An interesting article from the AMA – American Motorcyclist Association (see article below) has appeared on the FEMA (Federation of European Motorcyclist’s Associations) website with FEMA’s General Secretary Dolf Willigers and FEMA board member Maria Nordqvist from SMC Sweden offering advice to American riders.
You should all know me by now, I can be pedantic to the extreme where issues about motorcycling are concerned. But reading the AMA article I just wonder if the glass (of motorcycling in Europe) is half full or half empty.
Wayne Allard, AMA vice president of government relations, “If we allow governments to determine the amount of risk that is acceptable and to force us into ‘safer’ and ‘safer’ options, how long will it be before motorcycles are banned altogether as the ‘less safe’ alternative to cars?”
You will, I do not doubt, take what you want out of my comments about the AMA article, or use the information to form your own opinion, or rely on the information in the article for witty repartee down the local bike meet or club meeting.
You might even think I should join at least one of the national rider organisations who contribute to FEMA or simply share the article out to your motorcycling contacts on social media.
“United Nations Working Party 29’s proposals for Europe and Asia could be adopted throughout the United States.The 1958 agreement, signed by the United States, calls for reciprocal approval of vehicle systems, parts and equipment.Among the items under consideration for worldwide standardization: mandatory anti-lock braking systems, stricter exhaust emissions standards, sound emissions restrictions, turn signal visibility standards and the location and identification of operating controls.”
I get less angry when it comes to riders’ issues, but I do groan at certain aspects of legislation (either supposed or real) at National, European or Global levels. A lot of this legislation that in my “working” and voluntary memory, has been around for well over 18 years.
Dolf Willigers, general secretary of the Federation of European Motorcyclists’ Associations, “The technical developments include intelligent transportation systems, roadworthiness testing, advanced braking systems and anti-tampering measures. And the focus on personal protective equipment involves new standards for the equipment, not mandatory equipment use, the European motorcyclists have asked the EC to focus more on good and affordable initial training for riders,because we see that as the best thing to increase road safety for motorcyclists.”
Has motorcycling changed because of legislation so much throughout that time, (apart from the technology moving on with better equipped bikes, dare I say more reliable bikes, better rider equipment, or in other words, “safer”?
If you clear your mind of all that you read in the article and think outside the world of riders’ organisations – just being a motorcyclist, riding a bike as a commuter for work, or for leisure, filling your bike up with petrol when needs be. Would you feel that you are being marginalised or facing unfair, discriminatory laws and regulations in your every day real-life world?
For myself, I have read the article and have my personal views, but remain a member of three rider organisations in various countries, MAG Ireland, BMF (British Motorcyclists Federation and here in France the FFMC – Fédération Française des Motards en Colère – French Federation Angry Riders – who all contribute to FEMA.
Elaine, perhaps I was not clear that I believe PTWs and P3Ws are here to stay, but people are already voting with their money to use shared transportation rather than buy vehicles. Our beloved form of transportation will very likely be around for decades to come, but perhaps not in the current form. I predict that we’ll see PTWs and P3Ws restricted to certain types of roadways, in order to free those for computer-controlled vehicles. I don’t predict that will happen in the near future, but perhaps within 15 or 20 years, in the more technologically advanced countries.
I must assume PTWs and P3Ws will continue to be used commonly for transportation in less advanced countries, for the reasons you enumerated. But those countries are not sufficiently socialized to take steps to reduce the danger involved in transportation. For European and UK countries, Asiana, and North America, governments are slowly figuring out how to make transportation less dangerous, and at some point that will involve restricting the use of vehicles that are determined to be unacceptably dangerous.
It will be impossible for motorcycle enthusiasts to slip under the radar so long as the total numbers of crashes, morbid injuries, and fatalities remain high. One way to get our heads down is to become proactive about limiting the sport to serious participants, not allowing the unserious to use PTWs for casual transportation.
Yeh, I know that’s heretical. Better chop some kindling.
G’Day Hardly,
I suspect that automated vehicles will not be rolled out enmasse in our lifetime. A wise man once said “Vehicles will evolve and change. People will adapt and choose whatever means of transport suits them”. I am assuming that you live in the US of A, so perhaps your comments are more relevant to your country.
The International Transport Forum/OECD published an interesting report on Powered Two Wheeler (that’s motorcycles, scooters and mopeds) Safety recently. What it makes very clear is that two wheeled vehicles are here to stay. Why is that? Because the vast majority of countries are poor and use this form of transport as a personal means of transport (albeit at times with the wife, kids and goat).
So while you and your Harley Ferguson might be a dying breed, motorcycles/scooters will be around for a very long time.
Motorcycling has always been under attack by the do-gooders, but I suggest that the future will become increasingly bleak. Obviously, you won’t want to hear what I have to say, but it needs saying. I’m just the messenger here.
There are two big changes in motor vehicle traffic that will be especially hard on motorcycling, never mind the little nits such as mandatory ABS, world-standard lights, et al. The first change is self-driving vehicles. Today there are many test vehicles on public roads, helping refine the ability of self-driving (computer driven) vehicles to get from A to B without a human driver needing to do anything. There is no indication that this technology is going to go away; it appears headed for wide use within a few years, I would guess by 2025.
Self-driving cars will very likely turn out to be increasingly less dangerous than human-driven cars, so public roads will be adapted to their use. The problem for motorcycles is that manufacturers haven’t been developing self-driving motorcycles. And even if they were, we wouldn’t want them. What this means is that human-operated vehicles (including motorcycles) will gradually be limited to roadways not assigned to computer-driven vehicles. The future of motorcycling may be using only roads that haven’t been limited to computer-driven vehicles, including unpaved roads.
The second issue is that governments are starting to work toward “zero fatalities” goals. Passenger vehicles are already much less dangerous than motorcycles, and as that reality becomes more and more obvious, motorcycles will be under the spotlight. That will be especially true in nations with government health care systems, since injuries are in the financial interests of the citizenry. It would be naive to think that social governments will not begin to limit (or penalize) activities that are much more dangerous than average. When it becomes more obvious that motorcyclists are racking up an unreasonable share of medical bills, there will be a movement to restrict the source of that expense.
The reality of this in the USA is that already, while motorcycles are less than five percent of vehicles on the road, motorcyclist fatalities are twenty percent of total fatalities, and the spread is widening. And, thanks to motorcycle drivers not having the advantage of crumple zones et al, there is an almost-constant ratio of crashes to fatalities of 19:1. That is, for every 20 motorcycle crashes, one rider dies; the 19 survivors almost all have injuries, some very serious. Trust me, the medical community is adding up the expenses.
To a great extent, we are the victims of our own enthusiasm. In the good old days about two percent of a population would take up motorcycling*, regardless of mother’s or doctor’s advice, or the expense or danger. Thanks to great motorcycles and promotion, that percentage has risen to four percent and higher. The increase in number of people on motorcycles causes a parallel increase in crashes, morbid injuries, and fatalities, and the numbers are significant enough to catch the attention of government. I’m thinking that the toothpaste can’t be put back in the tube. We may be the last of a dying breed.
*never mind places like Thailand where the majority of vehicles on the road are motorcycles, and the fatality rate is unbelievable.