I THINK WE GOT IT!

by Steve Panten

After a lot of years and even more meetings and discussions, I think we finally made a breakthrough on our Autocycle Bill. For quite a while I have been reporting that Polaris has not been working with us on trying to finalize the language for our bill. I have even reported that when we agreed to not oppose the language they wanted, they still lobbied against us during our Biker Day at the Capitol. Well, I think it changed now.

Polaris hired a new person in charge of State Government Affairs, and he is a familiar face. J.R. Burke is back and this past month he reached out to me to see how we can get this done. If you remember, 2 years ago J.R. and ABATE had some pretty heated discussions about how this was going to get accomplished. This session they started telling legislators what language they wanted to see, and we decided, that although it was not exactly what we wanted to see, we would not oppose it. Then they changed the language……not by much, but still made me question if we were ever going to get it done. After a discussion with J.R. I think we have an agreement.

While I am very hopeful that this will be the last of it, we still have work to do. Senator Jacque’s office has created a new bill draft that all interested parties are reviewing. I was able to look it over and I think it satisfied what we were hoping for. Next up, we will need to get it moved through the transportation committee, so we can get it to the floor for a vote. Stay tuned…..I would like to thank everyone for all the work they put into it. I know we had some pressure to just give in and accept the language that they wanted, but now it appears that we have the right language.

Representative Gundrum and his staff have been working on getting support for our bill draft to modify 2017 ACT 294. That is the bill that passed last session allowing for truck platooning by removing the minimum following distance between 2 or more trucks. Our issue with the bill is still the fact that having large trucks running down the interstate with little to no distance between them is going to cause rolling roadblocks and prevent access to on/off ramps. By removing the following distance requirements, the state is essentially setting the stage for autonomous trucks.

 The way the autonomous trucks are designed to function is that the lead truck will essentially control the lagging trucks. When the lead truck speeds up, the rest of them do the same. When it slows down, they all do. While this sounds all well and good, technology is headed in the direction that the following trucks may not even need a driver in them. Until this technology is tested and proven that they will recognize motorcycles and not run us off the road, we think there should be restrictions on how this “testing” is going to happen.

While many people agree that there should be restrictions, getting someone to step up and do something about it is difficult. Representative Gundrum and his staff feel that the Wisconsin Department of Transportation is willing to take a hands-off approach until there is a problem. I have had discussions with the Wisconsin Motor Carriers Association to see if we can get their support on limiting the number of trucks in a “connected” line and require signage on all vehicles operating in a platoon. They did give me the courtesy of listening to our concerns, but I don’t think we are going to get much support from them. Representative Gundrum is looking at possibly setting up a meeting with the Motor Carriers and Schneider Trucking to get their thoughts on our position.

 This is a good time for an interesting story….when Act 294 was still a bill draft going through the process, 3 groups lobbied in support of it….the Motor Carriers, Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce and Peloton Technology, the leader in truck platooning technology. After the platooning bill became law Peloton is no longer registered as a lobbyist in the State of Wisconsin. They came in, got this passed and then left, leaving the state to figure out how to regulate it. And then the Wisconsin DOT took a wait and see approach to see if there is going to be a problem. Rather than looking at ways to slowly transition this technology and taking the time to understand the impact that this technology will have on the safety of the road, they say let’s just see what kind of chaos this is going to create. The motorcyclist’s feel that for our safety, we need to stay on top of this.

 June is a great month for brotherhood in our organization at the Summer Hummer. I look at it as an opportunity to get together and have drinks with my brothers and sisters and get caught up on what is happening while having fun. This year I will have to leave on Friday to be home for my son’s high school graduation so if I don’t get to see you, have a great time (I am sure that you will). If you haven’t been there before, I believe that it is worth going to and if you have been there before…..I’m sure you will have a great time again.

That’s it

Steve