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Congress passes extension of Highway Bill

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Congress Kicks the Can… 30 day Highway Bill Extension Passes With the failure of Congress to pass a new highway bill, by the September 30th deadline, nearly 3,700 United States Department of Transportation staffers were furloughed on Friday. Most of these workers belong to the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the Federal Transit Administration (FTA). Without dedicated funding to operate, those agency workers were forbidden from coming into work on October 1st. Operations in these agencies, related to safety and construction projects, were halted as a result. On Friday evening, in an effort to end the closure of these agencies, Congress passed an extension of the recently expired FAST Act. The 30-day extension releases federal funds so workers at the FHWA and FTA can return to work for the month of October. An interparty fight between progressive and moderate Democrats created a stalemate on infrastructure legislation and produced the need for an extension. This is the second time the FAST Act has been extended in just over a year. The original 2015 bill, expired on September 30, 2020, but was given a full 1-year extension, creating the recently passed September 30, 2021, deadline. The Motorcycle Riders Foundation (MRF) remains engaged with lawmakers on this important bill. The MRF continues to stress the need for action on the transportation policy priorities of the nearly 10 million bikers across the country. We will keep you updated as events warrant. Visit Motorcycle Riders Foundation website at http://mrf.org

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Norton Motorcycles Head Of Design Takes Aim At Ducati

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by Bryan Campbell from https://www.forbes.com Norton Motorcycles Head of Design Simon Skinner thinks the British brand has what it takes to go head-to-head with Ducati. Admittedly, Norton taking aim at Ducati is a very, very bold aspiration. Considering the Norton name is just as synonymous with bankruptcy and financial turbulence as it is with beautiful motorcycles, you’d be forgiven for taking the current brand revival with a handful of salt. I spoke with a refreshingly candid Norton Motorcycles Head of Design Simon Skinner via video call, who said this time will be different. While there is an incredible amount of bias in that claim, this time around there’s evidence elsewhere to back it up. Back in January 2020, Norton entered the UK equivalent of Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The following April, the British brand was purchased by the third-largest Indian motorcycle manufacturer, TVS Motors. Now Norton has a new temporary factory in Birmingham, UK, is on a hiring spree and as Skinner puts it, ”the shackles have come off, in terms of design and innovation.” If this sounds at all familiar, there are similar plotlines going on at Jaguar Land Rover with Tata and Volvo and Lotus via Geely. Success isn’t guaranteed, but having a potent resource like TVS certainly helps. Speaking with Skinner, I wanted to hear just how Norton plans to not just take on Ducati and become its British equal. Bryan Campbell: Is Norton looking to follow Ducati’s lead on creating an accessible entry point with a Scrambler-esque model paired with top-tier sportbikes? Simon Skinner: Absolutely. We’ve already designed the 650cc parallel-twin range of motorcycles — the Atlas Nomad and the Ranger — and they are comparable to the Ducati Scrambler. Ours is probably a bit more modern, a bit more capable in terms of the geometry and

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Motorcycle Ohio Announces Funding for Motorcycle Rider Training

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COLUMBUS – Motorcycle Ohio, within the Ohio Department of Public Safety’s Bureau of Motor Vehicles, is pleased to announce funding assistance to government agencies and not-for-profit organizations, such as career centers and institutions of higher learning, that are interested in offering certified motorcycle rider training. Motorcycle Ohio establishes motorcycle safety and education programs to provide affordable motorcycle rider training courses in order to reduce fatalities and injuries on Ohio’s roadways through rider education, public information campaigns, and licensing improvement. Funding assistance is available to applicants who are interested in offering Basic Rider Skills for beginners, Basic Rider Skills for the returning rider, and Basic Rider Skills – 2 for experienced riders. Applicants must meet specific parameters and other necessary requirements to be eligible for an award. For more information, visit the Motorcycle Ohio website or email. The deadline for applications is December 31, 2020.

