ADAC

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This article is about German automobile club. For other uses, see ADAC (disambiguation).

The ADAC (Allgemeiner Deutscher Automobil-Club e.V.) is Germany's and Europe's largest automobile club, with 16,070,180 members in December 2007 [1]. It was founded on May 24, 1903 as "Deutsche Motorradfahrer-Vereinigung" (in English: German Motorbiker Association) and was renamed in 1911. Today it is still the largest motorcyclist association in the world with 1.5 million members.

ADAC Yellow Angel
A Eurocopter EC 145 (German ADAC air rescue helicopter)
Dornier 328 Jet flying for the ADAC

Both the ADAC, and its older rival AvD (the organizer of the German Grand Prix), are members of the FIA and the DMSB. The European Grand Prix, the former ADAC Eifelrennen, the 24 Hours Nürburgring and many other races are hosted by ADAC.

The ADAC also operates a large fleet of mobile mechanics in yellow cars that assist motorists in trouble - the Yellow Angels. The ADAC runs its own modification center whereby ordinary vans are turned into mobile garages (pictures only depict Ford Galaxies) in 55 man-hours.

In addition to this, the ADAC provides 44 helicopters for urgent medical rescues in Germany, strategically placed so that any location can be reached within 15 minutes. Air ambulance jets are used by the ADAC to rescue their members with a "PLUS" membership or customers who own an ADAC international travel insurance from any location worldwide in the case of accident or extreme sickness. During the Tsunami catastrophy, the ADAC evacuated thousands of German citizens and members from the region home to wherever they are living (Germany or not).

The ADAC also offers its membership to non German residents, having signed contracts with automobile clubs worldwide. In the UK, it is possible to have breakdown recovery through the local AA whilst having an ADAC membership.

The ADAC is publisher of the magazine with the largest distribution in Germany, the "ADAC Motorwelt". "ADAC Motorwelt", which is also distributed (still in the German language) to ADAC members outside Germany, features articles of common interest to all participants of public traffic, such as product tests, safe driving tips and also places to visit by car or motorbike.

On June 3rd 2008, the ADAC suspended its involvement with the FIA over the scandal surrounding Max Mosley and his subsequent retention as FIA president.[2]

Contents

[edit] International affiliates

The ADAC has reciprocal arrangements with a range of international affiliates, including

[edit] History

In 1974 the organisation had 3.8 million members at a time when there were 19.0 million passenger cars registered in Germany: by 1990 membership had risen to 10.2 million, with 35.5 million passenger cars registered in the country, so that ADAC membership has grown more than twice as fast as national car ownership.[3] Growth rates during the ensuing twenty years were greatly boosted by German reunification.


[edit] Research

[edit] EuroRAP in Germany

ADAC is the active member for the European Road Assessment Programme (EuroRAP)in Germany[4]. ADAC regularly publish maps showing safety characteristics of Germany's roads[5].

These maps based on EuroRAP's Road Protection Score Protocol (or Star Rating Protocol) is a measure of how well a road protects road users in the event of an accident. Data on road characteristics is gathered by driving through road inspections using a specially equipped RPS inspection vehicle (Strassentest vehicle in german). Trained assessors then rate the safety features and hazards on the inspected road and use stanardised formula to produce a safety rating -- star rating -- which is comparable across Europe[6].

ADAC also undertake road inspections on behalf of other EuroRAP members, including the Road Safety Foundation in the UK[7].

[edit] Campaigning for Safe Road Design

The European Campaign for Safe Road Design is a partnership between 28 major European road safety stakeholders that is calling for the EC to invest in safe road infrastructure initiatives which could cut deaths on European roads by 33% in less than a decade[8]. ADAC is the campaign's partner in Germany.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ presse.adac.de: ADAC-Geschäftsjahr 2007
  2. ^ BBC SPORT | Motorsport | Formula One | Mosley stays on as FIA president
  3. ^ "60 Jahre BRD". ADAC Motorwelt: Das actuelle Clubmagazin vol 6 Nbr 6: pages 38 - 42. date June 2009. 
  4. ^ "EuroRAP Partners". EuroRAP. http://www.eurorap.org/partners. Retrieved on 2009-06-04. 
  5. ^ "Star Rating Maps Germany". EuroRAP. http://www.eurorap.org/rps_maps?search=y&country=Germany&format=Thumbnail. Retrieved on 2009-06-04. 
  6. ^ "What is Star Rating?". EuroRAP. http://www.eurorap.org/rps. Retrieved on 2009-06-04. 
  7. ^ "RPS Fleet". EuroRAP. http://www.eurorap.org/rps_fleet. Retrieved on 2009-06-04. 
  8. ^ "About the campaign". European Campaign for Safe Road Design. http://www.saferoaddesign.eu/about.aspx. Retrieved on 2009-06-04. 

[edit] External links

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