Karaganda bikers held unauthorized rally

Karaganda bikers held an unauthorized rally requesting to remove 32 road signs forbidding motorbikes traffic along the city’s main streets, Interfax-Kazakhstan reports. Around 30 bikers requested to revise the reasons for installation of 32 road signs and called to open the city streets for bikers at least at day time. The ban is especially harmful for those bikers who live in the city center, the agency writes. “Limit to signs’ action from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. Then nobody will race the streets at nights and disturb the citizens. The signs should not cover the day time though, as the majority of bikers use they bikes a personal transport,” biker Aleksander Tsai told the agency. “There were four serious accidents involving bikers this summer in Karaganda. The bikers died in these accidents, even though in none of the cases they were the guilty part. However, the road police installed 32 road signs on Karaganda roads banning the bikes’ movement. This is discrimination,” Tsai said. Another biker Konstantin Alimov told Interfax-Kazakhstan that he brought his bike from Europe and properly registered it in the road police. “My bike passed the technical check. It meets the noise requirement and complies with all the standards. I have paid all the taxes. Why can’t I move around the city?” Alimov said. Head of Karaganda road police department Symbat Torebekov came to meet with the protesters and explained to the bikers that the signs were installed only to protect the bikers and ensure safety of their movement. “The road signs have been installed in the central regions of the city to ensure your safety, the safety of the pedestrians and all the traffic participants,” Torebekov said. However, he promised to the bikers to consider permitting them to drive along the central streets during day time.