Readers of Motorbike Writer overwhelmingly believe motorcycle riders should still be allowed to ride despite the pandemic travel restrictions.
This week we conducted a brief and anonymous online survey of opinions about the restrictions, attracting 716 responses over five days.
We acknowledge it is not necessarily representative given the potential selection bias of the survey as it only sampled those who read this website. (It should be noted MotorbikeWriter.com is the top Australian motorcycle news website based on data from leading competitive intelligence provider, similarweb.com.)
Survey overview
(Full survey details are at the end of this article.)
The survey revealed 90% of respondents believe riders should not stop riding, 89% believe it is safe to ride during the pandemic and 61% believe it should be exempt from travel restrictions.
More than three out of four of our respondents (76%) agree that riding should be classed as an exercise and therefore exempt from travel restrictions.
This view has been supported by various state health departments, ministers and even the national coronavirus hotline.
In fact, 30% of respondents to our survey say motorcycling is their only form of exercise.
However, Queensland, NSW and Victorian police say only “basic exercise” is allowed, it must be restricted to your suburb and a ride through the hills of your bike is an infringement of the stay-at-home orders.
Click here for more details on how the restrictions affect riders in each state.
Yet 99% say they have not been pulled over by the police for riding during the pandemic.
Another overwhelming result is that 91% are aware of the travel restrictions in their state, but 68% say the restrictions as they apply to motorcyclists are not clear.
Riders in breach of the rules face fines of at least $1000 which almost half say is fair (45.4%).
We also cheekily asked readers if they believed the restrictions were all part of some sinister plot to steal our freedoms. Of course, 73.7% said no to that outlandish conspiracy theory!
MBW asks a police officer about the travel restrictionsAttitudes to lockdown
Whether they like it or not, 63% say they have self-isolated during the pandemic.
More than half (58%) said they did not ride their bike last weekend and about the same number (52%) would not ride the next weekend.
However, 72=% say they have not parked up their bike for the duration of the pandemic either thumbing their noses at the rules or finding legitimate reasons to ride such as commuting to work or grocery shopping.
Only 29% say they are commuting to work, although half say they ride to get groceries and 33% say they would use the bike to go to the doctor.
One in 10 say they have been overseas since the start of the year and 30% say they have cancelled an overseas trip this year.
About half (49%) say they will travel overseas when the pandemic ends.
There is a fairly even split on satisfaction with how the federal and state governments and police have handled the lockdown.
But the future looks beak, according to our readers, with about a quarter believing the travel restrictions will last three months and another quarter expecting a six-month lockdown.
Readers who responded
Of the 716 Motorbike Writer readers who responded to the survey, 28 didn’t named their state or territory, so we assume they are from overseas.
The majority of respondents come from Queensland (40.5%), followed by NSW (27.8%) and Victoria (17.8%).
Download the full survey results here.
(State level weightings have not been applied to these results. Raw data can be provided on request.)