5: Mobilising the Mobile: The Political Inclusion of the Transport User

In 1997, the European Union's (EU) Framework Type Approval Directive was defeated after extensive lobbying by the Federation of European Motorcyclists (FEM), which had been established in 1988 to serve as a lobbying presence for the national riders-rights organisations of Europe; that is, organisations aimed at serving the political interests of motorcyclists. Commonly referred to as ‘the Multi-Directive’, the legislation was primarily concerned with restrictions on motorcycles that were viewed as an invasion of bikers' civil rights to choose their own types of vehicle and riding behaviour.

The arrival of European bikers into European politics surprised existing political actors. For MEPs, as one British MEP argued, ‘the first reaction was shock’, to see bikers lobbying the European Parliament. Motorcycling manufacturers were also wrong-footed by the campaign for, not expecting a European-wide campaign to defeat the Multi-Directive on the part of their own consumers, they had already pre-complied with the Multi-Directive on the issue of noise limits, the only part of the legislation upon which the lobby was ultimately to be defeated, and that due only to the aforementioned pre-compliance.