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How TAC makes you less safe

This is of special interest to riders in Victoria, but has real-world implications in other states.

The Transport Accident Commission in that state – which is the sole third-party injury insurer – has launched a disastrous ‘safety’ TV campaign on motorcyclists.

It portrays them as suicidal nuts, on the pretence of showing riders what they should not be doing. And, as is inevitable with TAC, someone ends up dead.

The effect is two-fold:

A vast majority of riders, new and experienced, see it and don’t identify with it – it just annoys them;

It supplies non-riders all the mental ammunition they need to disregard riders as a menace that’s best culled.

The net effect is riders end up in traffic which views them as deserving every bad thing that happens – they’re less safe because of it.

TAC’s actions in this campaign are contemptible, and anyone associating themselves with it are not winning friends among motorcyclists.

Adding insult to injury, the most recent ad is riddled with errors.

Quite apart from the utter stupidity of this particular campaign, its predecessors across the motoring board inevitably depict maximum death, injury and destruction. This is hackneyed, unimaginative and lazy. Most of these shock ads deserve to have an R rating and should be restricted to late-night schedules, with a viewer warning. It’s simply a destructive variant of porn.

You can see the original ad at this link; Plus our remake here. The latter was made on near-zero budget. Oh and you might want to have a squiz at my review of the original, here.

Tell them nothing

Here’s a bit of advice for you: avoid government surveys.

Road safety researchers, government departments, and others, are very busy putting up rider surveys on the net.

Some of the questions include:

Have you ever raced away from the lights;

What’s the highest speed you’ve ever reached on the road;

What are your favourite riding spots.

Now, guess what they’re going to do with that information? Yup, that’s right, they’ll use whatever answer you provide (including the tongue-in-cheek lunatic ones) to come up with statements about what a pack of hoons you all are. Oh, and the third question will be used to target your favourite riding spots.

My advice? Don’t participate in these surveys. No good will come of it.

Have you ever heard of the three great lies?

They are:

I’ll still respect you in the morning;

The cheque is in the mail;

And, we’re from the government and we’re here to help you…

Bye-bye Buell

What a tragedy that Buell is closing its doors. The brand’s product has often been described as quirky – a borderline epitaph in the bike world – and has been through some real troughs and highs over its 26 years.

Harley, to its credit, sank a lot of effort and money into the brand once it decided to take a majority holding. Its first action was to get stuck in and solve some long-term and very expensive warranty issues – honourable, regardless of the commercial priorities.

The models have varied from the borderline bizarre, such as the RR Battletwin, through to the basic and rewarding, such as the original Cyclone.

In the last year, we’ve seen the launch of a line of very serious performance machines, in the 1125 series, that held great promise for the brand. What a shame the world – and most critically, USA – economy took a dive just as the product was reaching a new maturity.

It’s too early to pick over the ashes and make reliable statements about the marque’s place in motorcycle history, though I suspect the words courageous and quirky might turn up in the historical notes on its downfall.

Eric Buell is no doubt a businessman, but he’s also a real enthusiast, something which becomes abundantly clear in the long four-part interview I did with him last year. You can find it at this link.

Email: guy.allen@traderclassifieds.com.au

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