More than 1,000 bikers yesterday rode their heavy motorcycles on freeways to protest against restrictions that largely bar them from using most freeways.
The Taiwan Area National Freeway Bureau said heavy motorcycles, which are classified as having an engine size of 550cc or more, were spotted at various locations around the nation in the early hours of the day.
Since the bikers did not travel in groups, entering the freeways through various interchanges in no obvious pattern, the bureau said that it asked the National Highway Police Bureau to increase its road patrols to stop them.
One of the campaigners said more than 1,000 bikers took part in the protest by riding on a freeway and sharing photographs of their rides online before noon.
A motorcyclists’ rights group on Friday launched a Facebook-based campaign urging the Ministry of Transportation and Communications to lift the restrictions on the use of heavy motorcycles on freeways.
An amendment to the Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act (道路交通管理處罰條例), passed in November 2011, stipulates that motorcycles that have an engine size of 550cc or more can only be driven on sections of freeways designated by authorities.
The amendment was passed along with a resolution by lawmakers, which demanded a trial run and public opinion surveys to be conducted before freeways were opened to heavy motorcycles, the group wrote on its Facebook page.
According to the bureau’s guidelines, heavy motorbikes are only allowed on Freeway No. 3A between Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) and New Taipei City’s Shenkeng District (深坑), but bikers have protested several times for the right to use a larger part of the freeway network.
The group that launched the latest campaign said the bikers decided to take their protest to the freeways after years of negotiations with the government with little progress to show for them.
The group asked bikers taking part in the protest to cooperate with police if stopped on a freeway, adding that any fines, which could range from NT$3,000 to NT$6,000, would be paid.
The bureau’s latest survey on the issue, conducted in November last year, found that 60 percent of respondents opposed the idea of allowing heavy motorcycles on freeways.
The main reason cited for opposing the bigger bikes was that drivers and bikers have not been able to follow the right-of-way rules, the bureau said.
Bikers should not act recklessly by violating restrictions on their use of freeways, they should seek support from the public and they should seek to change the public’s view on the issue, the bureau said.
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