Not Prioritized?

by Steve Panten

 It’s almost time for kickers to start kicking. We will need to get the engines running in order to make it to Biker Day at the Capitol on March 11^th. From what we are hearing the building will be open, so the bikers are coming. This time our agenda is being kept short because what we are bringing is so important, we need to focus on the 2 topics.

First, and most important, we need to put our focus on saving motorcycling in the state by creating a clearer view of how they are going to interact with autonomous and driverless vehicles. There is a push around the world to eliminate motorcycling as we know it through emission regulations and new technologies. Our first step is to make sure that new technologies are going to recognize all legal road users. But mostly MOTORCYCLES! As a legal means of transportation, we would like to know that we can ensure legal and safe access to all the roads

Safe is the big question here. How does an autonomous vehicle react when it “sees” a motorcycle? What we learned from the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) Representative during the Wisconsin Automated Vehicle External (WAVE) Advisory Committee meeting is that motorcycles are “considered but not prioritized” when writing policies for autonomous vehicles. Why are motorcycles not prioritized is a question to be answered on the Federal Level but we can make sure that in Wisconsin, they show us testing results from interaction with motorcycles. If bicycles and pedestrians are prioritized but motorcycles are not, you have the “Trolley Problem”.

The “Trolley Problem” as defined by Wikipedia.

…a series of thought experiments in ethics and psychology, involving stylized ethical dilemmas of whether to sacrifice one person to save a larger number.

What this means for us is that if an autonomous vehicle is faced with a situation where it must choose between hitting a stationary object possibly killing the occupant of the car, hitting a bicyclist, or hitting a motorcyclist, it will choose the lower priority target. That’s us! We need commitment from our elected representatives in Madison to make sure that motorcycles are equally prioritized in all policies and regulations. The fact that they are considering motorcycles a lower priority is telling for the future as we know it.

Our elected representatives need to understand that in WI there are roughly a half million licensed motorcyclists in the state. Motorcycling is a huge part of the economy and major tourist attraction. Wouldn’t it be important to make sure they are protected? Again, it is important to note that we are not trying to stop technology that can make roads safer, we just want to make sure that when decisions are made about how to implement this technology in Wisconsin, we are all equally prioritized.

Profiling of motorcyclists because of our mode of transportation or the clothes we wear has been a problem across the nation for a long time. 5 States have passed legislation defining profiling and creating a path for proper training of law enforcement officers to prevent it from happening. Maryland, Washington, Louisiana, and Idaho included an avenue for the victim of motorcycle profiling to be compensated. ABATE of Wisconsin has been successfully working with police agencies in the state to address the issue when we learn about it, but we have also had roadblocks put up on occasion. We will be looking for the State Legislature to pass a referendum similar to what the United States Senate unanimously did in 2018 (S. Res. 154). This resolution would notify law enforcement agencies that the State Legislature understands profiling of motorcyclists is going on and they should develop programs to train their officers on what constitutes profiling and how to prevent doing it. Since this is just a resolution it will not have any legal recourse in it for a victim, but it is where we feel comfortable starting. Like I said earlier, for the most part we have been successful in stopping it locally by working with the law enforcement agencies, but if we need to push for passing legislation in the future, we will.

As you can see, we have some big issues on the table for Biker Day. We are still going to be working on things like legalizing poker runs and paddle wheels behind the scenes, but we need to focus on these two items March 11^th.

Not Biker Day related: A reporter from WUWM Public Radio in Milwaukee reached out to us this past month for a response to a report out by the Advocates for Highway and Automobile Safety that graded states on their safety laws, including mandatory helmet use for all riders. Since we did not see the report at the time, we could not give a comment by airtime, but we did draft a response for them. The report was their opinion on how states can improve safety by passing restrictive laws. Our response was critical of the legislative approach to making crashing safer and guided them towards crash avoidance. This is an example of if we don’t fix the problem of motorcycle fatalities, someone else will. If you have not seen the response, please find it in this newsletter elsewhere. With what seems to be a push to eliminate motorcycling as we know it in the nation, we need to remain loud. We need to remain active and make sure that our lifestyle is protected. It all starts with Biker Day at The Capitol on March 11^th. The bus schedule is elsewhere in this newsletter, so take advantage of the free transportation and we will see you in Madison!

That’s it

Steve