Another Summer Hummer is in the Books!

by Steve Panten

I am amazed by the commitment from our members who are involved in trying to put on the best party that they can. There is so much work involved in creating a successful event. It is also interesting to meet new people and find out their background. Where do they come from, and with everything that is happening during the summer, why are they here?

Of course, the obvious answer is because it’s a fun party, but more importantly, I am happy to hear attendees say that it is to support what ABATE does. It is very important for motorcyclists to realize that not only are they coming for a good time, but this also is a fundraiser for us to be successful at what we do. Without events like this, and the people supporting them, ABATE would not be able to be as effective as we are in Madison and in Washington DC.

So, this brings me to wondering how many people really know what they are getting for their admission and their donations for beer and raffle entries? I would like everyone to know that all the money raised is spent frugally in our continued fight to create a safe and enjoyable environment for motorcyclists in the State of Wisconsin. Without your support in either purchasing a membership, or by donating for a chance to win a prize, we would not exist.

When you consider that our membership dues are used to print and mail newsletters, fund our Share The Road Program, fund our Jr. Patriots, purchase billboards to educate all road users, printing posters to educate the motorcycle community on how we can protect ourselves, and fund a small office to keep us afloat, there isn’t much left to fund our grassroots lobbying efforts.

Being able to successfully lobby for our protections and safety is what ABATE does first and foremost, and we do it well. We are seeing a large push to implement autonomous and connected vehicles, but who is watching out for the motorcyclists in Wisconsin? Abate of Wisconsin. We also help support the Motorcycle Riders Foundation since they are our voice in Washington DC on federal issues.

We have been successful in many arenas, although the Governor did recently veto the paddle wheel bill that we supported. Being able to use a paddle wheel to raise money would help us, but our support behind that bill was more of a means to test the waters to see if we could ever make Poker Runs legal in Wisconsin. Now we know. In the state of Wisconsin, it is illegal to hold a poker run and anyone that does could lose their raffle license, be convicted of a class I felony, and be responsible for all taxes due from that event. That’s why we don’t have poker runs. And why we don’t have paddle wheel raffles.

John Reblin was able to set up a meeting between ABATE and the Secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Transportation for later this month. We did this meeting last year and the meeting also included the Deputy Secretary, the head of the Bureau of Transportation Safety and the head of the State Patrol. The meeting is to open a line of communication between these departments and the motorcyclists, and it is a valuable use of our efforts. There is a lot that can be learned from all attendees in an effort to work together.

I have been through too many of these types of meetings to count, but this one scares me a bit. Last year motorcycle fatalities were 40% over the 10-year average and right now motorcycle operator fatalities are 32% higher than last year. Doing quick math says that since our fatalities have almost doubled the 10-year average, I am not sure how that discussion is going to go with the DOT. As long as I have been a part of ABATE, we have always said that if WE don’t take care of ourselves, someone else will. Right now, we are not doing a very good job of taking care of ourselves. The next problem is that the majority of the fatalities are single vehicle crashes. We are crashing at a high rate and killing ourselves. We worked very hard to educate other road users to watch out for us by pushing our “Look for Motorcycles” campaign, and statistics show that we were successful in getting that message out, since those type of crashes have come down. Now we need to work on a campaign to protect us from ourselves. “Ride your own Ride” and “Ride within your Limits” are some phrases that you are going to be hearing a lot this year. If WE don’t fix it, they will.

One way for the government to fix it, and help Autonomous and Connected Vehicle technology, would be to eliminate motorcycles from Wisconsin roads. Since the DOT and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) are not prioritizing motorcycles in the development of their future policies, we are lucky to have a seat at the table. We are doing our best to make sure that motorcycles are considered when writing these policies but if the goal is zero preventable deaths on Wisconsin Roads, there is an easy way to eliminate 10% of them while only affecting 3% of the road users. Those 10% are us.

Time for victories. The Federal Highway Bill passed out of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee with much of the language that motorcyclists were looking for still intact. Included in the bill is;

Language to block motorcycle only check points (which is already illegal in WI).

Renew the Motorcycle Advisory Council and include more motorcyclists at the table.

Include motorcycles as a class of transportation when discussing autonomous vehicles.

This bill is far from becoming law, but it’s nice to see it progressing with our language in it. I would like to thank the Motorcycle Riders Foundation for all their work on our behalf. ABATE of Wisconsin was instrumental in this success as our very own Congressman Gallagher introduced the language for the Motorcycle Advisory Council.

And a couple more things… Mark your calendars! We have a tentative date for Lobby Day 2022! We are working on setting up the room at the Park Hotel in Madison for a February 17, 2022, Lobby Day. Much more information coming on that later, but that’s what we have for now. And finally, we are working on putting something together for visiting the Capitol during our Annual Meeting. I am hoping to get this together so, please start thinking about attending in October.

That’s it.

Steve