Legislative Report

by Steve Panten

WE ARE READY, ARE YOU?

The most important day of the year for motorcyclists is almost here. Are you ready? The hotel meeting room is set, the buses are scheduled, the handout material is ready. Are you? Did you clear your schedule so that you can join us in Madison to fight for what is important to motorcyclists? Whether you are an ABATE member or not, this is an opportunity to join the motorcycle issue experts working for all motorcyclists.

February 28th is Biker Day at the Capitol. Like I said earlier, it is the most important day of the year for motorcyclists. Our success throughout the year is definitely connected to our success on February 28th. We are starting with a new legislative session and we have some new faces to introduce to who we are, what we are fighting for and why it is important. Are you ready? We are. Bring your friends and family and JOIN US. We will have all the material available at Inn on the Park and you won’t need to talk your legislators if you are not comfortable doing that. We need to fill the Capitol with motorcyclists on February 28th for us to be successful.

We have made some progress leading up to our Biker Day. We have a bill draft to define a motorcycle – LRB-0175/P1. Senator Jacque has taken the lead on this, but we still need help to find a lead in the Assembly. I sent the bill draft to Harley Davidson and to Polaris for their review. Harley has said that they support what we are trying to accomplish but I have yet to hear from Polaris – of course. On Biker Day at the Capitol we will be showing our elected officials the importance of getting this autocycle language corrected. We will also show them how it will benefit the state by increasing the ever-needed funding for roads and we will make it easier for manufacturers to be able to sell them in the state.

Representative Gundrum is working with us on our Autonomous/Platooning bill draft – LRB-420/P1. This bill draft is a fix for the truck platooning law passed by the legislature last year. Currently it is legal for electronically connected trucks to operate on the roads in Wisconsin with little regulation. We would like to control the number of vehicles that can be connected in any one line to two. Currently there is no limit to the number of trucks that can run in a line thereby creating a freight train on the freeway. We also included language to ensure that the trucks that are connected are clearly marked on all sides so other drivers recognize that these vehicles may not operate in a manner that drivers are used to.

Last session we tried to get the legislature to pass a bill that would require vehicle manufacturers to give the opportunity for consumers to decide whether they want information about their driving habits to be available to anyone using the technology to collect it. The issue for us is that this information is being collected and transmitted without the owner’s knowledge or consent. Where is the information going? Who knows…? What we are asking for is that a vehicle owner should have the right to opt out of data transmission and Consumer Reports agrees with us. They came out with a report that says that the information collected in a vehicle is the property of the vehicle owners and consent should be required to access it. WOW!!!! That’s EXACTLY what we have been saying for 2 legislative sessions now. Let’s get together and protect the security of consumers in Wisconsin. Join us in Madison on February 28th to tell our legislators that our privacy should be protected, whether it is the vehicle manufacturers that are collecting it or maybe a satellite radio company. Who has access to where and how we travel should be up to us, the vehicle owner.

If any of these things are important to you, make time to join us February 28th. While we are focused on these topics for our Biker Day at the Capitol event, we are also working on a position paper for road funding. ABATE of Wisconsin recognizes the importance of good safe roads in the state but how improvements are funded is what we are watching. The impact of motorcycles on road wear and tear is minimal so while we agree motorcycle owners should pay their fair share, we need to make sure that we are only contributing our fair share.

In February we will have a small group traveling to Washington DC to introduce our newest Congressman (Congressman Steil) to the Motorcycle Riders Foundation and we will take time to visit all of our elected official’s offices. It seems that we make this trip after every election cycle just to say hello and ask for their support on our federal issues.

So, as you can see, while Biker Day at the Capitol IS the most important day of the year for motorcyclists in the State, we still have other work to do. With your help in Madison we have the opportunity to make elected officials aware that ABATE is the motorcycle issue experts and while we are not asking for special privileges or for money to support our cause, we are asking for action on things that are important to all of us.

I will see you on the 28th!