Motorcycle Action Group

16/10/2026

Press Release: MAG welcomes new road repair guidance that puts riders on councils’’ radar

The Motorcycle Action Group (MAG) has welcomed new national guidance on how councils look after the UK’s roads, which now recognises that potholes and other road surface defects can be far more dangerous to motorcyclists than to drivers. The changes reflect the case MAG made when it responded to the consultation on the guidance earlier this year.

The Well-Managed Highway Infrastructure Code of Practice, launched on 14 October by the UK Roads Leadership Group, is the guidance councils use to decide how roads are inspected, which defects get repaired and how quickly. MAG recognises that while few riders will ever read it, it shapes the surface under the wheels of every motorcycle on a council road. Until now, it said very little about the risks faced by motorcyclists.

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MAG welcomes new national road repair guidance that recognises potholes and road defects are far more dangerous to motorcyclists than to drivers.

15/10/2026

No garage means the bike lives under a cover, and you hope for the best. Plenty of riders know that routine.

Armadillo Boxes builds the alternative. Their galvanised steel units are made to order at their Bournemouth workshop, sized for your bike and the space you actually have. Dry, secure, with room for your gear and locks too.

They’ve supplied nearly 1,500 across the UK since 2017. UK-wide delivery and assembly is available, together with pallet delivery for customers further afield.

A warm welcome to new MAG Corporate Member, Armadillo Boxes

Welcome to the Heavy weight Division. Engineers holding City of Guilds and BTEC nationals with distinctions. Buy secure motorbike sheds from Armadillo Boxes.

14/10/2026

More than £2 billion of developer money is sitting unspent in council accounts across England and Wales, and the rules already allow it to be spent on roads. Colin went to the launch of the APPG for Better Roads report at the House of Commons to find out how riders can help get it spent.

MAG is the UK's leading campaigning voice for motorcyclists.

📝 How to ask your council (full blog): https://mag-uk.org/councils-hold-2-2-billion-that-could-help-fix-our-roads/

🔗 The APPG for Better Roads report:https://www.appg-betterroads.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/CIL.pdf

🔗 MAG Resurface Our Roads campaign: https://mag-uk.org/resurface-our-roads/

14/10/2026

MAG is at Highways UK at the NEC today.

On Monday we were in Westminster talking about how road maintenance gets paid for. Highways UK is where the people who design, build and repair the roads meet, and that is where a lot of rider safety is decided: how often a road is inspected, what counts as a defect worth fixing, and whether a repair leaves loose chippings on a bend.

In DfT's STATS19 data, a poor road surface was a factor in 4% of motorcyclist deaths and serious injuries over the last ten years. For car occupants and cyclists it was 2%. That gap has not moved in a decade.

A revised national Code of Practice for how councils inspect and repair roads is due this month. MAG asked for motorcyclists to be treated as a distinct risk when defects are assessed, and we will report back on whether that made it in.

https://mag-uk.org/resurface-our-roads/

14/10/2026

What if there was money for road repairs that nobody had to find?

A new report from the All Party Parliamentary Group for Better Roads points to more than £2.2 billion of Community Infrastructure Levy, paid by developers, sitting unspent with councils in England and Wales. The rules already allow it to be spent on roads. Yet only 14% of councils responding to the Asphalt Industry Alliance's annual survey put any of it into the road surface.

This isn't new money. It needs spending, and the decisions are made locally.

MAG's Colin Brown was at the launch at the House of Commons. Our explainer covers what CIL is, what it means for riders, and the questions to put to your councillor, including if your council doesn't charge the levy at all.

Councils hold £2.2bn in unspent Community Infrastructure Levy that could fix our roads. Here’s what the APPG report means for riders and how to act on it.

13/10/2026

A reminder that the Yorkshire MAG Regional AGM will be held tomorrow, Wednesday 14th October 19:30 – 21:00 at Lofthouse Gate Sports & Social Club, 12-14 Canal Lane, Lofthouse Gate, Wakefield, West Yorkshire, WF3 3HN.
W3W: ///sung.class.blame.

Every Yorkshire MAG member is very welcome to attend, where you can witness MAG democracy in action and have a say in how your region is run. As well as an overview of activity within the region, there will also be the elections for the 2026/27 Yorkshire MAG committee.

A welcome to people visiting this site after hearing about us in our Bikes, Rallies, B**r video. Yorkshire MAG is far more than just rallies. We also work on ensuring councils across the region hea…

13/10/2026

Stuck in traffic on the A40 into Cheltenham, Toby looked across at an empty bus lane and asked why motorcyclists couldn't use it.

Gloucestershire County Council's Local Transport Plan doesn't ban motorcycles from bus lanes. It allows them once a risk assessment has been done, an assessment the council said it would commission and never did. With his licence barely eighteen months old, Toby took that up with his councillor, found Severn Vale MAG, and kept chasing.

The council has now commissioned a countywide study of motorcycle collision risk. Toby, Ash Filmer and Severn Vale MAG are pushing to make sure bus lanes are part of it. Toby has also used AI to handle the research, drafting and chasing, and explains how any rider can do the same

One rider asked why motorcycles can’t use bus lanes in Gloucestershire. Here’s how AI and Severn Vale MAG turned that question into a campaign.

12/10/2026

MAG is in Westminster today for the launch of the APPG for Better Roads report on using Community Infrastructure Levy money to pay for road resurfacing.

For a driver, a pothole is a repair bill. For a rider, a broken surface can be a front wheel losing grip mid-corner.

DfT's STATS19 figures show that around 218 motorcyclists are killed or seriously injured every year in crashes where a poor or defective road surface was a factor. That is more than car occupants, from about one per cent of the miles cars cover. Mile for mile, a rider is around a hundred times more likely than a car driver to be killed or seriously injured in a road surface-related crash.

Colin Brown is there to make sure that number is part of the conversation. However roads end up being funded, the people for whom a bad surface is a casualty issue, and not just a nuisance, need to be counted.

https://mag-uk.org/resurface-our-roads/

09/10/2026

The DfT figure for motorcycle traffic on the A483 at Cwmdu in Swansea comes from one 12-hour weekday count in 2021. Every year since then has been an estimate rolled forward from that single day.

Swansea Council's counter on the same corridor recorded almost three times as many motorcycles.

Weekend and evening riding is never counted directly. It is filled in from induction-loop counters, and US research found loops correctly identify fewer than half of motorcycles.

Per-mile risk figures for riders rest on these counts, and so does whether a council plans for us at all. If we're not in the count, we're not in the plan.

How many miles do riders ride? Nobody really knows.

DfT motorcycle traffic counts rely on single-day snapshots years out of date. Here's why rider mileage, and rider risk figures, may be wrong.