I inadvertently joined a protest yesterday. I was getting on the freeway from the docklands in Melbourne on my motorbike. As it turns out I merged into a pack of a hundred odd motorbikes.

Now riding in a pack is always a lot of fun and has a real sense of solidarity so as a rule I generally join in and follow the pack. It wasn’t long into the ride through the tolled Burnley Tunnel that I noticed a few riders with slogans on their jackets and so forth protesting against tolling motorbikes. Then I noticed the Motorcycle Riders Association (MRA) marshals and I knew who the protest was organised by.

Now I generally oppose any user-pays system for public infrastructure so broadly I support the protest. Moreover I don’t think it is unreasonable to afford motorcycles certain concessions considering they pollute considerably less than cars, and cause less wear and tear on the infrastructure etc. Motorcycles have to pay the same amount for registration etc as other road users plus we pay a $50 ‘safety fund’ levy which most motorcyclists agree we see very little for. I can’t help but feel that if more people rode motorbikes then the government would be saved a lot of money. It is also a reasonable solution to the single driver situation that is such a problem in big cities.

There is also a fairly blind bias on my behalf considering my love of motorbikes.

That said, I find that the MRA aren’t a very good organisation on an administrative level. Working at OurCommunity as I do you come across an amazing amount of organisations that just won’t help themselves. This is a continuing frustration because it means these excellent organisations aren’t as effective as they could be. I remember actually emailing the MRA, asking to give them some money (for membership if memory serves me correctly). No response. So I emailed them again, no response. Seriously, if people want to give you money and you can’t reply to an email to take that money you shouldn’t be in business (particularly when an organisation like OurCommunity exists to help you with precisely this.)