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Welcome to Velo Vision magazine, covering specialised bikes, cycling as transport and human power. It's a quarterly dose of cycle inspiration.The current issue is Issue 16. The next issue is out early March 2005.
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Cyclists called to lobby Euro parliament on car front legislationCampaigners thought that EU legislation to force car manufacturers to make their vehicles less lethal was in the bag - now a 'voluntary' scheme is being mooted instead. Add your voice to the protests. Sorry for the Euro-centric story, folks - anything like this happening beyond Europe? The following was posted today to the urbancyclist-uk mailing list, and comes from Sarah Green, who apparently works for Jean Lambert, a Green party Member of the European Parliament representing London. Some of it applies only to London-dwellers, but she helpfully includes details for anyone living elsewhere - read on! From: "Sarah Green" [email protected] Dear Cyclists, I hope everyone is having a good New Year so far... Apologies for cross-posting if you get this more than once. Can you also forward it on to as many cyclists/pedestrians/concerned citizens as possible? Is it posible for someone to put it on the email lists, eg Urbancyclist (Barry, Richard)? borough group lists? I will try to be as brief as possible here. I am writing b/c there are currently discussions in the European Commission about the introduction legislation to make it compulsory for car manufacturers to introduce safer or 'pedestrian (and cyclist) friendly' fronts. The legislation would effectively introduce a set of impact tests for all new vehicle designs with the aim of making them less likely to kill and maim pedestrians and cyclists (referred to as 'vulnerable road users' in the proposals), as they would have softer bonnets etc (and hopefully no/smaller bull-bars). Similar legislation was passed on side impact tests and the industry responded very quickly with safer designs, and even began to make their performance in those tests part of their marketing. The European Commission committed itself to this safer car front legislation years ago, and has funded much research on it for example. However recently some sort of fudge or back-track has started where one of the Commissioners responsible (all very dull Euro politics, I know) has suggested that this commitment to mandatory legislation be dropped in favour of the negotiation of a voluntary agreement with car manufacturers. All road safety groups are furious etc... Voluntary agreement would be much less stringent... It is an outrage! Now is a critical time for lobbying as there are several public hearings on the issue over the next couple of months, and I believe industry has until around June to respond to this voluntary proposal. Something we can do is write to our MEPs and tell them, as our representatives in Europe, what we want. MEPs receive a relatively small post-bag, esp compared to MPs, and can feel they are not under much scrutiny. A dozen letters/emails on this topic for them would be a bit of a landslide and might have some of the desired effect. I enclose below a suggested draft of a letter to your MEPs. You can cut and paste it into an email (all MEPs are online now). Alternatively write something short and sweet yourself, being clear about what you want them to do (write to the Commissioner on your behalf..., see draft below), and saying you look forward to hearing their reply/position. London has 10 MEPs, and they all represent you (they were elected on a proportional list system in 1999, the idea being that you can pick and choose between parties). Their email addresses are here below and you could for example copy all the addresses at once into the address box and begin the mail, "Dear MEPs,". You could also do 10 separate personal ones to each of them if you prefer (and have time and quick fingers!), or just mail a couple of them. When you email you should include your postal address below your name, to show you're a London constituent. You should save all these addresses in your address book anyway and mail them regularly about anything vaguely European, or for info. (if you live outside London you can find out who your MEPs are very easily by going to www.europarl.org.uk and clicking on UK MEPs, then clicking on your region to get full contact details for all). London MEPs' email addresses: Claude Moraes (Labour), [email protected] Robert Evans (Lab), [email protected] Richard Balfe (Lab), [email protected] Mary Honeyball (Lab), [email protected] Sarah Ludford (Lib Dem), [email protected] Jean Lambert (Green), [email protected] Theresa Villiers (Con), [email protected] Charles Tannock (Con), [email protected] Lord Bethell (Con), [email protected] John Bowis (Con), [email protected] Thanks for doing this if you have the time. Please write to me direct at this address if you have any questions. I will follow what happens and mail you again when we get a 'result' (could be a while). See you all at CM so on, Sarah SUGGESTED DRAFT: Dear London MEPs, I am writing to you as my elected representatives with regard to current European Commission proposals to introduce a Directive on so-called 'safer car fronts' for pedestrians and cyclists. In 1999 almost 9825 pedestrians were killed or seriously injured on roads in the UK. The European Transport Safety Council and the UK Government's own National Road Safety Strategy and Targets Document both estimate that softer, better designed car fronts would reduce fatalities and serious injuries on our roads by up to 20%. This means that throughout the whole of the EU approximately 2000 deaths and 18 000 serious injuries would be prevented annually. The Commission made a commitment that it would introduce mandatory legislation in this area as far back as 1993, and last March again stated its intention to introduce a legislative proposal in its Communication on road safety. The proposal has already received the support of the Parliament and the Council of Ministers. As a pedestrian and a cyclist in an increasingly congested London I believe such legislation should be an urgent priority for the European institutions. I was therefore very concerned to read that the Enterprise Commissioner, Mr Liikanen, has recently suggested that a voluntary agreement on safer car fronts be negotiated with motor manufacturers instead of mandatory legislation. I believe that such a voluntary agreement would not deliver the high level of protection needed for 'vulnerable road users', and would urge you, as my representative, to write to Commissioner Liikanen requesting that this voluntary agreement plan be dropped. I would ask you also to call for the debate on this subject to be made more open and transparent, in accordance with EU Treaty principles. It cannot be said to have been so to date, and it is feared by many who are concerned about road safety that industry representatives are privately lobbying the Commission in their own interest for a less rigorous voluntary agreement. Thank you for your attention to this matter and I look forward to hearing your position on this issue and of your actions soon. Yours sincerely, your name and postal address here Posted on 16 January 2001 Your comments ...
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