Reader Alan Maloney argues that, in our nation’s relentless pursuit of road safety, we may be losing the spirit of the ride
Motorcycling is one of my great passions. I have been riding for almost all of my adult life. I moved to Brisbane in my early 30s, and I am 60 now. During my years in Brisbane, I have made a regular thing of riding from Brisbane to Sydney. Whenever I have cause to travel to Sydney, if I can possibly spare the time, I choose to ride. I have taken every possible combination of the winding mountain roads that traverse the Great Dividing Range, and I have done it on a variety of awesome motorcycles. These trips have become a necessary part of my well-being. I try to do them at least four or five times a year, and I take my time, allowing two days for each direction.
I truly love riding. I love the level of concentration I need to apply to the windy mountain roads, alert for debris, potholes, gravel, water or corners that change their camber or tighten partway through. I love riding well, picking the right line, braking in, accelerating out, staying within my limits but riding with intent, nonetheless.
Yes, there is risk, but I find many of the things that bring me joy contain risk. Risk and joy are intertwined for me, as it is for many people. My other great passion is whitewater kayaking, a sport I still pursue aged 60. To me there is a similar feeling of joy in navigating a difficult section of river as there is in riding the Oxley Highway with intent. People find joy in all manner of risky pastimes; surfing big waves, climbing mountains, hiking trails, playing footy, mounting biking, skiing, sailing, the list is inexhaustible.
Sadly, our society places little value on joy, but seems hell-bent on eliminating risks. Over the 27 years I have been riding this trip, I have watched the speed limits steadily ratchet down on all the best sections of road. It wasn’t that long ago that the state limit (100km/h) applied to all roads outside a built-up area across NSW and Queensland. When I got my licence, there was no other reason for a reduced speed limit. If a road had tight corners, this was managed with yellow advisory speed signposting, not by reducing the speed limit.
At some point I started noticing the best sections being signposted down to 80km/h, then 70, then 60. The direction is always down, and the limits are put in place by well-meaning people to improve a motorist’s safety. The Oxley Highway, Gwydir Highway, Waterfall Way, Thunderbolts Way, Mount Lindsay Highway, Putty Road are all affected.
In fact, this practice has spread like cancer to all great driving/riding roads across the East Coast.
Yes, we are probably making the roads safer, but there is a cost which is simply being ignored. What price do we put on joy? If you ride the Oxley Highway obeying the 60 and 70km/h limits, you will find little joy. You will not be concentrating sharply, picking the line, braking in and accelerating out. You will be simply puttering along on a pointless, tedious jaunt at 60km/h.
I don’t subscribe to the idea that this is some sort of revenue-raising conspiracy. I have come to believe that it is unintentional stupidity. We live in a society that seeks to make everybody safer without any concern for joy. Just look at our response to Covid-19, when we isolated many of our elderly, forcing them to live their last days in safe misery. And what about all the children with helicopter parents, spending their lives in controlled safety, not climbing trees, not playing footy, being dropped off and picked up by mum?
In 1992, most of Australia introduced compulsory bicycle helmets. A completely rational decision viewed through the lens of road safety. It is well documented that this coincided with a 30 to 40 per cent reduction in cycling participation.
This was the point in our history where kids stopped using pushbikes as a mode of transport. When lycra shorts were invented and the MAMIL (Middle-Aged Man in Lycra) became the dominant force in bicycle culture. A lot of innocent bystanders have been permanently scarred by the sight of those shorts.
In 2013, a report called A New Direction for Cycling in Queensland was commissioned by the state government. It recommended (among other things) a repeal of the mandatory helmet laws. The evidence suggested that there was a reduction in head injuries, but it could be completely accounted for by the reduction in participation. The authors concluded that the reduction in health benefits of cycling far outweighed the (hypothetical) safety benefits of mandatory helmets. Of course, no one was politically stupid enough to make a backward step on safety, and the recommendation was ignored.
So we have another generation of safe but idle kids, sitting in front of their gaming consoles as twin epidemics of obesity and depression unfold. How much joy did the children who grew up in the 70s and 80s get from riding pushbikes? If we had an award for the worst public health decision of the 20th century, mandatory cycle helmets would have taken it.
Speed limits have fallen into the same trap. The reduced limits have sucked the joy out of the best rides in Australia, but can never be repealed, because no sensible politician will ever preside over a deliberate reduction in road safety. Meanwhile, men in Australia are two to three times more likely to be killed by the black dog than by a motor vehicle accident. I am no psychiatrist but I feel confident there is a link between joy and depression.
The most disappointing thing I have ever seen in this space was an article written by the RACQ. The authors seemed genuinely shocked to discover that a lot of serious motorcycle accidents happen on the Mt Glorious Road. Have these authors never been to Mount Glorious? There are more motorcycles on the Mount Glorious Road than on any other road in Queensland.
My dog has the mathematical ability to predict there will be more motorcycle accidents there. Why is this a surprise? The article says there have been 54 fatal or serious crashes in seven years. If you stood by the road at Mt Glorious today, you would probably see that many bikes pass in an hour. If that was replicated eight hours a day for seven years you’d have 1.1million trips.
I can personally account for at least 50 of those. Those 50 trips brought me great joy. Joy which plays a part in my mental and physical wellbeing. Joy which will be stopped if these people’s well-meaning but stupid suggestions are listened to.
RACQ are advocating that mobile point-to-point speed cameras be set up so that the last gram of joy can be sucked out of an already over-regulated stretch of road. The combination of excessively reduced speed limits and point-to-point cameras will prove fatal for joy. I for one will never ride that road again. I cannot believe I pay these people’s wages through my membership and premiums. Is there no one left in the RACQ who gets it? The sheer joy of a spirited afternoon drive along a windy mountain road?
I’m certain the road safety advocates down at the RACQ will assure us that we can have both safety and joy. They will tell you that you can still enjoy a sunny afternoon ride at 60km/h (why not 40?). They will speak about the human cost of those 54 tragedies, and they will tell you that the most important thing for us to do is prevent those tragedies from happening again. They will ask: “What kind of idiot is opposed to improving road safety?”
Well… on careful reflection, this kind of idiot is opposed to improving road safety.
