MRAA Receives Accolades for Roadside Furniture Initiative

The following letter was received recently:

The Ulysses Club hereby endorses the initiative conceived by the Motorcycle Riders Association of Australia ( MRAA) for the replacement of non-frangible road signs and furniture at selected high crash rate black spots within the Victorian road system.
It is the vision of the MRAA that all non-frangible signs will be replaced by more appropriate ‘motorcycle friendly’ ones throughout urban and regional Victoria.
It is further hoped that this program will be taken up by all State Road authorities in the near future.

This initiative was generated as a result of a spate of fatalities and serious injury crashes involving motorcyclists within Victoria involving non-frangible signs and furniture.
The Benefit / Cost ratio of this initiative will be very high as the value of a human life to society is currently at about $1.9M.

As part of the Ulysses Clubs submission to the Parliament of Victoria’s “Inquiry into Crashes Involving Roadside Objects” (results published in March 2005), the Ulysses Club advocated that “‘all roadside furniture is as crashworthy as possible, located as far form the edge of the roadway as possible and surplus items are removed.” (Recommendation 44. page 178)
This initiative further endorses this finding from the inquiry.

Currently, tests for the crashworthiness of poles and road furniture are based on average car and truck crash characteristics which are completely inappropriate for the increasing numbers of motorcycle and scooter riders on our roads.

Through the Ulysses Clubs representative on the Victorian Motorcycle Advisory Council, we will be actively ensuring that funds for the replacement of non-frangible signs and chevrons at selected locations are sourced and that the replacement program will actually occur and as quickly as possible.

We will be backing the MRAA with all our resources as our many thousands of Ulysses Club members, as well as all motorcyclists residing within Victoria, will have their safety enhanced by the progressive and speedy removal of these dangerous roadside objects.


Neville Gray,

National Vice President and Public Liaison Coordinator
Ulysses Club Inc.