Last year a committee of the Queensland Parliament produced a report on laws related to cycling.
Two of the recommendations concerned helmet laws:
Recommendation 15
“The Committee recommends that the Minister for Transport and Main Roads:
- introduce a 24 month trial which exempts cyclists aged 16 years and over from the mandatory helmet road rule when riding in parks, on footpaths and shared/cycle paths and on roads with a speed limit of 60 km/hr or less and
- develop an evaluation strategy for the trial which includes baseline measurements and data collection (for example through the CityCycle Scheme) so that an assessment can be made which measures the effect and proves any benefits.”
Recommendation 16
“The Committee recommends that the Minister for Transport and Main Roads introduce an
exemption from Queensland road rule 256 for all cyclists age 16 years and over using a bicycle from a
public or commercial bicycle hire scheme.”
The Minister announced immediately that he would not support reform of helmet law, and stuck to this despite the evidence gathered by the Steering Committee.
Any time you would like to remind the minister that he got it wrong,
Email the minister
TransportandMainRoads@ministerial.qld.gov.au
Write to the minister
Hon Scott Emerson MP Minister for Transport and Main Roads GPO Box 2644, Brisbane QLD 4001
Phone the minister’s office
(07) 371 97300
Send a fax
(07) 322 42493
Write to the Queensland Minister
The Queensland Government is considering reforming helmet laws to allow share bikes to be exempt, and also to allow choice for all people riding on off-road, shared paths and roads with speed limits up to 60km/h. The decision is being made in the Minister’s office right now, so send a message:
[contact-form-7 id=”1055″ title=”QLDMinister”]