Yesterday we had a protest on the M1 in the area by motorcyclists against proposed new legislation from the EU. This took the form of a peaceful go slow.
They were taking issue with proposed new legislation for motorbikes from the EU. Some of the new legislation makes sense but much of it is a combination of Nanny State and Big Brother. It may also be a sign of things to come.
One element that I think has a grounding in common sense is a proposed requirement for motorcyclists to wear high visibility clothing - something which a reasonable number already do as it helps protect them from other road users who don't see them (it can do nothing for those who don't look unfortunately)
Then it starts getting more controlling - severe restrictions on what changes may be made to the motorbike from it's factory specification. I know bikers like to customise their bikes and I am sure most do so in a perfectly safe and sensible manner - after all they are more at risk than car drivers if something does go wrong. We also have the MOT test to oversee vehicle safety.
The most worring element as far as I am concerned is the planned requirement for all new bikes to be fitted with a GPS tracker to record the details of all the bikes journeys. I don't recall whether the plans were for this requirement to be retrofitted to existing bikes but if not now, then I am sure it will be.
This would then open the way for the legislators to expand the scope to cover all motor vehicles.
Once this has been done, what would the data be used for. If only to provide an impartial witness in the event of an accident by recording what happened in the run up to the accident then that seems fine. But in reality we know that the information will be used for more than that. What is more with a number of high profile data losses by public bodies, you can never be sure who will get hold of the data. Or in times of financial hardship, who the data will be sold to!
Even for accident analysis I would be concerned. Without expensive additional components (and services that as yet may not be available everywhere) a GPS derived position is not accurate enough to determine whether a biker was on the correct side of the road for example. Use in Germany of GPS for road tolls has resulted in errors whereby drivers have been charged for being on a toll road when in fact they were on an adjacent local road.
Where will this end? Maybe we should all have RFID tracking chips fitted now and the government can be sure where we all are at all times, even when we are not using our vehicles!
No comments:
Post a Comment