Sir, - There is a virtual blindness to the inherent advantages of motorcycles in the media and within the offices of traffic gurus and planners. Nothing could illustrate this better than the fact that the city has 10,000 car spaces and not a single motorcycle parking space!
The 17 out of 20 single-occupant cars which are a feature of our endless rush hours take up the road space of 55 motorcycles in motion and 85 parked motorcycles. Europe-wide, powered two-wheeled vehicles account for 14.6 per cent of the vehicle fleet. In Ireland the figure is a mere 1.78 per cent. If we had the European average we would have 195,000 powered two-wheeled vehicles - an increase of 172,000.
Powered two-wheeled vehicles are an important part of the solution to our problems. A report by the European Commission's Motor Vehicle Emissions Group has calculated that a motorcycle could do an urban trip 16 per cent to 45 per cent more quickly than a car, while using 55 to 81 per cent less fuel. Carbon dioxide emissions are 69.7 per cent those of a family car, carbon monoxide 69.5 per cent, hydrocarbons 73 per cent and nitrogen oxides 71 per cent.
There are various reasons why motorcycles are not more widely used:
Huge misconceptions exist, nourished and promoted by all sections of the media, that motorcycles are dangerous at best and death traps at worst. In news reports it is always "a motorcycle was in collision with .. .", despite the fact that some 65 per cent of accidents involving a motorcycle are caused by the other vehicle. Ridden sensibly, a motorcycle need not be dangerous. Recent research suggests that it does require about five times more concentration and skill to ride than to drive a car, but with proper training that is well within the capability of any normal person. In the past 44 years, riding a motorcycle virtually every day - in all, about 970,000 miles - I have been involved in one accident 36 years ago.
Lack of weather protection does deter some, but many modern machines have a high degree of protection, which, coupled with proper clothing, can keep a rider and passenger warm and comfortable.
The cost of insurance cover, as with other forms of transport, remains high for the under-25s, though there are signs that other insurers already exploring the market will force down the rates.
There is also, in some minds, an image problem. Recently one journalist, not noted for her objectivity, classed all motorcyclists as a "snarling, brain-dead species". I've met one Irishman who thought, because some of us wear leathers (for protection) that all of us were leather fetishists! And there are those who think we are all nascent Hell's Angels with questionable designs on their wives and daughters.
It is probably lost labour to try and confuse such people with facts when they have already made up their minds, but the truth is that motorcyclists are - just like their car driving counterparts - perfectly normal people. Some even read The Irish Times!
They know that their chosen method of transport is not simply the most efficient but also a good deal environmentally friendlier than the car, and though it is not generally appreciated we know we are part of the solution - not the problem. Motorcycling has the potential of reducing the number of cars crawling around Dublin each day by some 40,000 to 50,000. - Yours, etc., John Wheeler, General Secretary, The Irish Motorcyclists Action Group (MAG Ireland),
Dublin 1.