Notice on Netherland’s sponsored research into head protection for pedal-electric bicycle riders and subsequent technical agreement on helmet testing.
23. The expert from the Netherlands informed GRSP (GRSP-61-30) on the state of the art of the development of a standard in his country on protective helmets designed for riders of bikes assisted by an electric engine (pedelec). He clarified that a working group of the Dutch Standardization Institute (NEN), with the participation of the Netherlands Organization for applied scientific research (TNO), was developing a national technical agreement on test requirements for helmets of this kind that would be probably less stringent than those of UN Regulation No. 22. He informed GRSP that studies on this subject were available on the TNO websites. The expert from France informed GRSP that their national law for high powered pedelec is more stringent than the EU Regulation. He added that pedelec should be registered as mopeds and that riders should wear helmets that were type approved according to UN Regulation No. 22. He expressed concerns that allowances on certain L1 category of vehicles, such as pedelec, would be requested by other L1 users by decreasing road safety. The expert from Sweden reiterated her request for a more real world data, technical information as well as active participation from the helmet industry at GRSP. The expert from the Netherlands stated that in his country it is possible to ride mopeds without helmets, while in Germany it requires a suitable helmet and that GRSP was not responsible for enforcement. The expert from Italy reminded that the helmet issue was speed related and that UN Regulation No. 22 protects riders from the point of view of speed. He concluded that the experience from the Netherland would be interesting for the future discussions.