FEMA is involved within the UN in a working party (WP.1.) which has agreed to review the overtaking regulations within the Vienna Convention.
This
initiative was being led by the representative of the Russian Federation who had expressed serious concerns about the limited definition of overtaking within the articles of the Convention
and was proposing that the countries that were signatories to the Convention should be surveyed regarding their national overtaking regulations.
FEMA had welcomed this development and
felt that it could provide an opportunity to raise again the question of filtering.
Accordingly, a section of a proposed questionnaire which addresses motorcycle overtaking with
particular emphasis on filtering, was prepared.
This was approved by FEMA's executive, but when FIM's Commission for Mobility and Transport considered the matter, reservations
were expressed regarding the wisdom of raising the issue.
When the Overtaking Working Group report was considered by WP.1. Dr. Yakimov said that he would like motorcycle overtaking
to be considered within the remit of the Working Group and proposed that FEMA (Bob Tomlins) should become a member of the group.
After the meeting the representative of Germany Mr.
Peter Päffgen, who is also the Chairman of the Inland Transport Committee, spoke to Bob. He explained that Germany was considering reviewing a number of its traffic rules with the objective
of improving traffic flow. He asked Bob what FEMAs position was on the question of filtering and we agreed to discuss these matters in a side meeting during the WP.29 meeting at the end of
June. It is Bobs view that that this will be addressed by WP.1 irrespective of whether WP.1 seek to discourage it so happening or just remain silent.
Bob believes that there is a
real chance that we could have filtering acknowledged as a legal manoeuvre within the Vienna Convention. MAG’s stance is that we should adopt a positive and proactive position and seek
to ensure that filtering is recognised with the minimum level of restrictive conditions.
