Gaining Momentum

by Steve Panten

May is a great time of year. It’s the beginning of Spring and the plants are starting to bloom. In Washington DC it’s when the cherry trees bloom, so it’s a great time to visit. Note to Autocycle manufacturers…..if you don’t want to work with us in the State of Wisconsin, you may have to spend more time in Washington, DC soon. We’re gaining momentum.

  For the past few years, the motorcyclists in Wisconsin have been trying to define what a motorcycle is, and we have met with some resistance. Some people feel that if the vehicle has a steering wheel, gas and brake pedals it should be called an autocycle but still be in the motorcycle class, with a motorcycle license plate. ABATE of Wisconsin has been saying that if you want to call it a motorcycle then you need to complete a motorcycle rider training course and have an M endorsement to drive it. If you would be willing to call it something different, with a different license plate, then you can drive it with your regular driver’s license.

While this seems simple, it has been a tough road. We tried to get this done with a bill in Wisconsin and even came to an agreement with the language moving forward during a meeting in Denver at the Meeting of the Minds Conference last year. Well…..this year we tried again, and we are still meeting with the same resistance. As a result, ABATE sent members to Washington, DC to meet with our Senators and Congressmen there. The goal was to let them know that we are working on this in the state, but it really needs to be fixed on a Federal level.

The Federal Government is allowing these vehicles to have a Manufacturers Certificate of Origin (vehicle title) that calls it a motorcycle. Individual states have been working on different ways to treat these vehicles and calling them different things. By doing this, it is making things even more confusing, especially for law enforcement and insurance companies.

  When we were in Washington, DC back in February, Mike Halverson and I sat down with staff from Senators Baldwin and Johnson’s offices to brief them on what we are trying to do in the state and see how they could help us. This topic was on the Motorcycle Riders Foundations Legislative Agenda for three years, but they never really had the support to push the issue. Both offices agreed that these vehicles should not be considered motorcycles and would try to help us on the Federal level. While we were there we also met with staff from Texas Congressman Burgess’s office. Burgess is the chair of the House Motorcycle Caucus and a friend of motorcyclists from across the nation and they agreed with us. Wow, did they help us!!

Before I get into the details I want to thank the Motorcycle Riders Foundation for moving this topic up on their agenda. Once the ball started rolling we needed the horsepower of the MRF to drive this issue down the road at full throttle. Hardtail (President of the MRF) and Jay Jackson (Vice President) gave Tiffany and the MRF’s Lobbyist, Rocky, full support to work with ABATE of Wisconsin, Wisconsin’s Senators and Congressman Burgess to draft a letter to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) asking if they ever considered the need to address the outdated definition of a motorcycle and if these vehicles belong in their own category. If you are not a member of the MRF and you live in the state of Wisconsin, please sign up and help their efforts.

The staff in both Senator’s offices quickly discovered the potholes that we are encountering in the state. While they were in meetings with Polaris trying to understand why they feel that it should be a motorcycle, Congressman Burgess collected signatures from 6 other members of the Congressional Motorcycle Caucus and mailed the letter to NHTSA. While the US Senate did not send a similar letter, Senator Johnson did request a meeting with NHTSA Chief, Heidi King, to discuss this topic further.

   Tiffany, Rocky and the Motorcycle Riders Foundation spent a lot of time on this the past couple of weeks and they deserve a huge thank you for their efforts. Mike Halvorson and I just meant it to be a point of discussion, but they really led the charge on this. I would also like to thank Senator Johnson and his staff for making this an important topic to address. Both of our Senators understand that this is important to the motorcyclists in our state, but Senator Johnson’s office is really stepping up to the plate for us.

   So where does that leave us now? If a member of the United States Senate or Congress sends a letter to an agency, they must respond to it. Likewise, if a US Senator is asking for a meeting with an agency head, they must respond as well. While we are waiting for the responses, we know that Polaris is lobbying hard in Washington, DC to make sure that they are kept in the motorcycle definition. At the same time this was happening in DC, I received an email from Representative Gundrum in Madison with language that Polaris is asking to be included in our bill in the state. We are a bit confused as to why they want our bill to say that these vehicles need to have anti-lock brakes but still meet the MVSS crash standard for motorcycles, but we see no reason why we would oppose it. I did send a response to the staff member in Rep. Gundrum’s office saying that we would not oppose that language but have not heard anything back yet.

  While I would like to see the definition of a motorcycle cleaned up so every state treats these vehicles equally, we can’t wait for the Federal Government to complete their work. I am hopeful that we can get a bill done in Wisconsin and I am happy to see that Polaris is at least talking to Representative Gundrum, if they don’t want to talk to us.

Earlier this month there was also an alert sent out by the MRF regarding the anti-profiling resolution being circulated in Congress. Congressman Pocan has been a lead on this resolution and Congressman Sensenbrenner has signed on as well. As you can see, we still need to get our other 6 members of Congress to join Pocan and Sensenbrenner. So, if you haven’t completed the “call to action,” please go to the MRF website (mrf.org) or the ABATE of Wisconsin website (abatewis.org) and take 2 minutes to send the letter. When you receive a response from your Senators or Congressman, forward it to me and I will accept them for the requirement of 3 responses to earn a Write to Ride patch.

  That’s it for this month.

  Thank you,

Steve