NCOM COAST TO COAST BIKER NEWS for November 2013

A task force operating under the auspices of the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is recommending that all states have a mandatory helmet law in place to require motorcycle riders of all ages to wear a helmet.

Citing reduced injuries and fatalities, as well as economic benefits, the Community Preventive Services Task Force, appointed by the director of the CDC, will make its recommendations to the federal agency and report its findings to the U.S. Congress in early December.

The CDC, whose primary mission is to fight disease, issued a report last summer recommending that all 50 states enact universal helmet laws in response to a sharp increase in motorcyclist fatalities; but ignoring the fact that the number of motorcycles in use nationwide has increased substantially over the past decade, and that costs associated with un-helmeted cyclists involved in fatal accidents represent a tiny fraction of overall U.S. healthcare expenditures.

In the meantime, U.S. Representative Tom Petri (R-WI) has authored a joint letter from members of Congress calling for the CDC to stop investigating motorcycling issues such as helmet laws, which they have no experience or expertise with, and “…to direct your attention and resources to areas that are not currently already being addressed elsewhere in the government.”

The US Defenders (www.usdefenders.org) issued a Call To Action on October 26, 2013 calling for support of House Resolution 1462 “to Stop the Sale of Ethanol 15 (E15).”

The bipartisan RFS Reform Act would “eliminate the corn-based ethanol mandate currently required by the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), reduce the overall requirements of cellulosic ethanol not filled by other advanced bio-fuels, and rescind the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) waivers allowing gasoline blends containing up to 15-percent of ethanol.”

Introduced by Reps. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), Jim Costa (D-CA), Steve Womack (R-AR), and Peter Welch (D-VT), H.R. 1462 would effectively overhaul the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) which mandates that 36 billion gallons of renewable fuels be part of our nation’s fuel supply by 2022, almost all of which being fulfilled by corn ethanol which in turn diverts nearly 40% of our nation’s corn crop from food and feed.

Congress created the RFS program in 2005 to promote the ethanol industry by setting the minimum amount of renewable fuel that must be blended into motor fuels annually.  E10 (10% ethanol blend) has become widely accepted and helped kickstart the ethanol industry, but in 2010 the EPA approved E15 for use in newer vehicles even though many automobile manufacturers claim its use can damage engines and void warranties, and no motorcycles or ATVs are currently approved to use the alcohol-laden fuel.

Rep. Goodlatte has also introduced the RFS Elimination Act (H.R.1461), “which eliminates the RFS altogether and makes ethanol compete in a free market.”  Both the RFS Elimination Act and the RFS Reform Act have been referred to the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Meanwhile, on November 15, the EPA recommended reducing the total amount of ethanol required by the RFS to be blended into U.S. transportation fuel nationwide in 2014 from 18.15 billion gallons down to 15.21 bg, though the move to reduce the minimum volume of renewable fuel next year does not provide a permanent solution to the inflexible short-term mandates nor the long-term diversion of feed stocks to fuel.

An attorney representing the Confederation of Clubs of Minnesota claims that Rochester bars and restaurants illegally deny access to people wearing clothing that displays affiliations to certain motorcycle clubs and that the Rochester Police Department advises the establishments to do so.

In a letter dated October 31, 2013 to Rochester Police Chief Roger Peterson and City Attorney Terry Adkins, A.I.M. Attorney Michael M. Bader of St. Paul, MN states that by denying access to people displaying affiliations to these clubs, the establishments are violating Minnesota Statute 604.12. The statute, the first and only biker anti-discrimination law in the country, says that access cannot be denied to “a person who operates a motorcycle or is wearing clothing that displays the name of an organization or association,” unless the person’s behavior is endangering other people or property, or the person’s clothing “is obscene or includes the name or symbol of a criminal gang.”

Bader’s letter states that he has been provided “irrefutable evidence” that Rochester restaurants and bars violate the law by practicing “discrimination” against members of motorcycle clubs, and told the Post-Bulletin newspaper that the evidence includes taped recordings of conversations with bar owners who say police advised them to deny access to people wearing jackets or other clothing with certain motorcycle club colors and insignias. “The reason given by police, as evidenced in recordings, is: ‘that these groups have a history of violence,‘” but Minnesota Statute 609.229, which pertains to gang crime, requires a gang or club to have a “pattern of criminal activity” before establishments can deny access to its members.

“Our suggestion would be for Chief Peterson to send a memo to all licensed clubs and restaurants in Rochester with a copy of Minn. Stat. 604.12, advising the license holders that discrimination upon dress alone violates the statute and makes each establishment liable for damages and attorney fees for each person who suffers the discrimination,” Bader wrote in his letter.

Peterson told the paper he has no plans to send the type of memo Bader suggested because the police department is not violating any statute, saying it is well-known and well-established that the motorcycle clubs Bader represents have histories of violence in the Rochester area and the police department has advised bars and restaurants to deny access to people wearing any kind of gang colors or insignias, and that includes those of motorcycle clubs with violent histories.

If Peterson refuses to do so, “the next step is litigation,” Bader said in a recent interview. “And then it would be incumbent upon the city to prove this pattern of criminal activity.” According to Minnesota Statute 609.902, it requires at least three separate criminal acts within 10 years of the beginning of the criminal proceeding.

