§ Mr. ButcherTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport further to his written answer to the hon. Member for Coventry, South-West of 21 June,Official Report, columns 335–36, if he will provide the basis for the statement that total motorcycle traffic rose by an estimated 53 per cent. between 1970 and 1989.
§ Mr. ChopeIn the answer to my hon. Friend of 21 June, I stated that
Total motorcycle traffic rose by an estimated 53 per cent. between 1970 and 1989".The information on the use of motorcycles comes from the national traffic census and is published in "Transport Statistics Great Britain 1979–1989", tables 2.1 and 7.4. Revisions to the traffic estimates were made in 1989 and included a revision of all figures from 1966.
The answer of 21 June used the previous estimate for 1970 which estimated growth at 53 per cent. The 1989 revision estimated motorcycle traffic at 4 billion vehicle kilometres in 1970 compared with 6.3 billion vehicle kilometres in 1989—a growth of 58 per cent.