From the Department of the Bleedin' Obvious

[Grahamm]

Why commuting by motorcycle is good for everyone.

Motorcycle riders don’t just save themselves time and money, they do the same for car drivers, and they also help to reduce the emissions of cars.

Well, this is a surprise, isn't it, boys and girls? Commuting by bike takes up less space, uses less fuel, causes less congestion and means you get there quicker! Who would have thunk it?

Of course there's a need to use the proper safety gear (and, preferably, get yourself some Advanced Training too ) but this is just saying what every two-wheel user has known pretty much since traffic levels started increasing.

Now all we need to do is get the bureaucrats (and Eurocrats) to stop playing silly buggers and make it *easier* for people to switch from four wheels to two, stop introducing petty (and useless) regulations on what you not allowed to do to your bike and requirements for Hi-Viz and, most importantly, recognise the benefits of bikes and consider them for VED exemption since they are even better for reducing congestion and pollution than sub-1 litre cars.

[Dave48]

Theres nothing new under the sun is there? Seem to remember a Labour Government a few years ago singing the praises of 2-wheels-didnt do much though did they? Simple example of unfairness of VED: My cage is a nearly 3 yr old Fiat Active Eco 1100cc-Road Tax £30 per annum.
Fazer Thou Road Tax £76 per annum. I know the Fazer cant beat the economy of the car (60mpg) at steady 65mph on motorway BUT I rarely sit in traffic queues polluting the planet so the overall environmental impact of the bike is small. Also the build quality of bike is such that hopefully it will be a long time before it becomes uneconomic to repair unlike most cars which seem to have an INTENDED life of 7-10 yrs. The bike is already 10 yrs old. Less raw material & energy use.

[DryRob]

Why commuting by motorcycle is good for everyone.

Motorcycle riders don’t just save themselves time and money, they do the same for car drivers, and they also help to reduce the emissions of cars.

Well, this is a surprise, isn't it, boys and girls? Commuting by bike takes up less space, uses less fuel, causes less congestion and means you get there quicker! Who would have thunk it?

Of course there's a need to use the proper safety gear (and, preferably, get yourself some Advanced Training too ) but this is just saying what every two-wheel user has known pretty much since traffic levels started increasing.

This is true but it's good to have quantitative data to point to when you are putting any argument across. It appears that this study was also independent of bike pressure groups so increases the validity of the conclusions. It was presented at a motorbike conference though so maybe not so independent.

Presentation linky: http://www.acem.eu/publiq/8.Conference_Leuven_study.pdf
Conference linky: http://www.acem.eu/cms/2012_conference.php

[bigralphie]

It dont save time ,if you add kitting up/unlocking/wheeling out etc etc ,
and my Tuono factory is less efficent and pumps out more crap than my Diesel Mundano

Less room defo and I use more of my tax disk as any empty bit of road is mine lol

[Robbie8666]

It dont save time ,if you add kitting up/unlocking/wheeling out etc etc ,

cant quite agree with this all the time...

When I got up this morning got dressed straight into my leathers so only extra time setting off was putting helmet & gloves on.. got to work 12 minutes ahead of what it normally takes in the cage.
when I got to work i altered the pattern of starting computers getting a brew having a fag with getting changed into "work" clothes. added to the fact bike parking is out front of the block not in car park I was actually been more productive at work ahead of what I normally am, plus had a HUGE grin on my face    from the ride in which set me up for a lot better day for all my colleagues!! 

but have to admit that this is cuz its sunny & not raining and didn't have to dry off or defrost myself..

[JZS 600]

2 Hrs by public transport to work, half an hour on the bike, simples! (not to mention £20 a day on a season ticket Vs £6 in petrol)

Well it was, till my employer took all the motorbike parking bays away......

[Janet]

2 Hrs by public transport to work, half an hour on the bike, simples! (not to mention £20 a day on a season ticket Vs £6 in petrol)

Well it was, till my employer took all the motorbike parking bays away......

I'm self employed and work from home now, but in my last regular job I used to have to get into central Bristol. There was a bike parking bay outside my office, but a few years ago, when petrol prices shot up, it started getting over-full. In theory this wasn't a problem for me, as I tended to come in early, but I also liked to go home early to balance this  . Unfortunately, on more than one occasion, somebody had shoved in a bike (normally, but not always, a scooter) so close on the right of me that I couldn't get the bike off the side stand. And it became only a matter of time before somebody got too close and scraped or knocked over my bike. I did try talking to the council, but they weren't interested in giving bikes more space (no surprise there since the rest of the street was given over to lucrative pay and display). In the end I stopped bringing the bike in. My employers had a secure car park for managers' cars, and it had a few odd corners that would have been perfect for a motorbike and not much use for anything else. But there was a policy decision that motorized two wheelers couldn't use the car park at all ... :'(

[Grahamm]

there was a policy decision that motorized two wheelers couldn't use the car park at all ... :'(

Of course! Can't have those damn bikers getting in there when they might scratch the boss' beemer...

[chris.biker]

The best point here is that a national paper is pointing this out to cagers. Years ago people started on the roads with motor bikes and then progressed to cars, once they were driving they would pull to one side to let bikes through as they were on side. But now motoring starts with a car and some drivers appear to look at a bike going passed as something to be stopped.

[Dave48]

Further to Grahamms comment- Company car drivers with expensive gas-guzzlers costing £Thousands!! dont like to be reminded that employees motorcycles costing a fraction of these" status?" symbols can do EVERYTHING BETTER in the urban environment. 0-60mph-NO CONTEST! :lol

[Robbie8666]

one of the companies I worked for offered management company cars or company motorbikes!! surprisingly not 1 of the directors decided to go for that option , however 1 of the sales reps did! he had a goldwing, this is when I had my yamaha RXS 100 on L plates.