SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT
24 August 2006 - BMF

AUTOMATIC SPEED CONTROL and MOTORCYCLES

Motor Cycle News has been running a story over the past few weeks about the ISA (Intelligent Speed Adaptation) bike. It has also carried a story in this week’s issue which says that the BMF has given the ‘thumbs up’ to the bike. This is untrue and is misleading.

Intelligent Speed Adaptation has now come to the fore because the Motor Industries Research Association (MIRA), in conjunction with Leeds University, has completed a 5-year trial of ISA and will shortly be reporting to the Government on its findings.

The BMF’s position is that while a voluntary speed advisory system might well have its advantages from a rider perspective in helping to avoid inadvertent speeding, actual intervention, by whatever means, is unacceptable.

The ISA bike, the first of its type in the world, is a test-bed machine and on that understanding, BMF representatives were invited to try the machine, a Suzuki Bandit 650, as part of the trial. The test took place in a closed environment on a special circuit with no other traffic present and therefore bore no relation to real world traffic conditions. It is on this basis that the BMF bases its view.

On the MIRA test track, the GPS based system worked. Approaching a signed speed limit area, an audible and visual signal is given informing the rider that a new speed limit has been entered. This is the advisory system. If speed is controlled and limits not exceeded, no other action is taken. If however the limit is ignored, a vibration is felt through the seat. If speed is reduced, no further action is taken. This is an additional stage to the advisory system.

Only if all of this advice and warnings are ignored i.e. the rider exceeds the speed limit, does the intervention system operate and slowly close the throttle to reach the set speed. If the bike is operated within speed limits, only the advisory warning system operates.

Technically, the system works, but these are early days say the BMF and this is not something that is bike specific. MIRA have also fitted 20 cars with the same technology and ordinary members of the public have used them on the roads of Leicestershire and West Yorkshire over the past 5 years with no incidents, also, in Sweden, they have a public trial with 5,500 cars fitted with ISA.

The concept of external speed control has far-reaching implications for society say the BMF and such devices cannot be looked at in isolation.

While people have readily accepted GPS and it’s benefits, road pricing and speed regulation using this same technology are being trialled throughout the world.

The Queen’s Speech at the opening of Parliament is expected to contain statements on road pricing and congestion charging that will use similar technology. Calling for bans on a technology that is only in the trial stage and therefore not proven, is short-sighted and likely to stifle the development of technologies that motorcyclists might well find of eventual benefit say the BMF.

The future of road transport is a major issue and the BMF wants motorcycles to be part of that debate.

www.betterbiking.co.uk

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