In the past, FEMA has found that the development of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) often creates two types of problems for motorcyclists: 1. The first is that motorcyclists are generally forgotten in these developments (e.g. Intelligent Infrastructure, V2V communications, etc.); 2. Secondly, transport engineers often simply try to apply what works for cars to motorcycles, completely overlooking the specific characteristics and needs of the motorcycle and the motorcyclist. The SAFERIDER project – an EU Research project coordinated by CERTH (Greece) and involving several participants www.saferider-eu.org/consortium.html - aims to study the development of new devices to improve the comfort and safety of riders through passive technology such as warning devices to alert the rider of a potential crash or provide information about black spots or traffic. It is FEMA members’ views that if motorcyclists want to avoid the implementation of inappropriate new technology on motorcycles, they have to get involved in the development of ITS technology and provide their expertise at the proposal stage, to make sure that their needs and wants are well known by transport stakeholders. This is the reason why FEMA decided to become involved in EU Research programmes, like SAFERIDER. Aline Delhaye, FEMA General Secretary, clarifies: “FEMA position on ITS developments is clear: “FEMA calls for the needs of motorcyclists to be taken into account during the design, development and implementation of ITS-based traffic management systems to ensure that motorcycles are not excluded by default; we oppose any ITS which takes control from the rider and any use of ITS for the purpose of unwarranted surveillance. We support the development of ITS-based information systems suitable for motorcycling applications”. www.fema.ridersrights.org/mission.htm The decision by FEMA to participate in the SAFERIDER project is because we need to find out if ITS technology can assist a rider to make decisions to avoid collisions or crashes. FEMA needs to ensure that the technology being developed can benefit riders - but if doesn't, FEMA will make motorcyclists’ point of view clear. It is therefore very important that we provide the opinions of the riders to guide the partners in the development of the products within the project”. FEMA needs to find out motorcyclists’ needs and wants. To this end, a European wide survey on the use of ADAS* and IVIS** technology for motorcycles was recently launched. FEMA is therefore asking as many motorcyclists as possible to answer the SAFERIDER questionnaire, which can be found until July 31st in the following 6 languages on FEMA Website (see below). END • More information on the SAFERIDER project can be found on www.saferider-eu.org • FEMA President’s speech at the SAFERIDER User Forum, which took place on June 25th in Brussels: www.mep-ride.eu/docs/PresidentSpeech_UserForum.pdf