From the left Silvio Manicardi, FIM Europe Vice President, John Chatterton-Ross FIM Public affairs director, Dolf Willigers, just appointed FEMA Secretary General, Thomas Linget, FIM consultant, Jesper Christensen FIM CAP Director
Bruxelles – The RIDERSCAN project is arriving to its completion. On the 2nd of February there was 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 consisted of a full day Workshop where these important sessions were scheduled:
Knowledge – What do we know over motorcycling safety? Research status
Accessing Motorcycling – Safer and better access to Powered Two Wheelers?
Road Environment Environment – Safer roads PTWs, from design to maintenance
Safety Messages – Communicating with the riding community
Strategies – Priorities and key measures for the next decade.
The following day the European Motorcyclists’ Forum 2015 organised by the Federation of European Motorcyclists’ Associations (FEMA) and co-financed by FIM ended in the European Parliament to present the outcomes of the RIDERSCAN project. Interesting comments and opinions on the matter were expressed by 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 Christensen and FEMA General Secretary Dolf Willigers. Finally Pierre van Elslande, Chairman of the ITF Working Group presented some of the outcomes of the OECD/ITF Motorcycle safety report.
During the morning at the European Parliament it became clear that the huge amount of information the RIDERSCAN project has generated will be very useful for the European Commission, and Mr. Schmidt expressed his gratitude for this, saying that the outcomes of the project were very useful and would certainly be taken into account in the mid-term evaluation of the European Commission Road Safety Policy Orientations 2011-2020.
During his speech Mr Jesper Christensen launched some strong messages, such as the proposal that motorcyclists should start making laws for motorcyclists themselves, the request to reconsider the Directive about licenses in order to ensure a procedure which considers more the aspects that are “important for safety” leaving out some demonstrations of skills which are less useful. Costs should be more affordable, too.
From the first experiences of applications of this Directive motorcycle associations have evidence of discrimination against women who have found difficulties to pass the tests because of the type of motorcycle that you have to use during the examinations.
Another strong demand was for better infrastructure and for rapid European definition and implementation of the technical standard that defines “the motorcycle friendly barriers”.
Mr. Van de Camp and Ms. Ayalá-Sender saw room for improvement of the Road Safety Policy and emphasized the need to use the information of RIDERSCAN in this. They also foresaw a growing role for powered two wheelers (PTWs) in future mobility. Mr. Van de Camp also 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. 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.
Mr Silvio Manicardi, who attended the meeting as FIM Europe Vice-President stated: “RIDERSCAN is one of the programs that give the possibility to politicians and members of the European Commission to legiferate on the basis of facts and not not just by personal opinion”.
The presentation of RIDERSCAN project at the European Parliament. From the left FIM CAP Director Jesper Christensen, FEMA General Secretary Dolf Willigers, Head of the Road Safety Unit, Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport Szabolcs Schmidt, the members of the European Parliament Inés Ayalá-Sender and Wim van de Camp, and Chairman of the ITF Working Group Pierre van Elslande.
