IMMA and the Connected Motorcycle Consortium (CMC) organised ‘Sharing the Road for Safer Motorcycling’ ITF Open Stage Café session during the 2018 edition “Transport Safety and Security” of the International Transport Forum Summit in Leipzig, Germany.
The Open Stage Café session involved the following industry contributions:
• Mr Edwin Bastiaensen, IMMA’s Secretary General, provided an overview on the global motorcycle safety. He highlighted the priority given to safety by the industry and emphasised regional differences in usage, road infrastructure quality, weather conditions as well as variation in characteristics of PTW-vehicles. He illustrated the holistic approach to motorcycle safety promoted by the industry: addressing integration of PTWs in transport policies, improving road infrastructure, addressing driver training and education and developing vehicle technologies.
• Dr Veneta Vassileva, ACEM’s Road Safety Coordinator, elaborated on some of the different industry initiatives to improve motorcycle safety in Europe, such as the ACEM road safety strategy and the European training quality label, which aims at promoting high quality post license training schemes across the EU.
• Mr Hennes Fischer, Senior Adviser with Yamaha Motor Europe provided an overview of the CMC consortium activities. He emphasised that “Connected mobility will be a key feature of future transport systems, and we need common basic specifications for motorcycle ITS. Our main objective over the coming years will be to develop as many cross-manufacturer standards as possible”.
In the conference exhibition area, at the stand of the Connected Motorcycle Consortium, Mr Tomohiro Matsuda, Regulatory Affairs and Engineering Manager for Kawasaki Motors Europe, said: “The technologies in exhibition today offer a glimpse into the future of mobility. The use of cooperative safety systems for motorcycles will help us to increase safety for motorcyclists as well as riding pleasure”.
About the ITF Leipzig Summit
• The Annual Summit of the International Transport Forum is the world’s largest gathering of transport ministers and the premier global transport policy event. At the Summit, ministers with responsibility for transport, business leaders, heads of international organisations, parliamentarians and policy makers, representatives of business associations and leading researchers meet for three days in Leipzig, Germany, to discuss the future of transport through the prism of a strategic topic.
• Participation involves over 1400 participants from more than 80 countries. Discussion formats range from the official Ministerial Session via panel discussions, workshops and demonstrations to informal presentations in the Summit’s Open Stage Café.
• The 2018 Summit theme was “Transport Safety and Security” and took place from 23 to 25 May 2018, under the Presidency of Latvia.
About the CMC
• The CMC is a platform to foster cooperation in the field of C-ITS created in 2016 by BMW Motorrad, Honda and Yamaha. The key objective of the CMC is to promote timely and comprehensive use of C-ITS systems offering the potential to improve safety for motorcyclists. It is open to a wide range of organisations including motorcycle OEM, automotive companies, automotive part suppliers and research institutions.
• Since its creation, several members have joined the consortium, including: Kawasaki, KTM, Suzuki, Autotalks and ALPS Electric Co., Ltd. as well as the ACEM, the Technical University of Dresden, the Technische Hochschule Ingolstadt, VUFO GmbH and the Würzburg Institute for Traffic Sciences and Ducati and FIM. For more information about the CMC please visit www.cmc-info.net.
About ACEM
• The European Association of Motorcycle Manufacturers represents manufacturers of mopeds, motorcycles, three-wheelers and quadricycles (L-category vehicles) in Europe. The entire sector accounts for about 156,000 jobs across Europe.
• ACEM members include 18 multinational manufacturing companies: BMW Motorrad, Bombardier Recreational Products (BRP), Ducati Motor holding, Harley-Davidson, Honda, Kawasaki, KTM, KYMCO, MV Agusta, Peugeot Scooters, Piaggio, Polaris Industries, Renault, Royal Enfield, Suzuki, Triumph Motorcycles and Yamaha. ACEM also represents 17 motorcycle industry associations in 14 different European countries.