[IJustWant2Ride – Start] This post is by the organization Save London Motorcycling. Save London Motorcycling is a grassroots organization dedicated to fighting threats to motorcycling in London, UK. Don’t think it can’t happen in the US. I have pointed out, in several posts, attempts to “restrain” motorcycling and do not forget that the Vision Zero coalition is all about zero motorcycles.
Please share this to raise awareness this not just for “Save London Motorcycling” but for all of us. [IjustWant2Ride – End]
****
Why We Fight to Ride Our Motorcycles
Across the UK, riders are under attack. Step by step, rule by rule, life on two wheels is being made harder, and London is on the front line.
Riders see what’s happening, but too often they don’t know how to respond. That’s why we created Save London Motorcycling to organize, to show riders they have power, and to fight back. We don’t charge membership fees; we just spread awareness and ask for whatever time, energy, and passion riders can spare.
Motorcycling is something we love, the freedom, the community, the vitality. Most riders aren’t chasing the old stereotype of the anarchist outlaw. We’re just people who ride because we love it and it makes our lives better.
If you are invisible, you are in danger
As passionate as we can be about bikes when talking to other riders, most of us don’t bring it up unprompted in day-to-day conversation with non-bikers. We’re more interested in riding than talking about riding, and that makes us invisible to many people. They don’t know anyone who looks like their idea of a stereotypical biker, and so they don’t think they know anyone who rides. And as every rider knows, if you’re invisible, you’re in danger.
We all know there’s a small minority of people who think motorbikes are nothing but a nuisance: noisy, dirty, and dangerous. They don’t ride, they don’t understand why we do, and if it were up to them, they’d ban us all tomorrow.
Government Officials Have Agendas
In the UK, much like the USA, it’s local government that makes the rules we feel every day. That means one anti-motorbike councilor, elected with only a few hundred votes, can make life hell for riders across their borough.
If they tried to do this to car drivers they’d be reined in by their more moderate colleagues, car drivers are voters after all! But their colleagues don’t think they know any bikers, they don’t see us, they don’t hear us, and they don’t think we vote.
Hackney has become an extreme example of this, after their own anti-motorcycle activist councilor decided to impose parking charges on motorbikes at the same rate as cars and ban all-day parking to prevent motorbike commuting.
With petitions and protests, presenting the evidence and reasoning the case, we achieved some concessions from the Council. But in the end, they simply stopped listening. The original policy was so draconian, that even after their ‘concessions’ the costs are devastating.
Charges for commuters add up to more than £2,000 a year just to park at work. Resident permits up to £596 annually, and business permits reach £1,560, with further rises already planned. For around 10% of residents, those living in so-called ‘car-free developments’, permits are simply unavailable – motorbikes are banned outright.
By Hackney’s own projections, these rules would cause a 70% drop in motorbike use in the borough. Riders who rely on two wheels for work, family, or affordable travel are being told they’re no longer welcome. Hackney’s own target for reducing car use over the same period is only 30%.
Riders are being deliberately disproportionately targeted, not because of evidence, but because we are seen as a politically soft target.
Standing Up for Motorcyclists
Save London Motorcycling is refusing to let this stand. We have launched a legal challenge in the High Court, arguing that Hackney’s policy is unlawful, disproportionate, and discriminatory. If we win this case, it could have important implications for councils across the UK, setting the precedent that motorcyclists cannot be disproportionately targeted in this way without evidence.
Taking a council to court is not cheap, but thanks to the generosity of over a thousand riders and supporters, we have raised more than £20,000 through crowdfunding, with our target of £25,000 now within reach.
This is why we fight. Campaigning isn’t easy. It’s long evenings in council chambers and endless hours in meetings with decision-makers who would rather be anywhere else than listening to riders. But the support we consistently receive from around London and the UK proves something important: we don’t have to be invisible.
When riders know they can make a difference, they step up. They bring their energy, their stories, their belief that motorcycling makes life better – for themselves, and for the city as a whole. That passion is contagious, and it’s powerful.
Call to Action
Change comes from the small things: an email to a councilor, a repost on social media, a donation to a legal fund. Each of these acts alone might seem small, but together, multiplied across thousands of riders, they become impossible to ignore.
We must harness the sense of community that binds us as riders, the solidarity we feel when we see another biker on the road and turn it into collective action. That is our strength. If we use it, we can protect motorcycling not only for ourselves, but for the generations to come.
Make no mistake: this is a fight for the future of Motorcycling. If we stand together, we can win it.
Links to Save London Motorcycling
Save London Motorcycling – Facebook
Save London Motorcycling – Instagram
Save London Motorcycling – Interweb
I JUST WANT 2 RIDE!! 