Safety Report – We are reading through the – “Riding in a safe system – workshop on safety for powered-two-wheelers – Final report from a workshop held on 9–23 June, 2021”
The report was published in December 2021 and as one of us were involved independently in part of the workshops, we presumed that we would have been informed.
It appears that this report is intended to not see the light of day. In spite of asking various participants on numerous occasions, the response was silence.
Finally, we found out today that it had been published 6 months ago!
The final report from the international workshop was, “Held as a series of virtual meetings 9–23 June 2021. The workshop was co-organised by the International Transport Forum (ITF), the Swedish Transport Administration, the International Motorcycling Federation (FIM), the motorcycle manufacturers associations (IMMA and ACEM), and the Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI). The workshop was a follow-up of the Third Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety, held in Stockholm in February 2020, but it also built on a previous workshop in 2008 in Lillehammer and the 2015 ITF research report “Improving Safety for Motorcycle, Scooter and Moped Riders”.
Given that nobody involved in the workshop or who those driving the workshop has published any thoughts on the report, it will be interesting to see if the report has been “kept under a rock” in open view.
Let’s see now if it will start to be mentioned in the riders motorcycle community.
Our first impressions, in consideration that there was a focus on middle and low income countries (LMICs) is that it is a “nothing” report, basically the “same ole same ole” regurgitated topics and issues – regarding everything riders have been discussing and highlighting over at least 40 years or even more – one might argue it is a good thing to have all this in one place again!
However, once again there is a very clear attempt at social profiling in order to blame motorcyclists for their own injuries and behaviour. Once again the same “Academics” telling motorcyclists how to behave and that is the impression that we got from the “chatter” of those in the workshops and folks in the background!
To paraphrase Jorge Viegas – President of FIM in his remarks during the opening session of the workshop: “Sometimes I have the impression that you want to ban motorcycles, but let me tell you, this will not happen!”
So lets see if the focus in the workshop on the seven different areas:
(i) Sustainable practices, work-related issues and procurement, (ii) Modal shift and urban needs, (iii) Training, education, and licensing, (iv) Vehicle safety, protective safety, and Intelligent Transport Systems, (v) Road infrastructure and road environment, (vi) Speed management, adapting speeds and behaviour to different environments, (vii) Youth and child safety;”
With its goal to, “develop and propose directions and priority actions for policy makers to effectively include and improve safety of PTW riders in their regional, national, or local road safety policy activities. It was also to ensure that riders are integrated in the objectives of the Stockholm Declaration which represents the recent evolution of road safety from Vision Zero and the Safe Systems Approach.” will amount to anything other than a hill of beans.
Information
About the report – Click Here
Direct Link To The Report – Riding in a safe system – workshop on safety for powered-two-wheelers: final report from a workshop held on 9–13 June 2021 pdf 2.38mb
About the International Transport Forum, Motorcyclists Safety Workshop: Riding in a Safe System: Closing plenary – Click Here
Hey! ITF/OECD Motorcycle safety Workshop people. Pay Attention!
A bit more background from Motorcycle Minds Elaine Hardy on her own LinkedIn page.
“In June 2021, the International Transport Forum (ITF), the Swedish Transport Administration, the Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI), the International Motorcycling Federation (FIM), and the motorcycle manufacturers associations (IMMA and ACEM) organised a workshop on PTW Safety, as a follow-up to the Third Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety, held in Stockholm in February 2020.”
“The workshop was held over several virtual sessions in June 2021 and involved more than 200 experts from all regions in the world.”
“What was striking was the imbalance between academics, road safety “experts”, government officials and representatives of the motorcycling community. What was absent was the input from Road Traffic Crash Scene Investigators – there weren’t any and that huge void of knowledge became apparent with the comments, discussions, and remarks made during the workshop.”
Thanks for finding this report.
I never heard about the final publication! Despite many representations the section on anti lock braking completely ignores what was actually said and agreed in the vehicle safety workshop.
It never ceases to amaze me how closely the ITF aligns with the lobbying of the motorcycle industry.
Any campaigns in Asia for ABS will be countered by the International Motorcycle Manufacturers Association saying. “Minister look at this International Transport Forum report. ABS is too expensive (although it is universal on cars and light vans!).”
The report even goes so far as to suggest that “increased costs” of vehicles may prevent children being taken to school in low and middle income countries.