2009 Year Review

So here we are again, another year coming to a close, we are all a year older and hopefully wiser and more importantly a year nearer to retirement…!

2009 saw over 1600 people taking the time and effort to attend a rider skills day delivered either from The Ace Café, The Warren or through one of the bespoke courses we offer at the rider’s workplace or club.

As usual, none of this would be possible without the financial support of Transport for London (TfL) and the Senior Management of the Metropolitan and City Police. The team would like to publicly acknowledge their support and input for the past year and thank them wholeheartedly.

In June TfL agreed to fund the entire police team and on 1st September we formed a partnership. The Motorcycle Tasking Team increased our strength to 1 Inspector, 2 Sergeants and 13 Constables including one from the City of London Police. We are happy to introduce Sergeant Mick Cheeseman who takes over the supervision of the south side with PCs Matt Wetherell and Andy Zacharias. The north team gained PCs Phill Mason and Andy Bevis.

A re-launch was held at Palestra, TfL’s south London base, where Kulveer Ranger, the Mayor’s Transport Advisor, TfL Director Ben Plowden and Chief Superintendent David Snelling revealed a new logo and marketing strategy for the project.

The team concentrates on delivering the three ‘Es’ of motorcycle safety.

Enforcement activity has been increased and is now delivered following an intelligence lead model, targeting persistent offenders along identified collision corridors. The team use their powers to either issue fixed penalty notices, summonses, or prohibition notices on vehicles or riders who flout the law. They also use their powers to seize vehicles when the driver or rider has no insurance or licence. To date they have seized over 45 motorcycles and 10 cars. We also have given out over 500 high visibility jackets and chatted with riders about further training and the BikeSafe project.

Our Engagement strategy finds officers have attended youth clubs, schools and colleges with a view to engaging with young and potential riders and taken time to explain how to get into riding in a safe and legal way. These interactions have been well received by the organisers and youths alike and will continue into 2010.

Education is delivered through both the BikeSafe and ScooterSafe projects. As usual, this year we have met riders who are coming to ‘refresh’ their skill levels and ride well already, those who improve throughout the day and on occasion those who should really think about exchanging their motorcycle for an Oyster card!  We rode with people on ‘big’ bikes and mopeds alike (although not together) and the team worked tirelessly and with enthusiasm to impart their knowledge to all these riders. We have received some fantastic feedback from many riders and would like to thank you all for taking the time to recognise the efforts the team put in to bring you the package that is BikeSafe and ScooterSafe-London

Again the team have worked with forward thinking companies under the 'Work Related Road Safety’ programme where companies have paid for and allowed their employees to take a BikeSafe or ScooterSafe course in company time. This spend to save concept shows that they care about their employees and hopefully will keep their staff safe and in the workplace. We look forward to encouraging more companies to take the same opportunities. If you want to learn more, please look at the Work Related Road Risk tab on our website or drop us an email.

Although it appears that 2008 had a very large number of fatal collisions involving motorcycles, 2009 seems to have settled back down to the year on year reduction we have enjoyed since 2003. Please do your bit to keep this figure heading in the right direction by riding responsibly and spreading the word about BikeSafe to all of your riding mates.
The only thing left to say is that the whole of the BikeSafe-London team wish you all a very happy and safe Christmas and we will see you out on the roads in 2010.

Sgt. Paul Mostyn