THE AIM/NCOM MOTORCYCLE E-NEWS SERVICE is brought to you by Aid to Injured Motorcyclists (A.I.M.) and the National Coalition of Motorcyclists (NCOM), and is sponsored by the Law Offices of Richard M. Lester. For more information, call us at 1-(800) ON-A-BIKE or visit us on our website at http://www.ON-A-BIKE.com.
COAST TO COAST BIKER NEWS
Compiled & Edited by Bill Bish
National Coalition of Motorcyclists
FREEDOM OF CHOICE MAY COME WITH A PRICE TAG Pennsylvania motorcyclists successfully modified their mandatory helmet law in 2003 to allow riders 18 and older the option of wearing a helmet, but now a lawmaker wants bikers who don’t wear a helmet to carry at least $10,000 in medical insurance to cover injuries if they crash. State Sen. Constance Williams says the requirement honors bikers’ freedom to ride helmetless while making sure they take financial responsibility for their decision.
Governor Ed Rendell, who signed the law that allows bikers to ride without a helmet, has said more Pennsylvanians die from smoking than motorcycle accidents, but Sen. Williams cites a national report being circulated among State Legislatures that says highway fatalities are on the rise for the first time in 20 years, linking the increase to deaths from motorcycle crashes.
NEW TWIST FOR HELMET LAW MODIFICATION Lost revenues from tourism has become a common theme for modifying helmet laws in states that claim motorcyclists are riding around them and spending their vacation money in other states that don?t require helmets.
Now Virginia has taken that argument a step further by proposing legislation that would allow motorcyclists to ride without a helmet on state scenic highways. On all other roads, police would not be allowed to stop riders for not wearing helmets unless they are stopped for another driving offense such as speeding, making the helmet violation a secondary offense.
Virginia motorcyclists are requesting help from across the country to pass HB 2585, asking riders to write their Delegates to let them know that you would spend your tourism dollars in Virginia if the state allowed freedom of choice on its beautiful scenic byways.
Bikers in Nebraska also want the right to make their own decisions about helmets, saying the current helmet law is costing the state $2-5 million a year during annual bike festivals in neighboring states because motorcyclists avoid riding through helmet law states.
Motorcyclists are lobbying the Unicameral legislature in Lincoln to support LB 253, a bill that would allow riders 21 and older to ride without a helmet. ABATE of Nebraska is not asking for letters or phone calls to their legislators at this juncture, but they would like for out-of-state riders to visit their website at www.abateofne.com and fill out a simple online poll that will allow them to put together written testimony from motorcyclists from across the nation.
?ABATE of Nebraska has once again filed legislation to establish Freedom Of Choice for adult motorcyclists,? said Tiger Mike Revere, state coordinator for ABATE of Oklahoma and member of the National Coalition of Motorcyclists (NCOM) Board of Directors. ?They have appealed for our help, and I pledged NCOM’s support for their campaign. Unfortunately, I have the additional subject of the Helmet Law assault in Oklahoma to address.?
TELEVISION DOESN?T REFLECT REALITY Most people drive safer than television characters, according to a University of Alabama at Birmingham study. The UAB study of 79 prime time TV shows revealed that actors often don?t buckle up before they drive and sometimes don?t wear helmets when they ride motorcycles and bicycles.
The research study, published in the journal Injury Sciences, found that over four weeks the television characters buckled up only 62 percent of the time. The TV characters used motorcycle helmets only 47 percent of the time and bicycle helmets nine percent of the time. Research shows most Americans are much safer ? buckling seat belts 80 percent of time, using motorcycle helmets 60 percent of the time bicycle helmets 40 percent of the time.
“Since Americans watch more than four hours of TV per day, how safety behaviors are depicted on television can have tremendous influence on public perception of seatbelt and helmet use,” said Gerald McGwin, Ph.D., associate director for research at the Center for Injury Sciences and one of the study authors. Researchers also studied 21,670 television commercials that McGwin says present a safer depiction, with seatbelt use by 86 percent of individuals, motorcycle helmet use 100 percent and bike helmet use 84 percent.
CONNECTICUT BIKERS WANT TO RAISE THE BAR Connecticut State Reps Wilbur and Zalaski have co-sponsored a bill to repeal their 15-inch handlebar height law. CT statute # 14-80i(b) reads: “No person shall operate a motorcycle on a highway or in any parking area for ten or more motor vehicles if the motorcycle is equipped with handlebars that are more than fifteen inches in height above the uppermost portion of the seat when the seat is depressed by the weight of the operator.”
Rep. Wilber, who co-sponsored this bill with Rep Zalazki, had an OLR legislative report done that concluded that high handlebars are not a safety issue. The report also found that there has been a trend across the country to change the height restriction law with 16 states completely repealing the law. HB 6937 is currently under consideration in the Transportation Committee, and would completely repeal the handlebar law 14-80i(b), allowing Connecticut riders to decide for themselves what height their handlebars should be.
VIRGINIA RIDERS BESIDE THEMSELVES Virginia is only one of two states that specifically prohibit two motorcycles to ride two abreast in a traffic lane, but riders there are hoping to change that.
