Let Us Be Heard

by Steve Panten

With summer winding down, we have one thing to look forward to, FALL RIDING! With leaves changing colors and cool mornings and evenings, fall is my favorite time of year for motorcycling in Wisconsin.

This October, motorcyclists are going to get to enjoy a weekend of fall riding in the Baraboo area when ABATE hosts their Annual Meeting and, as a bonus, we get to make some noise in Madison. On Saturday, October 9th, there will be a route set up that will leave the Clarion Hotel in Baraboo for motorcyclists to enjoy the beautiful riding in that part of the state on their own. When they get back to the hotel, we will be lining up to leave again at 1:30 for an organized ride to Madison for one purpose, remind both elected and appointed, officials in Madison that motorcycling is a very important part of the transportation system in the state, and that our voices need to be heard.

For years now, ABATE has been saying to the DOT and our elected officials that the future of transportation in the state MUST include motorcycles, but yet, we are being left out of all testing and reporting about how the state will get to “Connect 2050”. The leadership in the State Department of Transportation assures us that not including motorcycles in the “connect 2050” was an oversight and will be corrected. While I am hopeful that is truly the case, this is not the first time that we have been excluded in reports being presented to think tank groups. How we are going to fix that is important in protecting our way of life. The first way to do it is to show Madison that we are organized and that we are serious about how motorcycles are going to be included in the future of transportation. The CC Riders are opening their clubhouse for us to visit after we finish in Madison. The current plan is to leave Baraboo at 1:30, ride as a group to Madison, circle the Capitol as a respectful show of unity for motorcyclists and being heard, then travel to the CC Riders for a break before traveling back to the hotel, mostly on your own if you want. Even if you are not spending the weekend in Baraboo, please join us on October 9th for the ride to Madison. In order for this to be successful, we need a large presence in Madison.

This past month there has been a lot happening in Washington DC that motorcyclists need to pay attention to. First, the House of Representatives passed their version of the Highway Bill which did include language to renew the Motorcycle Advisory Council. This amendment was introduced by Wisconsin’s own Congressman Gallagher and, not only will it provide motorcyclists a seat at the table for the next 6 years, but it will also change the structure of the council to include more motorcyclists instead of bureaucrats. ABATE members living in Wisconsin’s 8th Congressional District as well as everyone that worked hard to build a relationship through visits to his office in DC, should be congratulated for all the work they did to make this a success.

Some things that were not in the draft passed by Congress is the anti-motorcycle profiling language as well as language requiring autonomous vehicles from reporting when a crash involves the vehicle in autonomous/driverless mode. We are very disappointed that these were left out of the final draft. There were over 300 amendments introduced in what was being voted on and many of them were just passed over and not even brought up for discussion in the haste to get it passed. We will have one more opportunity to see the language put back in when the Senate and House meet to work on a version that both can accept. The Highway Bill will need to be finalized before the end of September or the House and Senate will need to vote for an extension, or just leave it to die and we have status quo. Stay tuned for that one.

Another win for motorcyclists is something that the Federal Government is finally realizing that someone needs to look into vehicles operating in autonomous and connected mode. What brought this decision on by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) was the fact that since 2018, there have been 11 Tesla vehicles that crashed into emergency vehicles parked on the side of the road while the vehicle was being operated using the “driver assist” mode (hands free). ABATE of Wisconsin has been asking our State and Federal officials to address the need for more information about the impact that these vehicles are having on the roads when being operated in this mode. Finally, the Federal Government has stepped up in a small but important way. Now we need the state DOT to take the lead and start demanding that these software companies need to be open about how these vehicles operate with ALL modes of transportation. The information collected from this study is not exactly what we are looking for, but this is the first acknowledgement by the federal government that there may be an issue.

Back to the Annual Meeting. ABATE will be hosting another Future of Motorcycling in Wisconsin Summit for motorcycle clubs, riding groups and riding clubs only on October 9th at the hotel in Baraboo. While we would like to open this up to all motorcyclists in the state, our space is VERY limited, so we are trying to reach as many motorcyclists as possible and meeting with these groups gives us the best coverage. The summit will be held from noon until 1:30 pm and then we will be inviting all attendees to join us on our ride to Madison. Again, because of space available, we are limiting attendance to the summit to only 2 members of any one organization (including ABATE), but all members can join the ride to Madison.

Whether you are coming to Baraboo for the weekend or just to help us wake up Madison, please plan on joining us on October 9th. This ride is all about waking up bureaucrats all around Wisconsin. What a surprise it will be for, all of a sudden, 1000 motorcyclists to descend on the Capitol only to turn around and leave as quickly as we showed up. Future conversations depend on us being able to pull this off safely and respectfully. Please plan on joining us to make your way of life heard moving forward.

That’s it,

Steve