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In the Corona crisis, freedom has degenerated into a bargaining chip. Virologists and epidemiologists, seven-day incidences and reproductive numbers occupy the public debate. Amazingly quickly we got used to the reversal of the free-democratic basic order, which of course only allows restrictions of freedom within very narrow legal limits. But because public and media interest is focused on the long-term focus of Corona, the threat to freedom in other places is all too easy to lose sight of.
The freedom to ride a motorcycle is currently acutely threatened.
Certain political and social forces have understood that the opportunity is good to make motorcycling, if not forbidden, practically impossible.
No one calls for a flat ban, but a broad arsenal of restrictions will ultimately mean exactly that.
Many routes that are attractive for motorcyclists, especially on weekends, have been closed for years, for example the Schauinsland near Freiburg.
The reasons for the closures are usually increased with the number of accidents, because closures for noise protection reasons require lengthy and expensive measurements.
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Speed limits on a good 30 mostly winding road sections in Germany, exclusively for motorcyclists, are comparatively new.
They are usually allowed to drive a maximum of 50 or 60 km / h, but trucks usually 80 km / h and cars 100 km / h.
The argument that this increases road safety cannot be topped in terms of cynicism and ignorance.
Anyone who forces a motorcyclist to drive for kilometers with a jostling 20-tonne truck behind his neck is deliberately endangering him - and reaching his true goal in a roundabout way: hardly any motorcyclist experiences the stress on this route, and there is calm in the valley.
In Tyrol there is a general driving ban for motorcycles with over 95 dB of stationary noise between April 15 and October 31.
In the meantime, this “Tyrolean model” has become a role model;
Citizens' initiatives, the Greens and the BUND praise it as an effective means in this country too.
In truth, however, it is only a convenient means, because the stationary noise is the only noise indication in the vehicle documents.
This value says little about the actual volume when driving.
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As far as the threat to their freedom is concerned, motorcyclists are a particularly vulnerable group anyway.
They have been caught in the cliché trap for decades.
In the public perception, the “brainless speeders” dominate, speeding through health resorts with cleared exhaust systems and fueling the current noise debate.
Motorcycles make noise and accidents and have to go.
Every motorcyclist knows about his or her vulnerability
Yes, it's true that whoever gets on a motorcycle is taking a higher risk than a driver - especially for himself. Every motorcyclist knows about this vulnerability, and when an Islamist assassin on the Berlin city motorway in August 2020 literally hunted motorcyclists as made particularly easy prey, the public even briefly became aware of this. On the other hand, she only learns from the specialist and regional press that some angry motorcyclists also seek the death of motorcyclists and like to tip oil around corners so that two-wheeler pilots fall. Their death is accepted with approval.
But that's not the only reason why most motorcyclists drive more defensively and more attentively than many motorists - people who cheerfully type WhatsApp messages while driving are an integral part of the street scene behind the steering wheel, but simply unthinkable behind the handlebars.
In addition, the number of killed and injured motorcyclists has been falling for years, and the noisemakers are only a small, but unfortunately noticeable minority.
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In general, there is a clear consensus that the police and the judiciary punish road users who do not obey the rules.
For motorcyclists, however, this consensus has not been fully valid for a long time.
Instead of just those that are too loud or too fast, all motorcycles are banned - even if only on certain routes or on weekends for the time being.
But in the chorus of municipalities, federal states and environmentalists, who are always calling for new and more extensive bans, the true message can be heard more and more clearly: "Just let it go with motorcycling!"
When motorcyclists roll through town centers in protest against road closures or start online petitions, the specialist press takes a benevolent and rather perplexed view of the local press.
Mainly old white men who move motorized on two wheels are not given victim status.
Especially since their machines are basically toxic technology in a world in which everything should be emission-free, electric, digital and sustainable.
Resistance to the planned driving ban for motorcycles is growing
The Federal Council wants to introduce a limited ban on motorcycling on Sundays and public holidays.
This is to reduce the noise caused by driving.
But resistance to this plan is great.
Source: WELT / Fanny Fee Werther
A provocation on two wheels.
Abundance, irrationality and waste crystallize in a large petrol-powered motorcycle.
Top bikes with 200 hp need sophisticated traction controls in order to remain manageable at all.
Despite, but also because of, this performance, motorcycles will not be able to make a digitally assisted journey into the future.
Because there are only fully networked, autonomous vehicles without steering wheel, accelerator or brakes.
But who would voluntarily sit down on a galloping horse with their hands tied?
The diversity card does not stand out for motorcyclists either, because nowadays colorful diversity is largely reserved for sexual and ethnic identity.
When it comes to personal passions, which for many people are also an important part of their identity, the pressure to conform increases.
The best way to get around is by train, bus or bike, if absolutely necessary by electric car and never by diesel.
And certainly not by motorcycle, where the journey is usually the goal.
Nobody drives the Sella circuit through the Dolomites on a motorcycle because they urgently need to do something in Castelrotto.
But because he enjoys it just as much as his colleague who spends his vacation on a cruise ship or after a transatlantic flight in the Caribbean.
Of course, the people who live in Castelrotto also know that.
But there is no Aida steamer on their doorstep, and at most they can see the contrail from the vacation plane.
Only the motorbikes that just drive around out there can hear them.
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When it comes to noise and environmental protection, of course the Greens also take a stand. In October 2021 they asked the Bundestag to order the “Tyrolean model” in Germany as well, which they of course only see as a first step: If there is no significant noise reduction after three months, the value should “be further reduced”. Until then almost all motorcycles are thundered to a standstill and their drivers are de facto expropriated. In addition, the Greens are calling for a limit value of 80 dB for all new motorcycles in all operating states from 2024, which would mean a ban on the internal combustion engine.
On the other hand, many motorcycles are actually just too loud.
Ex works.
In a central point of their paper on motorcycle noise from August 2020, the Greens are also right: "Voluntary action by the manufacturers is not in sight" when it comes to noise reduction.
With technical tricks like exhaust flaps, many motorcycles just stay within the framework of the noise regulations.
In addition, the noise measurement is not very practical, but Federal Transport Minister Scheuer does not want to know anything about a reform.
But if the Greens get the Ministry of Transport after the federal election in autumn, which is not so unlikely, then a lot should change.
Practical noise limits
So what's next? If motorcyclists, manufacturers, associations and the trade press only rely on free travel and grandfathering, they will lose out in the end. Instead, they must demand practical noise limit values with the upcoming Euro standards and communicate this clearly. And why not counter the absurd Tyrolean model with a practical package of measures that reduce noise not on paper but on the street?
Motorcyclists who dismantle their roaring bags and, after a noise measurement with a quieter exhaust, have the new values entered in the papers, would then have free travel. This is by no means absurd, after all, many manufacturers have specialized in retrofitting motorcycle exhaust systems. Then maybe the public and politics will notice that only a ruthless minority wants to polish up their miserable ego with noise. And only this minority should be withdrawn from circulation in a liberal country.
The crux of freedom is that - as it was in the Corona crisis - it pinches in some places and just stupidly stands in the way when politicians want to implement efficient measures.
On the other hand, there is no freedom without the possibility of its abuse.
It always takes place when others experience restrictions on their freedom as a result.
Constantly rebalancing and moderating these boundaries is part of the essence of a pluralistic society.
Simply abolishing freedoms completely is part of daily business in dictatorships.
For this reason alone, the simulation games, de facto prohibiting one of the most sensual forms of human movement, do not only concern motorcyclists.
But all of us.