November 2003

 

News & Notes for the Politically Motivated Motorcyclists is a monthly service compiled and edited by the AMA Government Relations Staff to keep motorcyclists informed of happenings around the world. We welcome your news & views. Please submit all material to Terry Lee Cook, Government Relations Specialist, 13515 Yarmouth Drive , Pickerington , OH 43147 ; fax 614-856-1920 or e-mail to tcook@ama-cycle.org.

 

 

AMA is hosting a Washington , D.C. , seminar for motorcyclists who want to learn how to influence governmental decisions, whether it’s in Congress or at their own local councils.

The seminar, to be held March 6-9 at the Phoenix Park Hotel in Washington , DC , allows participants to meet and learn from the AMA’s Washington staff as well as other political experts. In addition to learning about state and federal issues facing motorcyclists today, participants will get tips on building relationships with government-agency officials and on lobbying elected officials.

Participants will also prepare to meet face-to-face with members of their congressional delegation.  But the seminar isn’t all work; there will be a welcome reception as well as a luncheon and a banquet over the course of the training.

The seminar registration fee is $75. The registration deadline is Feburary 11. AMA membership is required.

For more information or to register, contact Sharon Titus at (614) 856-1900, ext. 1252 or by e-mail at stitus@ama-cycle.org.

 

 

Britain ’s Government has announced a £3.5m ($5,620,300) plan to help fix the often neglected secondary roads that motorcyclists love.

Despite an increase in the overall standard of British roads, smaller secondary roads have continued to decline in recent years. But the new Government pledge promises to use new systems to target more effective spending on local roads.

The road surface-testing systems are expected to be in limited use next year but the technology will not be fully developed until at least 2005.

 

 

New Jersey is the first state to criminalize Driving While Tired -- a first-in-the-nation law against driving while drowsy.  Known as Maggie's Law, police will not be pulling over drivers whose eyelids look heavy.  The law allows prosecutors to charge a motorist with vehicular homicide, punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $100,000 fine, in the event of a deadly crash if there is evidence the accident was caused by sleepiness.

Recent studies estimate 51 percent of motorists feel drowsy behind the wheel, and about two of every 10 drivers say they have fallen asleep while driving in the past year.

Similar bills are pending in New York and have been discussed by lawmakers in Washington State .

 

 

Motorcycle and auto insurance rates are expected to increase 6 percent in 2004, according to the Insurance Information Institute, due to rising costs of medical care, vehicle repair, jury awards, theft, and fraud.  Some things riders/drivers can do to offset these higher costs are: raise your deductible, compare insurance costs before buying a bike or car, reduce coverage on older vehicles, buy home and auto policies from the same insurer, maintain good credit, comparison shop and get formal safety training.

 

 

AMA Community Council members Todd Sheinfeld of Vermont and Glenn Myers of Alabama recently utilized talk radio shows to lay out their plans and voice their concerns regarding OHV issues in their states.

            “The key to getting on these shows is to make yourself available to the media whenever you get the chance,” explains Sheinfeld. “In my case I was at a State Senate Transportation meeting and the moderator of a Vermont Public Radio talk show called “Switchboard” approached me about getting on his program after he heard me speak at the meeting.

            Myers held a roundtable discussion with on WEZZ 97.7 FM regarding the Chilton County/Minooka Park OHV riding area project which is getting off the ground this year. Myers had a few minutes to fill listeners in on the current progress of the new OHV riding area and some of the things that have yet to be accomplished. The show also gave Glenn a chance to recruit some volunteers to help complete the project.

 

 

The American Motorcyclist Association told a congressional subcommittee that the US Forest Service needs to spend more of the money it raises from recreation fees on trail maintenance.

            In testimony before the U.S. House Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health on Wednesday, September 17, AMA Washington Representative Patrick Holtz pointed out that land managers in some national forests are using the fee money for operations and services rather than spending it on much-needed trail rehabilitation.

            He was testifying on a proposal to make the Recreation Fee Demonstration program, which involves collecting fees for using public federal land, a permanent program. The demonstration project is set to expire on Sept. 30, 2004 .

Congress authorized the Recreation Fee Demonstration program in 1996 for the U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service, federal Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The purpose was to collect money to maintain and improve natural resources, recreation facilities and services on federal land.

The U.S. Forest Service is currently collecting fees in 114 national forests and grasslands in 36 states and Puerto Rico .

Holtz told the committee that a U.S. General Accounting Office report this year noted that the Angeles and San Bernardino national forests spend 80 percent of their recreation fee money on visitor services, operations, maintenance of facilities, and for providing interpretive services, rather than addressing deferred trail maintenance needs.

He said the AMA could support making the Recreation Fee Demonstration program a permanent program provided certain conditions are met. The fees must be collected to recover costs, and must be used at the area where they are collected, he said. Also, the administrative costs must be held down, paying the fees must be convenient for the land users, and federal, state and local fees should be combined where appropriate.

 

 

San Francisco motorcyclists are encouraged to visit the San Francisco Motorcycle and Scooter Coalition’s web site at http://www.sfmsc.org/index.html for the latest on the effort to increase motorcycle parking spots in the Bay Area. A resolution recently passed by the Board of Supervisors did not fix the problem and a new one has been introduced.

