The International Transport Forum (ITF) holds the “Motorcyclists Safety Workshop: Riding in a Safe System”

On 29 September 2021, the International Transport Forum (ITF) held the closing event of the Motorcyclists safety workshop “Riding in a Safe System”. The workshop was co-organised by the International Transport Forum (ITF), the Swedish Transport Administration, VTI, the International Motorcycling Federation (FIM), and the motorcycle manufacturers associations (ACEM and IMMA).

The event was a follow-up to the Third Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety, held in Stockholm in February 2020, building on the 2008 Lillehammer workshop and on the 2015 ITF research report “Improving Safety for Motorcycle, Scooter and Moped Riders”. The workshop took the nine recommendations of the Academic Expert Group for the Ministerial Conference as a basis and considered their application to motorcyclists’ safety. The workshop recommendations were presented in detail by the moderators of the workshop sessions held on 15, 16 and 17 June. The presentations can be viewed here.

The ITF Motorcycle Safety Workshop  recommendations are:

  • Move to a sustainable practice
  • Support modal shift
  • Adopt safe vehicles and equipment
  • Educate safe riders
  • Redesign infrastructure
  • End speeding
  • Protect children
  • Resolve lack of knowledge on PTW safety
 

The Chair of the Organising Committee, Ms Maria Krafft, Traffic Safety Director with the Swedish Transport Administration stated in her introduction: “Historically, much of the road safety planning is based on car occupants, but we need to broaden and look at the safe system to include all and especially the unprotected users so that PTWs fulfil an important function to enable people’s everyday lives as well as commercial transports.”

During the closing plenary, IMMA emphasised that the recommendation should be considered as a package and invited all stakeholders in the regions to work towards a coherent motorcycle safety plan rather than addressing a particular item only. 

The explicit inclusion of road safety on the 2030 Agenda of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015 shed further light on the importance of having PTWs positively incorporated in public policy. While the goal to improve road safety is global, solutions must take into account regional specifications.

In this context, IMMA had organised the dedicated Workshop session on 10 June 2021 “Motorcycling in the regions”  highlighting how policy measures, road infrastructures, vehicle requirements, and motivations to use motorcycles greatly vary between regions.

More information on ITF’s “Motorcyclists Safety Workshop: Riding in a Safe System” can be found here.

The final brochure with detailed recommendations is under production by the ITF.

Relevant upcoming and past events on PTWs can be found here