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SUCCESSFUL LOBBYING BY DUTCH RIDERS
 After successful lobbying by MAG Netherlands (NL) last December the Dutch parliament voted in favour of a ban on wire rope fences in the Netherlands and called on the government to impose this ban.
After the vote MAG NL had a meeting with the Dutch minister for transport, Mrs. Karla Peijs, and asked her about this decision.
The minister said: "We were quite surprised by this vote, because so far we only have one wire rope fence, and we have no plans to place any more."
MAG NL argued that this was an important decision for motorcyclists and that this clear message from the parliament could and should prevent local and regional road authorities from erecting more wire rope fences.
Minister Peijs promised to convey this message to all road authorities and made a clear statement: "We say: no egg-cutters! And for highways: there are no wire rope fences and there will not be any wire rope fences."
In October 2005 the Dutch parliament had already met with Mrs. Karla Peijs in a debate on road safety.
In the weeks before the debate MAG NL approached all MP's and argued in favour of adapting crash barriers to the safety standards of motorcyclists.
The debate started with statements and questions from all political parties in the Dutch parliament.
Every party-spokesperson for transport had seven minutes to speak about the road safety issues that are important to their party.
During this, every single one of them questioned the minister on motorcycle friendly crash barriers.
At the end of the meeting the minister stated: "We will sit down with MAG, because they know exactly in which bends and turns the barriers should be adapted.
I will promise you that indeed something will now be done. If they (i.e. MAG) say ‘the barriers in those bends must be dealt with' we will do that."
During her speech in parliament the minister mentioned MAG several times as the voice of Dutch riders.
Written by Wim Taal - Picture by Katinka Brandenburg
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