 

 

 

 

Alabama Governor Bob Riley (R) has signed Executive Order Number 10, effective immediately.  This supports the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century, which is now up for reauthorization, including a provision supportive of funding the Recreational Trails Program (RTP). RTP, championed by the AMA and other organizations, apportions funds to the states for the purposes of providing and maintaining motorized and non-motorized trails. 

Governor Riley also used the Executive Order to create the State of Alabama Recreational Trail Advisory Board . The Board will consist of 11 members appointed by the Governor and shall be composed of both motorized and non-motorized recreational trail users as members.

 

 

New Hampshire ’s vast majority of OHV trails are located on private lands and the issue of landowner liability has been a significant concern.  Granite State legislators commissioned a study committee to review the issue.  Their conclusion is that the landowner is not liable if recreational vehicle operators, injured from causes not attributable to intentional acts of the landowner, are injured while recreating on their lands.

            RSA 215- A:34 II states “It is recognized that off-highway recreational vehicle (OHRV) operation may be hazardous. Therefore, each person who drives or rides an OHRV accepts, as a matter of law, the dangers inherent in the sport, and shall not maintain an action against an owner, occupant, or lessee of land for any injuries which result from such inherent risks, dangers, or hazards. The categories of such risks, hazards, or dangers which the OHRV user assumes as a matter of law include, but are not limited to, the following: variations in terrain, trails, paths or roads, surface or subsurface snow or ice conditions, bare spots, rocks, trees, stumps, and other forms of forest growth or debris, structures on the land, equipment not in use, pole lines, fences, and collisions with other operators or persons. “

 

 

US Fish & Wildlife Service recent announcement that the threatened Peirson's milk-vetch plant may be removed from Endangered Species Act (ESA) protection at the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area, is causing the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) to focus its attention on a 10-year-old, flawed study to list the Andrews Dune Scarab Beetle. 

According to California ’s Off-Road Business Association, the CBD Scarab Beetle listing is "little more than a shrill attack on off-highway vehicle users and has little to do with the actual population dynamics of the species in question." 

In a US Dept. of Interior (DOI) letter dated Jan. 13, 1992 to Fred Andrews, author of the Andrews Dune Scarab Beetle study, DOI contracting officer Anne Ferrie said, "the report does not indicate an attempt to evaluate the effects of OHVs on the beetle quantitatively." 

The CBD petition, using the Andrews study, fails to include basic information regarding the number of beetles residing in the dunes and does not discuss population trends at all. 

The CBD's efforts are just another attempt at forcing the permanent closure of 49,000 acres of the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area, one of the most popular sand riding areas in the nation. 

Out of the approximately 25 million acres of public land in the California Desert Conservation Area, less than eight percent are open for motorized recreation, according to the Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) Environmental Impact Statement for the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area.

 

 

 

California Senate Bill 315 allowing the use of foam and other non-custom made earplugs has been signed into law. Street riders no longer have to fear receiving tickets for using this type of hearing protection. Special thanks to State Senator Debra Bowen ( D-Redondo Beach ) senator.bowen@sen.ca.gov  for her efforts in correcting this previously restrictive law.

 

 

United Nations Working Party 1, of which the AMA is a participant, will address road signing issues in a workshop organized by its Road Safety Committee.

The subject, of high interest for motorcyclists, will be considered in the context of the introduction of amendments to the international conventions regulating Road Traffic, Road Signs and Signals, and agreements endorsing them at the European Union level.

 

 

Motorized Recreation Council of Wyoming (MR. COW) recently organized for the protection and advocacy for Equality State OHV enthusiasts at a workshop conducted by the National Off-Highway Vehicle Conservation Council and the Wyoming State Trails Program. 

Many OHV issues were discussed, illuminating the various common and unique challenges OHV enthusiasts are faced with across the state. Topics ranged from access to trail design, lack of enrolled roads or trails, county and state highway rights of way access, youth access to public lands, and safety issues such as existing licensing and driver license requirements.  

Contact J.R. Riggins at lostktm400@aol.com for more info on MR. COW.

 

 

The Wildlands Project has unveiled its 100-year vision strategy for protecting a contiguous area from Mexico to the Canadian Yukon with the goal of preserving wildlife migration routes.  The organization hopes the blueprint can influence long-range planning by US Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management. 

Of particular concern to them are five areas they consider especially threatening to wildlife, including Interstate 70 through central Colorado and I-40 east of Albuquerque , NM .

 

 

AMA Member, Kids Off-Road Program (KORP) founder/director and motorcycle safety instructor Tina Biello was recently presented with the Suzuki Outstanding Rider Education Program award at their annual dealer meeting in Las Vegas , NV . Biello developed this no tuition program from scratch to encourage safe riding among local youth.

KORP covers rider safety, off-highway riding techniques, and basic motorcycle maintenance. Fifteen Saturday classes are offered from May through October at the US Army Corps of Engineers Thomaston Dam Recreation Area in Thomaston, CT. AMA Chartered Pathfinders Motorcycle Club has held the contract with the federal government to maintain the 12 mile trail motorcycle loop at Thomaston Dam for the past 30 years.

 

 

European Parliament adopted a Resolution stating that the Third Road Safety Action Program should focus on solutions to reduce high risks for motorcyclists. This document has now been published by the European Commission.

The Federation of European Motorcyclists Associations (FEMA) supports the targets set by the Road Safety Action Program and its particular measures to improve road infrastructure, such as road side barriers systems, in order to reduce hazards met by motorcyclists on the roads.