Motorcycle Blog

An international consortium of new technology designers has been brought together by the European Commission to develop new devices capable of informing, or limiting, motorcyclists control over their bikes.

The spectre of dangerous, destabilising and distracting devices being fitted to your next bike is not one that riders take should take lightly. There is a very real risk that politicians and policy makers will mistakenly think that fitting car-safety devices to bikes will improve road safety, when the opposite could be the result.

The Motorcycle Action Group today urged riders to act now to avoid future bikes being fitted with inappropriate devices. “We are at a crucial stage in the development of these devices…” said MAG Campaigns Manager, David Short “but we have a golden opportunity to tell the designers what will work for us or against us.”

FEMA, the European riders group comprising all the major national rides groups across the continent, has argued its way into the expert group to defend the motorcyclists’ interests and set-up an on-line survey so that riders themselves can tell the designers which technologies are a dead-end. But some media coverage of this achievement has painted FEMA’s success as if it were supporting the concept of taking control away from riders.

“Bizarrely, some riders have been misinformed about the role of FEMA and now think the riders groups are in favour of removing their control over their bikes” said Mr Short. “MAG and the other FEMA member organisations are utterly opposed to the threat of removing riders control, we have a seat at the table where we can explain why some of these technologies would work against our motorcycle safety.

For your chance to tell the international group of technology designers what you think they should work on and what to avoid, complete the on-line survey at http://www.saferider-eu.org/your_opinion.html before the end of July.

A milestone for motorcycle safety, said FEMA President Hans Petter Strifeldt as he officially opened the World’s First Vision Zero Road for motorcycles along RV 32 in Telemark County in Norway 7 May 2008.

The motorcycle community has for a long time expressed serious concerns regarding the Vision Zero, the strategy in which road authorities have envisioned how to achieve zero deaths and zero serious injuries on the roads. The concerns are due to the vision depending primarily on bans and regulations instead of adaptation of the road environment to suit all road users - motorcyclists included.

But even if motorcycles have been viewed upon as high-risk road vehicles with regard to accidents, they have been all but excluded from the Vision Zero document. The Vision Zero document has first and foremost given anti-motorcycle campaigners an opening to propose a ban on motorcycles as these, they claim, are not compatible with a Vision Zero. But today, with the opening of this motorcycle friendly road, these claims have been effectively quashed, the FEMA President stated.

The Vision Zero Motorcycle Road is the brainchild of two passionate engineers at the regional Road Authorities, Jan Petter Lyng and Bjørn R. Kirste, who have successfully designed the road exactly as the motorcyclists themselves recommend. It is not much that is needed to make a motorcycle friendly road with regard to preventing injuries in case of accidents: Crash barriers fitted with a sub-rail, forgiving side terrain, well thought out placing of signposts, cutting down sight-hindering vegetation - all in all small modifications and investments that are beneficial for all road users, including bicycles and cars. The price tag for modifying these 15 kilometres of road is estimated to 630 000 euros.

The importance of this stretch of road in the middle of Norway cannot be overrated. It is the first Vision Zero Motorcycle road, not only in Norway, not only in Europe, but in the world. As the representative for Europe’s road riding motorcyclists, FEMA will do what it can to promote this road to other nation’s road authorities as an example of what is possible to achieve with relatively small means, FEMA President Hans Petter Strifeldt concluded.

FEMA and FIM-CMT presidents met in Amsterdam to reiterate the need for both organisations to work together to face motorcycling challenges in Europe and worldwide.

This Sunday April 13th, FEMA newly elected President travelled from Oslo (Norway) to The Netherlands, home country of Achilles Damen, President of FIM’s Commission for Mobility and Transport (CMT), where a meeting was organised to discuss current challenges facing the motorcycling community.

At this meeting, motorcycling challenges were discussed and the need for mutual collaboration and support was reiterated by both parties. The close link between sport activities and road riding issues was once more highlighted. Enhancing the dialogue between users to be able to defend strong common positions was therefore recognized to be priority issue.

Further collaboration between users, at all political levels, has been called for by both FEMA and FIM-CMT Presidents.