extremely difficult decision for me but I’ve come to the end of my personal road on this. We’ve achieved so much and I’ve enjoyed what we’ve done, but this is it, I really can’t do any more. My thanks go to my team and the many people who have helped us along the way and of course to the BMF and IAM whose support has been invaluable.”

   For the BMF, spokesman Jeff Stone said:  “From the day I first met Steve way back in 2003, I was impressed by his enthusiasm and professionalism and was pleased to be able to offer BMF support. The BMF have battled the diesel menace for years and gained some improvements, but Steve raised the bar and by concentrating on this single issue gave it a whole new dimension. Motorcyclists owe a lot to Steve and the KillSpills team.”

   The BMF will continue to lobby on the diesel spills issue as part of its broader campaigning programme.

   See www.killspills.org.uk for more on the campaign.

4. BMF Launches ‘Rider Active’ Campaigning Initiative

   Posted on 11:27am Wednesday 2nd Feb 2011

   In a new initiative, ‘Rider Active’, designed to involve all motorcyclists in tackling common issues adversely affecting their motorcycling safety and enjoyment, the BMF has today launched an on-line survey to gather their concerns and from those topics highlighted, construct an action plan to deal with them.

   The ‘Rider Active’ initiative follows an impromptu ‘What’s Bugging You?’ survey of visitors to the BMF’s stand at last year’s International Motorcycle Show and triggered the need for a wider survey of rider’s concerns.

   The survey captured such a diverse range of concerns that the BMF now wants to break them down into priority order by surveying not only its 80,000 members though direct mailing, but also, through the on-line survey, all interested motorcyclists.

   In this way say the BMF, it will not be a top-down project but will involve the BMF’s regional network of representatives too. After collecting riders concerns, guidance and briefings focused on local findings will be available enabling those riders, along with local BMF Regional Representatives, to take action themselves along with any national action taken by the BMF.

   Over the year, four major issues will be focussed on as determined by the survey, all of them designed to gather grass roots concerns and involve local riders.

   Launched today, the Rider Active survey will also be carried in the BMF’s re-launched Motorcycle Rider magazine published later this month.

   Chris Hodder, the BMF’s Government Relations Executive said: “This represents a new way of working for the BMF, empowering local riders and putting the resources of the BMF in their hands. In this way we will be addressing the issues that they really care about.”

   For further information and to take part in the survey, riders should log on.

5. Truck Protect Wins the 2010 KillSpills Award

   Posted on 12:00am Saturday 4th Dec 2010

   TruckProtect Ltd, the manufacturer of the best-selling NeckIt! fuel anti-siphon device (ASD), is this year’s winner of the KillSpills/bmf/IAM Award 2010 for ‘Achievement in Reducing Diesel Spills’.

   The annual award was first introduced in 2005 in order to recognise the achievements of those working to reduce the menace to motorcyclists of spilt diesel on our roads. The 2010 award once more goes to TruckProtect Ltd in recognition of the work they have done in developing programmes to promote the KillSpills campaign and the dangers of diesel spillage.

   Last year TruckProtect won the award for the development of the world’s first anti-spill device to fit within an anti-siphon device and therefore prevent diesel spills from a fuel tank even when a fuel cap has not been replaced or is broken. The device is now being launched by DAF and Scania, amongst others, across Europe.

   Commenting, KillSpills founder Stephen Edwards said: “The engineering that has gone into this product is truly impressive, but more than that, TruckProtect have shown real commitment and interest in ending the diesel spill menace faced by motorcyclists. They are a worthy winner of the 2010 KillSpills Award for Achievement in Reducing Diesel Spills.”

   In receiving the award, Russell Fowler, Chief Executive of TruckProtect, said: “We are doubly delighted to be honoured once again by the KillSpills award. While our device started as a means of preventing diesel spillage and fuel siphoning, since first winning the award we have realised its importance to motorcyclists so have also stressed this aspect within the industry and with our customers. Some major publicity programmes will start soon following close work between KillSpills and ourselves. Their team is to be congratulated for their tireless efforts in raising this awareness”

   This is the sixth year of the award, previous winners being ASDA in 2005, Sainsbury’s in 2006, the Highways Agency in 2007 and the DFT in 2008, all of them recognised for the work they had done in raising awareness of the dangers of diesel spillage and taking measures to prevent it.

   Note: KillSpills (www.killspills.org.uk.), sponsored by the bmf and IAM, was formed in 2003 to counter the menace of diesel spillage and particularly, the danger it presents to motorcyclists.

   More details on TruckProtect can be found at:  www.TruckProtect.com.