Letter: Why is the Department for Infrastructure overlooking motorcycles as a means of cutting carbon emissions?
A letter from Martyn Boyd:
The Climate Change Act 2022 appears to have halted the much-needed A5 road upgrade project because it would not meet the carbon emission requirements of this act.
Carbon emissions trump human lives, it seems, and the A5 is not going to become any less of a vital arterial route in the region, so something will simply have to be done to effect improvements. The Department for Infrastructure has very badly failed - the requirements of that act should have informed all of their planning.
It may or may not be a surprise, though, that despite the 2022 act requiring reductions in carbon emissions, the DfI completely fails to recognise, or encourage the use of, a mode of personal motorised transport that has been around for about 140 years; motorcycles.
Indeed, the publicity graphic used by the DfI for their public consultation on the 2035 Transport Strategy features every type of personal and mass transport except motorcycles.
Motorcycles of all types are an efficient and effective means of personal motorised transport. For journeys for which a car is unnecessary and for which public transport, walking or cycling are inappropriate, ineffective or simply unavailable, a motorcycle or scooter makes a logical choice.
A light motorcycle or scooter can be inexpensive to buy, very cheap to run (my wife’s 500cc scooter returns 90+ mpg), reasonable to insure and low in vehicle tax.
They are also low polluters, have very low impact on road infrastructure, are easy to park (free to park a ‘bike in council-owned car parks), beat traffic congestion with their lane filtering ability (yes, it is quite legal) and since motorcyclists have full access to bus lanes, journey times in and around Belfast are much reduced over using a car and a great deal safer than being stuffed in with other traffic.
From where I live, I can travel right across Belfast in bus lanes, which can be a joy at peak times. And riding a motorcycle also has proven mental health benefits.
The average motorcycle puts out around a fifth of the emissions of an average car, so I wonder why, given the carbon reductions required by law, the Department for Infrastructure ignores the contribution motorcycles can make to that carbon reduction target and refuses to include them in their transport strategy and sustainable transport initiatives.
Martyn Boyd, NI representative for Motorcycle Action Group UK