The group of about 150 set off from the Redbeck cafe on the M62 at 11.40 arriving at the bridge for 12.15. The protest was about the £1.10 charge per bridge crossing; below you can read the letter that has been given to the press and the general public at the bridge and it explains the history and the reasons for our protest.

Within ten minutes of the motorcycles arriving at the toll booths the congestion behind the bikes was already out of our view. One police man said while we were waiting to pay our toll that the tail back was about four miles long down both the A63 and the Clive Sullivan Way, both of these roads are major in and out routes from Hull.

Although the protest was peaceful and all riders paid the toll (all be it very slowly) some low ranking Police seemed to get a bit hot under the collar and tried to intimidate riders by saying things such as "your number plate is too dirty get it cleaned".

The members of the general public, who seemed to get a bit irate, calmed down when we explained what we were doing and why we were taking our time. It seems that the pubic sympathise with our plight and agreed that the pollution in Hull and East Yorkshire could be reduced by discouraging single occupancy cars in rush hour traffic to take up powered two wheeled transport.

Maybe now when we ask the bridge board for meeting to discus this matter we won’t be dismissed out of hand as in the recent past.

Humber bridge Toll demonstration 25/9/04

In the spring of 2004 the East Yorkshire branch of the Motorcycle Action Group decided to lobby the Humber bridgeboard on the green issue of motorcycling, by reducing or disposing of the disproportionate motorcycle toll. This started with one letter wrote by a member of MAG. The letter pointed out that motorcycles are far greener than most cars and that the bridgeboard was doing nothing to help encourage motorist to take up motorcycles considering that in rush hour traffic from the south bank 90% of cars are of single occupancy. After this one letter the whole campaign escalated to a local level then with the help of the motorcycle media the campaign went nation wide, with the bridgeboard receiving letters from the north of Scotland to the south of England. We suspect that the bridgeboard received in excess of 1000 letters from motorcyclists and other concerned parties such as the green lobby.

MAG admire councils such as Hull city, for their forward thinking approach to the pollution problem that concerns most citizens of the uk, by implementing the motorcycles in bus lanes scheme. This forward thinking approach to encouraging people to take up two wheeled transport and as such reducing cars, speeding up the traffic flow, and reducing the congestion in the UK cities rush hours.

This demonstration is a last resort we have been reduced to, because our letters have for the most part been ignored. The bridgeboard have never offered to meet us and discus the toll issue, they have simply sent out mass letters claiming the massive debt has there hands tied and no reduction can be made. When councils such as London find it in the best interest of the people living there to exempt motorcycles from the controversial congestion charge, to encourage people to take up power two-wheeled transport, economics never came into it

We now hope that the Humber bridgeboard will now take us seriously and realise that we will not go away and this sort of demonstration will continue until the people of East Yorkshire can breath cleaner air.