Legislative Report

by Steve Panten

Why are motorcyclists concerns not being considered when laws are being written?

May 11th, 2021. The day that motorcyclists are going to gather at the Capitol in Madison to start conversations about protecting the future of motorcyclists. Are you ready to do your part? This is the future of our passion that appears to be in jeopardy, and we will need a lot of help to get our elected officials to understand that conversations need to start happening now before it’s too late.
The implementation of autonomous or driverless vehicles without regulations or monitoring is tough to comprehend. The fact that autonomous vehicles are crashing in the State of Wisconsin and nobody can show us if the driver was in control of the vehicle or a computer was, is almost unreal. If a vehicle manufacturer, or software company, cannot show us proof that these driverless systems are detecting motorcycles can only one mean one thing….well maybe two things. Either they are not able to detect motorcycles, or the results of testing are not something that they want known. Let’s find out which one it is.

It all starts on May 11th, 2021 in Madison Wisconsin.

Last month we started looking into Tesla crashes in the state of Wisconsin. While we understand that there are other vehicles out there that can operate in some form of autonomous mode, we best understand what Tesla’s claim is. We learned from the State DOT that in 2019, 2020 and so far in 2021 there have been 102, 94 and 19 crashes involving Tesla’s, respectively. Now we also learned that not all the crashes were the fault of the Tesla operator but what can’t be answered is, “how many crashes occurred while the vehicle was in autonomous or driverless mode?”
The question that we have been asking all along is – what is the impact of these vehicles on Wisconsin roads? How are these vehicles going to interact with motorcycles not only on the freeways, but what about on country roads? Understanding the technology and requiring testing for motorcycles is an issue that needs to be handled on the Federal level using our Representatives in DC but regulating the operation of these vehicles on Wisconsin roads is the job of our State Officials. It’s important to note here that we are not trying to stop the benefit that this type of technology could have, but rather we want to make sure that all modes of transportation are being considered when policy is being written. And policy needs to be written.
We are going to ask our legislators to understand that this type of vehicle operation is much different that what we are used to. The best way to draft policy or regulations for these vehicles is to understand that they need to be put in their own class. Changing current policy that requires every vehicle to have a driver should not affect non-autonomous vehicles. If an autonomous or driverless vehicle had its own class, that language would just have to be introduced in the new vehicle class. See how simple this could be?
So, we know that motorcycles are not being considered when decisions are being made about allowing autonomous vehicles on the road, but what else are we seeing that could affect motorcycling in Wisconsin. A bill that was passed last session allowing E15 to be used in the same hose as E10 or less could allow for misfuelling your motorcycle and violating Federal Law at the same time. The law that passed was written so that this practice is allowed as long as the gas station has at least one nozzle that dispenses only E10 or less. If a station wants to get around this one nozzle rule all they have to do is post a sign stating that there is a 4-gallon minimum. Really…. that’s what was passed even though ABATE, The Motorcycle Riders Foundation and the AMA testified against it. The EPA rule states that the use of E15 is illegal to use in motorcycles. It is against Federal Law to use E15 in our motorcycle. If there is a little bit of E15 in then nozzle when you dispense your E0 fuel, you broke the law. If your motorcycle breaks down because you unintentionally used E15, your warranty may not cover it and it proves that you broke Federal Law. All but 2 Wisconsin Legislators voted to pass this law. The only 2 “no” votes came from Representative Gundrum and Representative Ramthun. At least 2 members of our state legislature recognize how important this issue is for motorcyclists.
We are working on finding a lead for our anti-motorcycle profiling resolution. We have been having conversations with members from the Assembly and the Senate about how to best approach introducing the resolution. The atmosphere at the capitol is not great, so trying to get legislators to work together is going to be difficult. Our best attempt at getting our resolution introduced is going to happen at Biker Day on May 11th. We are still hoping to have a draft to circulate before the motorcyclists show up in Madison which would be a big step for success.
That fact that motorcycles are not being considered on many different levels gives us reason to be concerned about where we fit in when determining the future of transportation in Wisconsin. Why are motorcyclists concerns not being considered when laws are being written? We need to get all motorcyclists to understand that our future on Wisconsin roads is in jeopardy. ABATE of Wisconsin is holding a summit called “The Future of Motorcycling in Wisconsin” on May 1st for motorcycle club members and riding groups only. This summit is going to be held in Portage and our goal is to start conversations about where we go from here. The fact that the State of Wisconsin Department of Transportation was not able to explain how the future of transportation is going to affect motorcycling in the state means that these conversations are not happening. And then votes by State Legislators proves we are not being heard. This is our first attempt at holding one of these summits so we are starting with a small venue trying to see how we can hold larger ones in the future. We are limiting it to only 2 members of any MC or riding group to inform as many groups as possible. We are hoping to have the Motorcycle Riders Foundation there to address things on the Federal Level and our plan is to have a member of the National Council of Clubs there to speak about the power of working together and being involved. If you are a member of an MC or a riding group and would like to send representatives, please reach out to myself (legis@abatewis.org) or John Reblin (exec@abatewis.org)
The paddle wheel bill that we are supporting but not taking the lead on has a bill number; SB170. We sent out a “call to action” asking our members to reach out to their elected officials and ask them to support this bill draft. Thank you to everyone that made the calls because we got about 20% of the State Senators and 25% of the State Assembly to sign on. That was enough to move this piece of legislation to the next level which was assign a bill number. Now that we have SB170 it was sent to committee for scheduling a Public Hearing. We will be working with Senator Nass to get that scheduled since he is chair of the committee hearing it.
That’s it.

Steve