Government rejects speed limiter calls

Calls for speed limiters on motorcycles have been rejected by the Government.

A Government response to the calls said speeding did not cause enough motorcycle accidents to warrant the move.  

The House of Commons Transport Committee recommended in May (2007) that Government research “the viability of introducing speed limiters on motorcycles” but the response said there were no plans to do so. 

The response, published today (Tuesday, June 19, 2007), said: ‘Currently there are no plans for motorcycle speed limiter trials or for speed limiters of any type to be made compulsory.’

The response said efforts to reduce accidents ‘should focus on the major contributory factors’ whereas research identified exceeding the speed limit ‘as a contributory factor in only four per cent of motorcycle accidents’.

It said: ‘A speed limiter would address a proportion of those accidents, but wouldn’t necessarily impact on instances of inappropriate speed or “going too fast for the conditions”, a contributory factor in nine per cent of motorcycle accidents.’

The response said the Transport Committee was also wrong to focus on high-powered motorcycles as it ‘will not address accidents involving small and medium categories’.

It added: ‘Nor would it address accidents involving any motorcycle where the speed of the motorcycle was not a factor.’

The response said: ‘Limiting “the more powerful motorcycles” to a top speed such as 70mph would potentially prevent only a small number of accidents which take place above the highest GB legal speed limit.

‘Restricting the speed to 70mph would not address speeding in areas with lower limits, such as 30mph urban areas.’

To find out how the Government’s response shot down claims from the Transport Committee that motorcycles cause more pollution than cars, get next week’s MCN available from Wednesday, June 27, 2007