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Mark Hinchliffe·
Gear/accessoriesHelmets
··5 Comments·1 min read

Hi-tech riders face police harassment

BikeHUD head-up display for motorcycle helmetsBikeHUD head-up display for motorcycle helmets harassment
BikeHUD head-up display

Riders who adopt hi-tech safety technologies such as head-up display may face harassment from over-jealous police who issue fines for wearing them, warns long-time motorcycle campaigner and Emeritus Professor of Transport Marcus Wigan.

He says the approval in most states and territories of UNECE 22.05 helmets is a welcome move, but there now remain side issues that need to be sorted out.

Marcus says the most pressing helmet issues that need to be addressed are impending safety technologies such as head-up display, vehicle-to-vehicle connectivity and the integration of powered helmet accessories.

“My major concern is head-up displays which require careful assessment of a number of visual, visor and helmet aspects, let alone the power issues of course,” he says.

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Marcus Wigan harassment
Marcus Wigan

He says HUD addresses the loss-of-attention risks of riders having to perform frequent speed checks because of the “heavily enforced and often very variable speed limits over small distances”.

He says the helmet laws also have to address the proliferation of powered devices on helmets which are currently considered as separate items: cameras, hearing aids, communications devices, music and radio.

“Each of these appear occasionally (in the rules) as if they were stand-alone items,” he says.

He warns that riders who adopt these technologies for their own perceived safety may end up receiving erroneous fines from police.

“However the rapid growth of IoT (internet of things) and V2V (vehicle to vehicle) aspects of ITS (intelligent transport systems) means that a coherent approach is needed to head off the all-too-evident continuous harassment of early rider adopters and long delays in securing the substantial potential safety benefits for riders of all types of vehicles,” he says.

Marcus suggests the Greens and Australian Motorists Enthusiasts Party should get together to solve motorcycle helmet issues and has invited AMEP Senator Ricky Muir and Greens Senator Janet Rice to meet with him to discuss the issues.

Senator Muir has been vocal on motorcycle issues since employing former Australian Motorcycle Council chairman Shaun Lennard as his media adviser and Marcus says he has already had discussions with Senator Rice.

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5 Comments

  1. You don’t need any more distractions whilst commuter ridding, it will affect the way you react to situations encountered. But having said that riders should be allowed to choose what ever protective system they feel allows them to carry out the task of riding in a comfortable safe environment. As a rider for over 30 years, I get concerned at riders attempting to multi task whilst commuting through multi lane peak hour traffic and doing none of the tasks properly. As I ride from Sydney’s northern beaches to Sydney’s eastern suburbs every I have seen countless near misses and hits ( not attributing fault here) to both riders and drivers not focussing at doing one task properly – that is operation their vehicles relative to their surroundings.
    As a side point take a look at some proper engineering that will probably continue to evolve in to better protective systems
    http://Www.vozz.com
    It’s pretty cool and from Aus

  2. The reason i ride a bike in the first place is the simplicity, all this high tech crap is just
    another way to extract some dollars for what are just gimmicky gadgets .
    I also noticed with those hinged helmets that in case of damage to the release
    mechanism you better hope the paramedics have a manual and a screw driver handy
    Or that your survival does not depend on quick removal of the helmet

  4. When the ugly and hideous self driving cars take over, motorcycles will be outlawed. That is the whole purpose of AI cars. Also the purpose of AI cars is to give the government complete control over your transportation. As for emission devices on motorbikes, more energy and pollution is caused by the manufacture of the equipment than is saved by putting the garbage on the bike to start with.

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