Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-06-17-Speech-2-457"
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"en.20080617.42.2-457"2
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".
Mr President, the report by Mr Ferrari concerns the protection of pedestrians and other vulnerable road users. I am pleased that Mr Ferrari has succeeded in reaching an agreement with the Council at first reading. I wish to thank him for his work and compliment him on his sound report.
I should like to make a couple of comments, however. Let me begin by saying that the protection of pedestrians and other vulnerable road users is a matter close to my heart. As you know, in my country, the Netherlands, the more vulnerable road users constitute a large proportion of the total number of road users; this proportion is particularly large in commuter and school traffic. Recreational walking and cycling is also growing in importance. These walkers and cyclists are very valuable to our society. This is because walking and cycling are extremely environmentally friendly modes of transport and, in addition, cycling and walking are very beneficial to the health of citizens, provided that the air quality is good.
Many of the car journeys undertaken in European towns and cities are shorter than five kilometres. It is important, therefore, to encourage citizens to opt for clean, healthy modes of transport where they, as more vulnerable road users, would enjoy sufficient protection. After all, even though I have just praised the Netherlands because so many of its citizens cycle and walk, increasing numbers of its citizens also no longer dare let their children cycle and walk a short distance to school for fear of accidents.
However, the measures that have been included in the compromise will help reduce the frequency of accidents and the harm caused by any that do occur. For this reason, I welcome this compromise. I hope that, in any case, citizens increasingly opt to travel by bicycle and on foot in their own conurbation instead of by car.
On the other hand, we must beware of slipping into a situation in which we attempt to reduce road risks to zero, as it is impossible to exclude all risks. It is also very important to make drivers aware of their own responsibility. For all the measures that are being taken in this policy area, it should be emphasised that road users themselves remain primarily responsible for their own safety and that of their fellow road users.
I should like to conclude by saying a few words about the legislation actually proposed. I welcome the choice of a regulation instead of a directive. This makes the application of this important legislation unambiguous, which prevents differences arising between Member States once more with regard to the protection of pedestrians and other more vulnerable road users. I am also pleased that this new proposal devotes more attention than the 2003 and 2005 Directives to active safety systems. Active solutions, such as ‘Brake Assist’, have the advantage over passive safety systems that they also prevent a great deal of additional adverse effects of accidents, such as hold-ups, traffic jams and non-material harm, that cannot be limited by applying passive safety systems.
I wish to add as my last point that I also welcome two procedural aspects of this regulation. I support bringing forward the dates for stepping up the type-approval requirements. The safety of pedestrians and other vulnerable road users is not a subject on which we can afford to lose time. In addition, I welcome the fact that amendments to Article 11 are to be made via the codecision procedure. It is not desirable for essential amendments to be made via the comitology procedure."@en1
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