Motorcycle Riders Association (Victoria) President John Karmouche today called on the Minister for Ports and Roads Tim Pallas to take action and introduce specialist lanes for every vulnerable road user (VRU).

At present lane separation is limited to bicycles and does not take into account the needs of the even more vulnerable segment of powered two wheelers.

Mr Karmouche said today that, “We know that road space is often a sensitive issue within the bicycle community, but PTW also share many of the risks experienced by bicycles. Bicycles and PTW share many similarities in terms of the risks posed by other traffic and have very similar on-road footprints. We see it as a sensible proposal that PTW be separated from the same threats by initiating shared on-road VRU lanes”.

“We are not looking at full sharing of every on-road bicycle lane; some are patently unsuitable for sharing. What we want to see is the establishment of safe combined VRU routes wherever possible.”

We are calling on VicRoads to establish trial routes where the interaction between users can be studied with a view to establishing “best practice” for VRUs.

No Crash History.
According to VicRoads Crash Stats database there have been very few incidents between PTW and bicycles involving road space conflict. MRA(Vic) asserts that given this history it is possible to develop vulnerable road user lanes that can be shared amicably by both PTWs and bicycles.

MRA(Vic) is joining forces with the Victorian Automobile Chamber of Commerce (VACC) and Motorcycling Australia (MA) to support this issue.

For further information contact:
John Karmouche, MRA(Vic) President – (03) 9877 3004
president@mravic.org.au