As the elections on Thursday 5th May 2011 for the Northern Ireland Assembly and Councils fast approach, Right to Right has attempted to draw from the world of politics, important issues for motorcycling, through our BikersRVoters campaign.
The saying “Good things come to those that wait” extols the virtue of patience.
We have patiently waded through the political parties manifestos for the elections with no great expectations that there would be any direct reference to motorcycling or even for road users, with a few exceptions such as investments in roads.
In general there are very few “good things” in the manifestos.
They all seem to be about the development of public transport – buses and trains or cycling and walking to mitigate CO2 emissions.
However until public transport is developed and – more to the point – if there is ever a public transport utopia for users in Northern Ireland, motorcycles (including scooters and mopeds) have a major part to play as an efficient, effective means of transport and should not be ignored.
There are 31,000 motorcycles registered in Northern Ireland and at Right To Right we have set out in brief our main issues to educate politicians.
Our Focus
Our focus is on Road Safety – other vehicle drivers – the Roads Infrastructure (which should not make roads a dangerous place for motorcyclists) – the influence from EU legislation and European Commission sponsored motorcycle safety projects that are foisting experimental technology on motorcyclists as a solution to reduce motorcycle casualties in Northern Ireland.
However our main message is that the motorcycle community in general is looking after itself and is involved, aware and are taking responsibility for its own safety.
We have sent our BikersRVoters survey to all the political candidates standing for election in the Northern Ireland Assembly.
The purpose of the survey and any report following from it, is to generically look at how the issues are perceived by the politicians from the questions that are asked in the survey.
We would ask riders to point candidates and especially council candidates to the BikersRVoters website at www.bikersrvoters.org
Motorcycling may be your way of life, your weekend leisure pursuit or daily commute, but how far would motorcycling influence your vote for candidates in this election?
As a rider you can take part in our poll which asks: Considering that the Assembly and Councils deal with issues that affect our lives in Northern Ireland, would your vote for a candidate be persuaded by his/her outlook on motorcycling?
We hope that BikersRVoters will give an insight about motorcycling to our politicians and have some influence and give knowledge to any decisions they make!
Assembly Elections 2011 – Click Here
Council Elections 2011 – Click Here
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