Bikesafe or not

[timwilky]

Originally Posted by Lancashire Police

Dear Mr Wilkinson

I refer to your recent enquiry via Lancashire Constabulary's website.

In relation to Bikesafe I regret to inform you that Lancashire Police has
taken the decision to suspend 'Rider Skills Workshops' this year. The
workshops are resource intensive and due to the current demand on
operational resources we do not have the capacity to plan and sustain the
programme.

As far as I am aware Cheshire, Cumbria and North Wales Police forces are
offering courses this year and I would suggest that you you have a look at
their websites for details.

Lancashire County Council are relaunching their motorcycle training
programme in April which consists of three different courses:-

Bike Awareness - refresher course for those that have been away from biking
for a while (6 hours tuition)

Advanced - 2 x 2 hour theory sessions followed by 4 hours individual on road
tuition.

Rider Improvement - Course runs over one and half days and includes theory
and practical sessions.

For further details please contact the Road Safety Group on 01772 534487.

Hope this helps.

Yours sincerely,


Cheryl Gradwell
Road Safety Adviser
Operations Services - Road Policing Unit
01772 412375

Received the above this afternoon. Just a little bit negative, especially when I find on a search of the lancs police website

Originally Posted by lancashire police 12 August 2004

Chief Inspector Tracie O'Gara, from Lancashire Constabulary's Road Policing Unit said: "Our aim for this operation is to ensure that those people who travel from or through Lancashire are able to enjoy their visit. Our aim is to make the roads of Lancashire safe, and we aim to do this by targeting dangerous driving and riding, the use of uninsured vehicles, the use of mobile telephones and un-roadworthy vehicles. Those who commit these types of offences will be dealt with fairly but firmly.

"Over the past few years, we in Lancashire have seen a rise in motorcyclists riding high performance machines resulting in a disproportionate number of fatal and serious crashes mainly amongst riders aged between 30 and 49 years. Often these riders buy high-powered bikes and then ride at speed beyond their capabilities with disastrous consequences.

"Analysis of accidents throughout the region indicates a lack of riding experience or rusty riding skills coupled with poor cornering techniques, failing to concentrate and a lack of restraint in areas of potential danger.

"In response to this we introduced the initiative, BikeSafe, which is a one day workshop led by advanced police motorcyclists aimed to encourage riders to improve their riding skills by adopting defensive riding techniques.

So much for national initiatives.

[northwind]

Bikesafe in Edinburgh's hopeless too, it was all run by one guy who ended up being off work for 5 months after he smashed himself up skiing, or something... So now they have a massive backlog, the earliest they could book me for when I finally heard from them last september, was this november

[BillyC]

Originally Posted by Lancashire Police

...Lancashire County Council are relaunching their motorcycle training
programme in April which consists of three different courses:-

Bike Awareness - refresher course for those that have been away from biking
for a while (6 hours tuition)

Advanced - 2 x 2 hour theory sessions followed by 4 hours individual on road
tuition.

Rider Improvement - Course runs over one and half days and includes theory
and practical sessions.

For further details please contact the Road Safety Group on 01772 534487.

This sounds like a worthwhile replacement to me... and will probably have similarly qualified ROSPA or IAM instructors associated to it. Find out more about it!

At the end of the day... Bikesafe is a simple one day introduction to the basics of advanced training. Their ultimate goal is to change your way of thinking on the road, and hopefully to get you more involved in the advanced side of it. The council's efforts seem to be just that, and will probably involve you with the relevant organisations from the start!

hmmm, that's frustrating for you.

i did the course at the weekend and one of the london based police officers is (i think) the national co-ordinator/head honcho for bike safe.

i can't remember his name, fred something i think - can probably find out for you. maybe worth dropping him a line to see if he can exert some pressure to get it re-established? let me know if you want his details.

Will.

[BillyC]

Originally Posted by TinCan05

see if he can exert some pressure to get it re-established? let me know if you want his details.

What?

C'mon... it's generally free, London is one of the few areas that charge - and even that doesn't come close to the true cost! It's organised by the Police because they want to, not because they have to! So don't go giving them grief when a force realises that they're so stretched, they need their offices to do better things than show you how to ride a bike! Like catch crooks!

You can always go and do it in another county - there's nothing stopping you! Or you could go and get some lessons yourself from a ROSPA qualified instructor, or a IAM group.

Being able to ride properly is your responsibility... not theirs!

sorry billy, don't really understand your reply. i think we're talking at cross purposes.

i am not saying that they HAVE to provide it, not suggesting anyone gives any grief as you put it, but if there's demand then may be the budget could be found from somewhere, just in the way that transport for london subsidise the london bikesafe

over and out.

[timwilky]

Will give the local council people a bell in the morning. &Until I got the info from Lancs constabulary I was unaware my local council did bike training.

When I talked with a couple of bike plod they intimated this was the case, but I thought I would get it from the horses mouth as all the bikesafe links on their website were broken.

whilst I do not care from where I get advanced tuition so long as it good. I do think that my local plod have scored an own goal as they had the opportunity to build bridges with the wider biking community and blew it.

Originally Posted by BillyC

At the end of the day... Bikesafe is a simple one day introduction to the basics of advanced training.

Sorry mate, but you're wrong.

In most parts of the country, Bikesafe is a two-day, 7 or 8 hours per day intensive course. It covered far more than the basics, too. Without a doubt, the best £80 I spent last year on anything.

Me and my mate did over 250 miles of rides with a Police rider, 125 miles each was assessed. There are moves to standardise this format over the whole country and the intercomparisons and benchmarking between police forces was well underway last year.

TimWilky - check out your local IAM group. For the same price as Bikesafe you'll get all the advanced training and assessment you need, and will get 10% off your insurance once you've passed.

I'm going down this route in April, and it seems are many of the South Wales contingent - it'll look like a job-lot

Originally Posted by timwilky

I do think that my local plod have scored an own goal as they had the opportunity to build bridges with the wider biking community and blew it.

This seemed important to the coppers down here, and they even went so far as to have a "pop" at Mr Brunstrom.

All they seemed to want was not to have to scrape-up any more fellow bikers off the road, or go and break sad news to families.

[BillyC]

Jabba...

They don't all last two days (not on the bike anyway)... they don't all cost £80. The one I went on was free, and had an evening discussion, and then a full day's riding. One of their aims was to introduce people to the concepts of advanced training.

I'm not disputing that it's a good scheme, I feel I benefitted from it tremendously! But that doesn't mean that your local plod are obliged to run one. Perhaps there are major cuts afoot in the Lancashire force - it happened to the Kent Police bikes - cut from 36 bikes to just 10!

Tim seemed to be having a go at them because they've obviously been put in a situation where it is not possible to continue with the scheme. That's probably not their fault, it's the bigger picture. And then it was suggested that they should be pressured to reinstate it when an alternative is available from next month!

He is very lucky that his local authority has stepped in and, from the sound of it, offered something more comprehensive than just Bikesafe. Jump at the opportunity... just because it's not called "bikesafe" doesn't mean it's not as good! Why complain!?