National Motorcycle Week has been organised by the Motor Cycle Industry Association, the trade association which represents the interests of the supply side of the UK Motor Cycle Industry.

Motorcycles and scooters are a really good way to avoid traffic, saving time, money and unnecessary stress and they generally produce far lower greenhouse gases than other motorised vehicles.

An MCIA spokesman said: “Motorcycles spend less time in traffic jams, whereas cars spend time with engines idling and air-conditioning running. Powered two-wheelers move freely through traffic jams and as a result leave a smaller carbon footprint over a shorter period of time on any given urban journey.

“In addition to the environmental benefits derived from avoiding traffic jams, the Government has confirmed motorcycles and scooters are more eco friendly in terms of emissions than the average car.”

Last month, in its response to the Transport Select Committee Report on the National Motorcycle Strategy, the Government confirmed that even for the largest machines, carbon dioxide emissions appear to be about 14 per cent lower than the new car average figure (162g/km EU average in 2005).

Motorcycles are also cheaper to run, can assist social inclusion (particularly outside large cities), do less damage to the roads and are versatile and convenient for users.

The spokesman added: “Frustrated commuters confess they are jealous of people riding to work on motorcycles and scooters. Sitting in traffic and getting increasingly frustrated has caused people in cars to become jealous of commuters who are using two wheels to save time and money.

“Research revealed that one in six Brits spend the equivalent of an entire working day travelling to and from work in the course of a week, totalling almost two years of solid commuting over an average working life. If that’s not bad enough, one in 10 spend more than an hour and a half of that time sitting in traffic jams, which adds up to a whopping 135 days spent bumper to bumper over the course of our working lives.”