Deputy Director Report

by John Reblin

A Little Sudoku in the Morning.

A few years ago, I felt I was forgetting more and more things. I would put something down and forget where I put it. I ran into situations where if I met someone, I could not remember their names a couple minutes later. Even now I struggle to remember things that I feel that 15-20 years ago would have been a piece of cake. An age thing or just a matter of making sure the ol’ noodle is getting the proper exercise needed to keep clicking? Who knows.

I always heard to exercise the brain, to keep it engaged so I investigated different things to do. I tried jigsaw puzzles. I read more and then looked into things like the crossword puzzles and things like that. The jigsaw puzzles really didn’t do it for me. I always enjoyed reading and still read a lot today. But I needed that something else to keep the “old noodle” engaged. I then tried the Sudoku puzzles.

I am sure that you know what these puzzles are, tucked in the comic or lifestyle section of your local paper. I get my paper online, so early in the morning it is what I first look for. That box with nine sections of 9 numbers that when completed use the numbers 1-9, not duplicated in a row or box. The easier ones have additional clues making solving the puzzle easier, and as the day of the week goes by the puzzles get harder and harder by removing additional clues. By the end of the week the time for me to solve these goes from 5-10 minutes to 20-25 minutes with some swear words and start overs tossed in as I try to get it completed. These games make my brain work, make me pay attention to the numbers and use logic. You know in my mind it is “this goes here because if it went there it is going to cause an issue later” type of thing. I have been doing this for 5-6 years now and its part of my everyday tasks.

Logic goes a long way in our everyday life. Same within our organization. I try to use logic and “being equal” as my guideline in highway safety and when I make decisions. Our legislative agenda is logical also this year. In October at the State Meeting we went through and set up our legislative agenda for the upcoming year. As Steve says it is a fluid document that can be changed or updated as the year goes on. Hopefully using logic, we can convince our representatives in Madison to side with us and pass these bills.

Our “Autocycle” bill is basically saying that if it looks like a car, handles like a car and the controls are like a car well, logically, it should be titled and license like a car. If you cannot use one to get your motorcycle license from the DMV or use one to take a rider education course, it makes sense to say “Hey, this is not a motorcycle”. Just because you didn’t put that 4th wheel on during planning doesn’t make it a motorcycle. Get it and its statistics out of our motorcycle information.

Our data recorder bill is another piece of legislation we are working on. It is your information, why should the car manufacturer or anyone else grabbing the information be able to profit on the use of your information without your permission. Do you want the police to just plug into your vehicle, without a warrant, and see what you were doing? No, you want to be able to grant or refuse this act. For example, looking for something online or buying something at Home Depot generates a link and soon your email, along with your Facebook page, is being overwhelmed with ads. Well it seems now that Consumer Reports agrees with us. I also have seen that Europe is having the same concerns with protecting their privacy.

Our other talking point is the Autonomous Vehicles, the passing of the truck platooning bill and what it would mean for our safety. If a vehicle is on the road it should be able to see and safely maneuver with and around us. And what reassurance will we have that they will be able to recognize the fact that they need to share the road with us. Will road users be able to know when this technology is being used around them and be able to decide, yes or no, to be on the road with them? I believe they need to slow down any forward progress on this technology until they are sure they can recognize all users of the road.

And like the silly little mind games I play, sometimes you need to “start over” or make changes to achieve the goal of completion. You need to erase the incorrect numbers; correcting mistakes made in order to strengthen or clarify the solution. Some issues take a little longer, with legislation it can take years, to get done. But, in the end, you look at it with relief knowing that you were able to accomplish the task.

Hopefully you are all making plans to attend our Biker Day at the Capital on February 28th. We need all the help we can get making these logical arguments to our representatives to finally get them to see what we want accomplished legislatively and to get our agenda moving forward.

John