Europe – The Federation of European Motorcyclists’ Associations has started to promote the “European Motorcyclists Forum” which will be held in Brussels – Belgium on the 2nd and 3rd February 2015.
The forum will be hosted by the European Parliament members – MEPs – Inés Ayalá-Sender (S&D) – Spain, and Wim van de Camp (EPP) – Netherlands, Transport Committee (TRAN) Vice-Chairman Dominique Riquet (ALDE) – France.
The forum which will look at – Safer European roads for all road users and How to tackle motorcycle safety challenges for the next decade? – will comprise of a full day workshop at the CEN-CENELEC premises, followed by a Debate-Session in the European Parliament.
The CEN-CENELEC Management Centre is – “very conveniently situated on the ‘inner Ring’ of Brussels, between the Porte de Namur/Naamse Poort and Trône/Troon and can be easily reached by public transport” or if attending by motorcycle a “short” commuter trip.
FEMA states that, “The full-day workshop on Monday 2nd of February will present and discuss the outcomes of the EU co-financed project – “A European Scanning Tour for Motorcycle Safety” – www.riderscan.eu, including the state of the art of motorcycle safety knowledge, access to powered two wheelers, the traffic and road environment, and how to convey safety messages to riding community, in order to set up a result-based PTW safety strategy.”
With the the Debate-Session in the Parliament taking place on the, “Morning of Tuesday 3rd of February and further expand on motorcycling safety in the context of the mid-term evaluation of Commission road safety policy orientations 2011-2020.
With the outcomes of the RIDERSCAN project, and the publication of the OECD/ITF report on motorcycling safety (to be released by the end of 2014), we believe that the 2015 European Motorcycling forum (EMF2105) is an excellent opportunity for all parties to discuss concrete actions to improve PTW safety in Europe.“
FEMA say that, “More information will come shortly, but be sure to block your agendas today!” adding that, “We look forward to seeing you in Brussels.”
OECD/ITF Report
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development/International Transport Forum
At Right To Ride we previously reported that we had been given the opportunity to submit to the OECD-ITF draft report on the safety of Powered Two Wheelers.
With the assistance of others in the motorcycle community from the UK and the USA our comments have been sent to the OECD/ITF.
When the final OECD/ITF report is published we will have a full report on the issues that we and our own contributors commented to in their own field of knowledge.
Riderscan
A little bit more information on Riderscan -the European Scanning Tour for Motorcycle Safety which is a European Commission part fund project with total costs of €669.278 (50% EU Grant – DG MOVE-Road Safety) the other 50% funded from partners in the project.
The project which has run for three years is coordinated by the Federation of European Motorcyclists’ Associations (FEMA).
Basically for three years Riderscan has been gathering existing knowledge in motorcycle safety related areas – infrastructure – education/training/testing/licensing – data collection/statistics – accident reporting – research – traffic management – awareness campaigns – national motorcycle strategies.
The project also asked for contributions, it asked for participation in surveys on – Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) – Training, testing and licencing User – including the new rules contained in the 3rd Driving Licence Directive and a – European Motorcyclists Survey which had the aim of collecting information about the motorcycling community around Europe in terms of riding and attitudes, and safety needs.
It would appear that it it is now time for Riderscan to “pay up” and to disseminate all this gathered knowledge to the relevant stakeholders at EU and national level, these include: EU Motorcyclists Forum, European Parliament Transport Committee, European Commission’s road safety observatory, Members of the European Parliament, Council of Ministers, and the national network set up in the process of the project and other transport forums e.g. UNECE, CEN, OECD/ITF involved with road safety, along with the usual FEMA’s dissemination channels (website, newsletters, conference).
At Right To Ride we look forward to viewing all this and we will be interested in the dissemination and how that will affect, if any, the outlook of motorcycling safety down at our local level in Northern Ireland.
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Information & Links
Further details, including conference registration instructions are to follow but you are free to contact the event organisors via e-mail at: europeanmotorcyclistsforum@fema-online.eu
European Motorcyclists Forum on Facebook – Click Here
Follow the tweet on the EMF 2015 – Click Here
More information on the EMF 2015, including conference registration instructions – Click Here
Riderscan – Click Here
European Motorcyclists’ Forum – 2014 – Click Here
FEMA Website – www.fema-online.eu
