HART is thrilled with the announcement that the Gold Coast City Council has won the overall award in the Australian Road Safety Awards using HART’s RoadSkills program.

RoadSkills is re-badged as the SMART program by the Gold Coast City Council (GCCC) who subsidises the course and promotes it to all riders in SE Queensland. The GCCC’s program was awarded the Founder’s Award for Outstanding Achievement as well as the Local Government Award for 2011.

Although it’s difficult to say how much influence the course has had on rider safety, motorcycle fatalities have dropped in the Gold Coast since the inception of the program, where the Gold Coast City Council subsidises the program.

HART’s rationale for the RoadSkills program was to focus on the mental approach to riding, including hazard perception and roadcraft training. HART has been delivering the RoadSkills course in most states since 2004.

Mark Collins, HART National Manager said; “HART recognised the need for this type of training in the late ’90s and made a specific move away from only delivering bike handling skills training.”

Collins went on to say; “We were encountering a lot of licensed riders who had poorly developed roadcraft skills, and riders who had never been taught high level Hazard Perception techniques or how to anticipate potentially dangerous situations on the road before they became a serious risk.”

HART is pleased to have its RoadSkills course acknowledged by the Australian Road Safety Awards. This recognition further reinforces HART’s position as a leading provider of motorcycle rider training in Australia.