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Minister says motorcycles are part of the solution
Britain's transport minister has reiterated the government's support for the motorbike and admitted that it could potentially be exempt from future road-pricing schemes.
Dr Stephen Ladyman was participating in a webchat when he was asked whether he believed that motorcycling could help reduce congestion and emissions and if riders should therefore be excluded from having to pay for the usage of certain roads.
The minister responded that he does believe motorbikes have a role to play and although he claimed that the introduction of nationwide road pricing is far from a formality, he did add that local pilot schemes might well opt to protect bikers from these charges.
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He explained: "So discounts and exemptions in any local schemes that may get proposed will be for the local proposers to put forward, but the London congestion charge includes a motorbike exemption, so I have no doubt that areas that follow them will take similar exemptions very seriously."
The question was put to him by the British Motorcyclists Federation's (BMF's) outgoing government relations executive Richard Oliffe, whose organisation has criticised the government before for not discussing motorbikes enough in the debate on road pricing.
BMF spokesman Jeff Stone recently paid tribute to the contribution that bikers have made to easing traffic in the capital and also asserted that they have helped to reduce the city's accident rate as well.
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