Cornwall to launch motorcycling strategy

Cornwall County Council is to produce a strategy for motorcyclists in a bid to reduce the high number of bikers killed and seriously injured on the county’s roads (Surveyor, 3 June).

Motorcycles make up four per cent of all registered vehicles in Cornwall, and like many other rural areas there is a high number of motorcycling accidents in the county. 22 per cent of all killed and seriously injured road users in Cornwall are motorcyclists.

Hannah Harris, Cornwall’s transport policy officer, said the authority has convened a motorcyclists’ forum to give local bikers a say in the strategy. Consultant Alan Tilly of TRL has been commissioned to manage a series of meetings to gauge views on issues such as traffic management, parking and theft as well as safety. Mr Tilly is also conducting a web based survey to find out more about motorcyclists in Cornwall and the type of journeys they make, as well as identifying their concerns.

The aim is to complete the strategy by the autumn to inform the county’s next local transport plan.

Cornwall’s moves comes as councils await the DfT’s promised greater national steer on motorcycling policy, and its commitment to produce the UK’s first ever motorcycling strategy by the end of the year, in a bid to halt the rise in motorcycle deaths.

Cornwall’s initiative has been welcomed by the British Motorcyclists’ Federation (BMF) and Lembit Opik MP, chair of the parliamentary advisory group on motorcycling. "Best chance of success is through a strategy such as this one where you get people to buy into ideas rather than feeling they have been pushed into it by the Government," Mr Opik said.

The TRL survey is available at: www.cornwallmotorcyclesurvey.com.