HB 1808 has passed out of Transportation Committee and bikers are urging their Delegates to support the bill when it comes up for a vote. They argue, among other things, that two motorcycles abreast in a traffic lane aids in making the motorcycles more visible to other traffic, and that in larger groups of motorcycles, riding two abreast keeps the overall length of the group shorter, and discourages other vehicles from dangerously cutting into the group – an issue motorcyclists riding in groups often face.
OH DEER! According to transportation officials, nearly 200 people are killed nationwide each year in crashes involving wildlife, mostly deer. The collisions cost drivers almost $1.5 billion each year in property damage, deaths and injuries.
The Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) says they are trying to cut those numbers down. Flash lights and motion sensors are just a few of many solutions transportation experts are considering, and CDOT has put up a number of wildlife escape ramps on US 550 that allow wildlife to cross the road without getting stuck in traffic. CDOT says animals are getting more used to the ramps, even teaching their young how to use them.
On US 40, CDOT also installed a series of unusual looking reflectors to create flashes of light at 54 angles, horizontally and vertically, when a vehicle?s light hits them. According to CDOT, the reflected light bounces back and forth across the road, deterring deer and other wildlife from crossing. Drivers cannot see the light because of the way it?s reflected.
CDOT also hopes to install a motion detector system on US 160, that when triggered by a deer or other animal will cause a large light to go on to let an oncoming driver see there?s an animal on or near the road. The light may also startle the animal and keep it off of the road.
Meanwhile, an eight state research group met in Minnesota to brainstorm ideas for keeping wildlife off the road, and their leading proposal involves placing canisters of real or synthetic wolf and coyote urine near the roadways, hoping the scent of predators will cause the animals to flee.
INDONESIA INSTITUTES NEW ANTI-MOTORCYCLE LAWS New motorcycle lanes went into effect in Jakarta in January. Motorcyclists are now supposed to use the “slow” left lanes on city streets and police began getting tough on riders by issuing more than a thousand traffic tickets the first day to bikers not riding in the designated lanes. Trials are held on the spot and take about 5 minutes.
The head of traffic at the Jakarta Police, Sr. Comr. Djoko Susilo, said he hoped the rule would increase order in the streets and reduce the number of traffic accidents.
The left-lane rule is not the only new requirement for motorcyclists. They are also being told to keep their headlights on during the day, so that other vehicles can see them more easily.
The city is also considering banning them from entering main thoroughfares during peak hours, recommending that motorcyclists park their bikes and make use of the city’s busway instead.
Of 7.23 million vehicles in Jakarta, 64.1 percent, or 4.64 million, are motorcycles. The Jakarta Transportation Board has estimated that more than three million motorbikes are on the city’s roads every day, compared to 2.5 million cars. Out of the 4,206 road accidents reported last year, 3,826 involved motorcyclists.
But the government believes emissions tests may be the best way to curb motorcycle growth, so the Jakarta administration has been called upon to enforce stricter emissions testing for motorcycles to control the increasing number of motorbikes, up 15% from the previous year. The State Ministry for the Environment said motorbikes that fail to meet emissions standards could be banned from the city’s streets. 60% of the motorcycles tested in spot checks did not meet emissions standards set in 1993, so the ministry predicts that even more would fail the newer, tougher emission standard issued in 2006.
JESSE JAMES FINED BY CARB California air regulators have issued $271,250 in totalfines against Jesse James of West Coast Choppers, the co-producer and host of “Monster Garage” and “Motorcycle Mania,” saying that 50 of his custom-built choppers ran afoul of California’s clean-air rules.
California Air Resources Board officials said their inspectors found that the monster bikes sold between 1998 and 2005 did not have state certified emissions equipment on their exhaust and fuel systems, resulting in these bikes spewing hydrocarbons at up to 10 times the state limits. What they miss is the simple fact that motorcycles are used far less than cars, so in fact cars are putting out much more hazardous materials than almost any motorcycle.
Most states don’t even enforce EPA regs, and a number of legislative efforts are underway to afford the freedom to build any motorcycle from a wide open customs, replica motorcycle, right down to an EPA certified engine package so you can build a long distance motorcycle that’s EPA certified.
WEIRD NEWS: DRUNKEN DOUGHNUTS A Pontiac, MI motorcyclist gets sued, then sent to prison, for his actions that took place outside a bar earlier this year as he was ?doing doughnuts? in the parking lot when he struck and injured a woman who was standing outside the saloon.
Now he?ll be riding a prison van to Stateville Correctional Center, where he was sentenced to one year after pleading guilty to failure to report an accident with injury. He was also ordered to pay restitution, and faces a lawsuit from the injured woman who is seeking $50,000 each from the rider, the owner of the motorcycle and the saloon owner.
QUOTABLE QUOTE: ?We, too, born to freedom, and believing in freedom, are willing to fight to maintain freedom. We, and all others who believe as deeply as we do, would rather die on our feet than live on our knees.?
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882 – 1945), 32nd President of the United States
