ACEM, the European Association of Motorcycle Manufacturers

Manufacturers commit to developing cooperative ITS systems by 2020

"Safe Ride To The Future" - the motorcycle industry's commitment to road safety

ACEM, the European Association of Motorcycle Manufacturers, has unveiled the "Safe ride to the future", its new road safety strategy to further improve safety levels for motorcyclists in Europe.
The document was presented at the 10th International Motorcycle Conference in Köln (Germany), which brought together policy-makers, industry representatives and academia.

ACEM says that "the motorcycle industry’s forward-oriented strategy follows an integrated approach covering vehicle technology, users training and infrastructure safety.
"As part of this new strategy, the motorcycle industry has signed a Memorandum of Understanding on cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS), i.e. safety systems that allow for communication between vehicles and between vehicles and infrastructure.
"ACEM members commit to have at least one of their models available for sale with a cooperative ITS feature by 2020. Moreover the industry will also carry out research on an eCall system for motorcycles, i.e. a system that generates emergency calls from a crashed vehicle instantly after a collision has occurred".

With regard to the training of riders, ACEM and the German Road Safety Council (DVR) have joined forces to promote "high quality voluntary post-license training schemes across the EU through a DVR-ACEM Quality Seal". The aim is to help European riders to easily identify which of the training schemes are "high quality".
The European Association of Motorcycle Manufacturers will also organise a series of workshops in different European countries to "identify and promote measures to improve road safety at national, regional and local levels". These meetings will "bring together key stakeholders including public authorities and riders’ organisations. Among others, the areas to be discussed will include development of more effective safety policies, design and maintenance of road infrastructure, and promotion of compliance with traffic rules.
The "Safe ride to the future" strategy builds on previous safety initiatives. In recent years these have included ACEM members’ commitment to voluntarily fit all of their new vehicles with automatic headlamps-on; the signing of the European Road Safety Charter and the decision to fit 75% of street motorcycle models with an advanced braking systems (as options or standard fitting) by 2015, a decision taken voluntarily in advance of the respective regulatory requirements for manufacturers to do so.

ACEM Secretary General Antonio Perlot

Commenting on the publication of the "Safe ride to the future" ACEM Secretary General Antonio Perlot said: “This strategy confirms ACEM members’ desire to be a leader in road safety. It highlights our ambition to have the best possible road safety outcomes for Europe”.
“The number of road fatalities amongst powered-two wheeler users in Europe is declining. These results are encouraging but much still remains to be done. The motorcycle industry will continue to promote and support all initiatives that help to create a safer environment on Europe’s roads”.
“Road safety is not only about the vehicle. Road safety policies must look at vehicles’ safety features, users’ behaviour and the infrastructure on which they operate”.
“As the number of motorcycles and mopeds on Europe’s roads is expected to continue growing, as a reflection of citizens’ expectations, it is essential to ensure that they are adequately integrated into transport policies at all levels. We look forward to continuing our cooperation with European and national policy-makers to achieve our common goal of saving lives”.