Just a few days ago the new DGT rule was made public. A document that sets out in detail the new Royal Decree on Vulnerable Users. A regulation where for the first time the figure of the “vulnerable road user”. This, according to the description provided therein, is “those who, due to the means of transportation they use or their physical characteristics, have a greater risk of suffering serious injuries in the event of an accident.”
The aforementioned document details, among others, the changes that will directly affect the motorcyclists’ union. As we already explained at the time from next October 1 It will be mandatory to wear approved boots, jacket and gloves when we decide to travel by motorcycle.
Not just any piece of equipment bought on AliExpress or brought from the other part of the world, no. One approved and certified according to current regulations. That is to say, you, my dear reader and servant, from now on we must look out (by obligation) for our safety and physical integrity, even though some of those who call themselves bikers have been doing just the opposite all their lives.
For once (that is my personal feeling after knowing the regulations), the DGT has taken the correct guidelines on this matter in question. Although some remain convinced that this decision is solely and exclusively “to get our quarters”will also serve to make the biker community ride a motorcycle a little more protected than until now.
Some doubts about compliance with the new DGT standard
However, and this is where I personally have doubts, I am not very convinced that many of those users who until now did not use gloves, boots and a specific motorcycle jacket will do so from October 1. Let me explain. Objectively analyzing the latest regulations related to road safety and their real results, I fear that the latter, the one that most affects us bikers, will end up being diluted in practice.
Among other things, because many of those who choose to skip it know with full knowledge of the facts that it is quite unlikely that they will end up being fined every time they violate it. We have a good comparative example with the issue of electric scooters. Supposedly, since January 1, all users of this type of vehicle must ride with a helmet and have contracted civil liability insurance.
It seems to me, call me crazy, that those who have entered through the hoop are an immense minority. Most people who use one of these to get around continue as before the approval of the standard; without helmet or insurance. No one has told me, I see them every day circulating in the town on top of the sidewalks; risking their lives on regional and national roads and, the most daring, even standing as a duo on top of the brief platform intended to legally accommodate a single person.
This is not all. Not at all. Once again I speak from my own experience. This is nothing more than seeing how local authorities turn a blind eye. Not without reason; Many other things take precedence over stopping brainless people on an electric scooter. You can personally ask anyone who wears a Municipal uniform in your town, or the Civil Traffic Guard.
I have already done it and the outlook is not at all rosy in this sense: “We are literally overwhelmed”a good friend dedicated to this profession recently told me. Except for few exceptions, generally flagrant to the point of saying enough, or specific operations deployed for this purpose, local authorities do not act forcefully on the issue. And I reiterate what was previously stated; There are infinitely more important matters in which they spend their time and resources, the latter generally scarce.
Administrative botches accumulate one after another
As if that were not enough, we have another quite pragmatic case with this matter: the V16 beacon. I suppose that at this point it is not necessary to explain the legal and administrative bungling that the issue has entailed. We don’t even talk about the huge number of users who have decided not to buy the discord gossip, among which I include myself. I ask: Has anyone been stopped to ask if they are carrying the beacon or warned of the consequences of not doing so since the law came into force?…
At this point, and extrapolating the topic to the issue that has brought us here, I fear that it will take too long until people are truly aware of how important it is to be properly equipped when riding a motorcycle. At the same time, it is likely that police checks to verify compliance with the law are rather few.
Much less so when, with the passage of time, it is assumed that users have willingly accepted the rule and, therefore, there is no need to continue controlling the matter in a routine manner, by direct orders from higher authorities. In short, this is Spain, for the good and the bad. The problem is that we have the assiduous habit of boycotting ourselves over and over again.
You just have to look at the environment (at any level and at almost any level) to see it. That is why many fellow fans will continue to wear flip-flops in summer, with their cousin’s leather jacket in winter, and in other cases without approved gloves because with them “I don’t have good gas sensitivity”…Or so they say.
From the heart; Let’s hope that all this is just the silly reflection of the day of a simple deranged editor at the time of writing these lines. Also that the data at the end of the year of injuries and deaths on motorcycles due to not wearing approved equipment confirm the former. And if it is about hoping that each and every one of us does the right thing for the general common good, but above all for our own.
