The European Motorcyclists’ Forum 2015

European Motorcyclists’ Forum will add to motorcycle road safety

The European Motorcyclists’ Forum 2015, organised in February in Brussels by the Federation of European Motorcyclists’ Associations (FEMA) has been judged a success, and ended in the European Parliament with a panel discussion of the outcomes of the RIDERSCAN project.
Co-funded by the European Commission, the RIDERSCAN project gathers existing information on motorcycle safety in Europe, identifies needs for action and creates a cross-border knowledge-based network.

 

The forum also conducted a mid-tern evaluation of the European Commission Road Safety Policy Orientations 2011-2020, from Szabolcs Schmidt (Head of the Road Safety Unit, Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport (DG MOVE) of the European Commission), members of the European parliament Inés Ayalá-Sender and Wim van de Camp, FIM CAP Director Jesper Christenson and FEMA General Secretary Dolf Willigers; with Pierre van Elslande, Chairman of the ITF Working Group presenteing some of the outcomes of the OECD/ITF Motorcycle safety report.

It has became clear that the huge amount of information that the RIDERSCAN project has generated will be very useful for the European Commission, and on behalf of the EU Mr. Schmidt expressed his gratitude for this, saying that the outcomes of the project would certainly be taken into account in the mid-tern evaluation of the European Commission Road Safety Policy Orientations 2011-2020.
Mr. Van de Camp and Ms. Ayalá-Sender say the EU must improve Road Safety Policy still further, and emphasised the need to use the RIDERSCAN information for this. They also foresaw a growing role for powered two wheelers (PTWs) in future mobility.
Mr. Van de Camp invited the motorcycle community to give him input for the mid-tern evaluation of the European Commission Road Safety Policy Orientations 2011-2020 in the European Parliament.

Mr. Christensen emphasized the need for better training and licensing; he drew attention to the fact that the present Driving License Directive has discriminatory effects on women and smaller men and asked that this issue be addressed. He also asked for better rider-friendly infrastructure and standards for barriers.
Mr. Willigers stated, that the use of powered two wheelers was part of the solution for present and future congestion problems and therefore using a PTW should made safer. He expressed the hope that the outcomes of the RIDERSCAN project and the willingness of the European Commission to use them would contribute to this.
Mr. Van Elslande referred in his presentation to a growing role of PTWs in global mobility, a disproportional number of casualties of riders and the need to take action on this. The OECD/ITF report will contain recommendations to enhance motorcycle road safety.