OZ ATV :: The Australian ATV Forum

[gammie61]

The local rag here in Cairns had an article about some bloke from QUT wanting assistance from off road dirtbike & quad riders here in NQ for a survey. It's got to do with the high proportion of hospital visits by off road riders. They don't seem to realise there are so many of us out here.
He admits there is very little known about us.
Anyway if you want to help, his name is Dale Steinhardt & you can get him on 3138 4922 or e-mail d.steinhardt@qut.edu.au
He will even give you $15 for helping him out.
It's gotta be a good thing.
_________________
06 LTZ400
2000 BANSHEE
Lousy rider.
Eats lots mud now it's wet.

[gammie61]

I e-mailed this bloke on Friday. No reply as yet.
I will post up his response when I get It.
I reckon any statistics on us offroaders, both 2 & 4 wheeler, has to produce a positive outcome. I had some discussions with local & state gov sport & rec people last year & they don't have a clue how many people are in posesion of offroad machines.
They pass us of as unimportant.
I put it to one person that more people rode offroad quads & bikes than played rugby league in Cairns. She kinda dismissed my comments as a joke. I told her there were at least 4 major motorcycle retailers in this town & they make a living out of offroad machines & that there were about 6 or 8 unregistered machines in my street alone & nobody in my street played rugby league. She had never heard anyone put up this sort of idea before & for a moment I am sure it got her thinking.
I would put up that we outnumber a lot of the big name sports for participation but we receive only a tiny fraction of the governments sports budget & a hec of a lot less respect.
We are a silent majority & are growing in numbers fast. It would be good to know just how many Bikes & quads there are realy out there.
We need some statistics.
I am not too sure what this bloke is doing yet, but he said in the paper that it was difficult to gather information because there was no official registration.
_________________
06 LTZ400
2000 BANSHEE
Lousy rider.
Eats lots mud now it's wet.

[gammie61]

Just in case anyone is interested. James & I met with this bloke & his offsider last night. Nobody else was at the meeting. He is gathering information for a federal survey that mainly has to do with motor vehicle crashes. They have done 700 interviews with people who spent more than one day in hospital because of injuries sustained in a vehicle accident. One fifth of those interviewed were from offroad crashes & I think he said ATV's accounted for 36 of them.
He wants to speak to offroad riders like us to gather some opinions & info on our riding practices. There are no statistics readilly available that can tell them how many quads or bikes are out there or how often they are ridden.
BASICLY THE GOVERNMENT KNOWS NOTHING ABOUT QUADS IN AUS.
We have no reliable statistics. Even sales figures of new quads are not reliable.
I think we enlightened him slightly with our opinions.
If we & the 2 wheelers & even our poor cousins the trikes all got together we would have some political opportunities that we currently don't.
_________________
06 LTZ400
2000 BANSHEE
Lousy rider.
Eats lots mud now it's wet.

[gothev8]

Why not suggest to them to join the forum and post their questionare for riders to fill out?
_________________
2012 Polaris RZR XP Turbo
2009 Polaris RZR 170

[gammie61]

gothev8 wrote:

Why not suggest to them to join the forum and post their questionare for riders to fill out?

I never even thought of that. I will send him an e-mail now.
I think his survey at the monent is based around North Qld though.
Thanks
_________________
06 LTZ400
2000 BANSHEE
Lousy rider.
Eats lots mud now it's wet.

[dalequt]

Quote:

I never even thought of that. I will send him an e-mail now. I think his survey at the monent is based around North Qld though.

Hi all, I am Dale Steinhardt, the above-mentioned researcher. The survey I am conducting at the moment is specifically looking to speak to offroad riders (whatever kind - ATV / trail riders etc...) in the North Queensland area.

I am going to be in the Townsville and Cairns regions off-and-on for the next little while running focus groups to try to get the opinions of riders.

The current project looking at offroad riders is a spin-off from a larger study - the N.Qld Rural and Remote Road Safety Study, where we collected hospital and interview data from people seriously injured (admitted to hospital for >24hrs) as a result of a transport injury between 2004 and 2007.

At the moment, we know some details about who is turning up in hospital, but relatively little about who's riding more generally. The main point of conducting the interviews is to get some background to provide a context to the injury data. We are looking to know things like how popular is the sport/recreation? How broad is the riding group? What do people think about how offroad riding could be better managed? What issues are there with places to ride safely/legally? What are the main issues that we should understand in explaining the injury figures we already have?

I would welcome any comments and would be happy to organise future sessions to meet up and hear rider's opinions if people are interested.

My contact details again if anyone would like to get in contact are: work phone - (07)31384922, work email - d.steinhardt@qut.edu.au, or send me a PM through the forums.

Thanks!
Dale Steinhardt, Senior Research Assistant
Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety - Qld (CARRS-Q)

[Random]

Quote:

I would welcome any comments and would be happy to organise future sessions to meet up and hear rider's opinions if people are interested.

comments and opinions on what?
how do i know i can help even if i turn up?

dont wanna say that ive never been admitted to a hospital cos there's no wood around for me to tap!




i dont see how studies on the injuries and how bad they are can make and head way in the-

Quote:

the governments sports budget

unless some sorta rego plan is made for offroading 'legaly'
even then there'd have to be enough suport to keep it running!

and the reason alot of private 'pay to ride' spots fail is just that!