The Michigan legislature has approved a bill to change the state’s motorcycle laws to allow Elio Motors to sell a three-wheeled car in the state without buyers being required to get a motorcycle endorsement.

The “Elio” (pronounced EE-lee-oh) is considered a “motorcycle” under federal and state safety regulations because it has three wheels and weighs less than 1,600 pounds. Nonetheless, it handles like a car according to inventor Paul Elio, who says Michigan’s old law would have required buyers of the Elio to take a motorcycle safety test that teaches things like, “the throttle is on the right handlebar” and you should “lean into a curve.“

The company is banking on other states with similar laws to have them modified by the time Elio Motors plans to start production of the Elio in late 2014, but their main concern is the five states that require drivers of three-wheeled vehicles to wear a helmet.

Joel Sheltrown of Elio Motors says those laws must be changed by the time the Elio is for sale, because wearing a helmet in a car obscures the person’s vision and hearing, and the weight of the helmet also has the potential to cause severe neck damage in an accident.

Such laws could also hinder sales of the three-wheeler, which will be manufactured in Shreveport, Louisiana, where the state recently amended their laws to allow Elio occupants to ride without a helmet and operators won’t have to get a special “M” endorsement on their driver’s license as required of motorcyclists.

The worldwide market for tires is projected to grow at a 5% annual rate for the period 2014-2015, and motorcycles will be a key driver.

According to an industry report, the increasing demand for motorcycles positively influences the demand for tires and hence leads to the growth of the Global Tire market. The demand for motorcycles comes from developing and under-developed countries where the penetration rate of cars is low.

Also, it is expected that the adoption of tubeless tires in the Global Motorcycle market will increase and will have a positive impact on the Global Tire market.

Texting while driving used to be an offense identified with younger vehicle operators, but a new poll shows how it has spread to older drivers as well. The poll also found that one in four drivers are now accessing the Web while driving, yet another dangerous distraction, and the increase is driven by older drivers using smartphones.

The number of drivers who report using their cell phones to access the Internet while behind the wheel continues to rise, to a point where nearly one of four drivers are going online while driving, according to a national survey that has tracked the potentially deadly practice over the past five years.  There were also jumps in the percentages of people who read or respond to e-mail, and who read or update social media networks while driving, according to an article appearing on the front page of USA TODAY on Tuesday, November 12th.

Insurer State Farm began asking drivers in 2009 whether they went online while driving. The percentage of drivers who said they do so has nearly doubled, from 13% in 2009 to 24% this year. Among drivers ages 18-29, that number rose from 29% to 49%.

Most research on distracted driving — and most laws against it — has focused on texting while driving, which creates a crash risk 23 times greater than not doing so, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.  But the rise in ownership of smartphones, which allow users to surf the Web, access social media and send and receive e-mail, means there are more opportunities than ever for driver distraction, and over the past three years the sharpest increases in smartphone ownership were among drivers 40 and over. For drivers ages 40-49, the percentage that owns smartphones rose from 47% in 2011 to 82% in 2013; for those 50-64, it went from 44% to 64%, and for those 65 and older, from 23% to 39%.

Perhaps reflecting the nation’s sustained campaign against texting while driving, that problem is growing much more slowly than surfing the Web. The percentage of people who report texting while driving rose slightly over the past five years, from 31% to 35% of all drivers. Among those 18-29, the number who report doing so has actually decreased, from 71% to 69%.

Chris Mullen, State Farm’s director of technology research says, “We need to keep an eye on social media, reading e-mail, all these other functions folks can use. … That could be legislation, it could be enforcement, it could be education and awareness.”

A new survey finds that one in five Americans would never take the wheel again if a self-driving, or autonomous, car were available.  CarInsurance.com asked 2,000 drivers whether they would buy an autonomous car if it meant they never had to drive again, and 20% of them said yes. That number soars if cheaper car insurance is part of the deal.

While 1 in 5 licensed drivers surveyed said they would gladly turn over the keys and let computers do the driving, more than a third of those surveyed said an 80% discount on car insurance rates would make purchase of an autonomous vehicle “very likely,” and 90% of respondents said they would at least consider the idea.

Cars that park themselves, navigate stop-and-go-traffic or avert an impending collision are already on U.S. roads today, and Nissan has promised to deliver a fully autonomous vehicle — one that allows a computer to assume control under the right conditions — to showrooms by 2020. A fully automated vehicle that doesn’t need a human operator could someday follow.

“Our survey shows cheaper insurance will greatly influence consumer acceptance,” said CarInsurance.com managing editor Des Toups. “Some of the liability of operating a car will doubtless be assumed by the manufacturer,” Toups said. “But a lot of the decrease in rates could come simply because there would be many fewer accidents.”

Trust will be a big hurdle, the survey results show, as 64% said computers were not capable of the same quality of decision-making that human drivers exhibit, and 75% said they can drive a car better than a computer could. Asked what they would do with their additional free time, 26% responded that they’d text/talk with friends, 21% would read, while 10% would sleep and 7% would work.