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Ride Vision raises $7 million for AI that alerts motorcycle riders to collision threats

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by Kyle Wiggers from https://venturebeat.com Ride Vision, a startup developing “collision aversion” technology for motorcycles, today emerged from stealth with a $7 million round led by investment platform OurCrowd. Ride Vision also unveiled an AI-driven safety alert system called Ride Vision 1 that will go on sale in several European countries in early 2021. A spokesperson said the fresh capital will be used for marketing, distribution, and R&D as the company looks to expand its 20-person team. There are more than 700 million motorcycles on the road globally, according to estimates. And motorcycles currently account for 28% of all fatal road accidents, resulting in the death of roughly 378,000 people a year. That number could tick upward soon, as motorcycle sales have skyrocketed during the pandemic. The company’s Ride Vision 1 package will feature cameras and LEDs designed to alert riders to dangerous situations. Two small wide-angle cameras mounted on the rear and front of motorcycles or scooters transmit footage to an onboard processing unit running an algorithm that detects and notifies riders of collision threats in real time via mirror-mounted LEDs. A mobile app delivers customizable alerts (including at night); records up to two-hour continuous-loop videos; and keeps note of stats like speed, lean angle, distance, location, and time. Ride Vision says it can detect forward collision, blind spot, and distance keeping threats from cars, trucks, buses, motorcycles, and scooters. New alerts for rear collision, forward-left, and forward-right collision threats are scheduled to arrive post-launch. “Ride Vision has built a unique dataset particular to two-wheelers that’s used to train models taking into account different bikes, level of biking experience, locality, different environmental conditions, and synthetic use cases,” a spokesperson told VentureBeat via email. “Ride Vision has the ability to improve upon the skill set of riders should the riders

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Yamaha Outdoor Access Initiative Awards Over $400,000 in 2019

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Applications Now Being Accepted for Funding Public Land Access Projects In 2020 /EIN News/ — MARIETTA, Ga., March 17, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Yamaha Motor Corp., USA, announces it awarded more than $127,000 to eight organizations in the fourth quarter grant cycle of the Yamaha Outdoor Access Initiative (OAI) for 2019, bringing the annual grant total to over $400,000. Projects receiving OAI grants often have a strong stewardship component, as well as an inclusive community of users working together to ensure all types of outdoor recreationists can access and enjoy public land sustainably and safely. To date, the Yamaha OAI has contributed over $4 million in aid to more than 360 projects across the nation. Grant recipient projects support diverse communities including motorized recreation, biking, hunting, fishing, camping, and other outdoor recreationists – all of whom rely on access to public land. Yamaha continues to encourage outdoor recreation groups and land stewardship associations to get involved in land access projects, knowing support from the Yamaha OAI program is available to nonprofit and tax-exempt groups. “Everyone who enjoys the outdoors can play a role in protecting, improving, and even expanding access to public lands,” said Steve Nessl, Yamaha’s Motorsports marketing manager. “The Outdoor Access Initiative has achieved some milestones around helping key stakeholders – those who actually do the work on the ground – secure the funding they require. It’s those making a difference in the field who we should be celebrating while we encourage all to contribute to the sustainability and responsible use of public spaces. Yamaha is proud and primed to continue to support land stewardship efforts in 2020 and beyond to benefit outdoors recreation.” Recent recipients received Yamaha OAI grants for trail maintenance, safety signage, land stewardship programs, and efforts aiding in protecting access to motorized recreation areas.

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The Battery Wars of the near future

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U.S. legislation aims to thwart China’s electric vehicle dominance WASHINGTON: A U.S. senator plans to introduce legislation on Thursday to streamline regulation and permitting requirements for the development of mines for lithium, graphite and other electric-vehicle supply chain minerals, part of a plan to offset China’s dominance in the space. U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski, the Republican chair of the Senate’s Energy and Natural Resources Committee, will introduce the Minerals Security Act alongside Senator Joe Manchin. “Our challenge is still a failure to understand the vulnerability we are in as a nation when it comes to reliance on others for our minerals,” Murkowski told Reuters. France, Germany agree on first battery cell consortium France and Germany have earmarked 1.7 billion euros ($1.90 billion) to support several company alliances looking to produce electric car battery cells, a step aimed at reducing the dependence of European carmakers on Asian suppliers. BERLIN: France and Germany have asked the European Commission to green-light state subsidies for a cross-border battery cell consortium involving carmaker PSA with its German subsidiary Opel and Total’s Saft, FAZ newspaper reported on Monday. The economy ministries of both countries sent a letter of intent to the European Union’s executive body asking Brussels to quickly give its go-ahead, the newspaper said, adding that the sum of the planned support was not mentioned.

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