HERGISWIL, Switzerland (BRAIN)—The World Bicycle Industry Association has formed, with founding members from the Bicycle Association Japan, the Bicycle Product Suppliers Association based in the U.S., the Confederation of the European Bicycle Industry and the Taiwan Bicycle Association.
Helping give the bike industry a voice in discussions over technology allowing communication between vehicles was a key driver for the formation of the group.
“Vehicle-to-vehicle communications are advancing rapidly and as an industry we were kept out of the discussion because we did not have a worldwide association. Now we do and we will be participating in these discussions going forward as e-bikes and light electric vehicles need to be a part of these discussions,” said Moreno Fioravanti, the secretary general of the European Bicycle Manufacturers Association and an executive at Accell Suisse AG. Fioravanti was the driving force creating the world group.
The WBIA’s main purpose is to join forces and to actively participate in the technical meetings at the United Nations facility in Geneva, as well as being a vocal member of Intelligent Transportation System meetings. The European Union is moving forward with its plan to use information and communication technologies in traffic management and enable various users to be better informed and make safer, more coordinated, and smarter use of transport networks.
“While we don’t have a similar system to ITS in the U.S., we know that many things developed in Europe get adopted here in one form or another. So it's important for the U.S. industry to know how things are developing,” said Larry Pizzi, who is WBIA’s second vice-president, as well as BPSA’s vice president and chairman of its e-bike committee and managing director of Raleigh Electric.
The WBIA is a non-profit association which represents the bicycle, e-bike and bicycle parts and accessories industry at a global level. Its board of directors includes René Takens, chief executive officer of Accell Group and WBIA's president; Satoshi Yuasa, Shimano’s executive vice president, representing BAJ and WBIA's first vice-president; Pizzi; Michael Tseng, Merida’s president, who is the new group's treasurer; and Erhard Büchel of Büchel GmbH & Co., who is president of CONEBI.
For more information the association’s website is wbia.ch.
