The Dutch Motorplatform is a coordination and advisory platform that brings the right actors together and improves outcomes for motorcyclists through alignment and shared action. The central objective is to improve motorcycle road safety, by sharing safer riding practices and training approaches, organising risk awareness campaigns, and by promoting data-driven safety measures, based on realistic accident analysis. The emphasis is on preventive measures, not on enforcement.

The Motorplatform connects government bodies, rider organisations, the motorcycle industry, safety organisations, the national police, vehicle testing authorities, a knowledge center for infrastructure, research institutes and many more. Instead of fragmented initiatives, it aims for coordinated policy and messaging, so everyone is pulling in the same direction.

So why is FEMA part of the Dutch Motorplatform? Because motorcycle policy doesn’t stop at national borders. FEMA adds the European dimension, tracking EU legislation, sharing insights from across Europe, and ensuring Dutch perspectives are heard in Brussels.

FEMA contributes insights from other EU countries, early awareness of upcoming EU legislation, and strategic input for lobbying. Many key issues affecting Dutch riders are not national, but European, such as type approval and vehicle standards, protective motorcycle gear, driving licence directives, road safety frameworks, and inspection regimes like the periodical technical inspections (PTI).

FEMA’s role in the Motorplatform is therefore to feed EU-level developments into Dutch discussions and to translate Dutch concerns into European positions. FEMA holds a board seat in the Motorplatform, and can bring an international perspective into Dutch debates.

In 2011 and in 2018, the Motorplatform wrote action plans for improving road safety for motorcyclists. Currently work is underway to write and publish a third action plan, based on in-depth research into motorcycle accidents, and on data gathered from hospitals.

PTI for all motor vehicles is regulated under EU Directive 2014/45/EU. The directive states that Member states that took alternative measures to enhance motorcycle road safety before 20 May 2017, could avoid the obligation to introduce PTI for motorcycles. The Netherlands made use of this possibility, using the action plans as a basis for the exemption. Today, the Dutch government still opposes EU wide, mandatory technical inspections for motorcycles and believes alternative measures are much more effective when it comes to improving road safety for motorcyclists.

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