Passes & Canyons Blog

A beginning rider course.

One big difference between doing this blog and writing for a newspaper is that at a newspaper I would need to take a lot of time talking to people on all sides of an issue before sitting down to write what would hopefully be an article that distills conflicting views down into something approaching the truth. Even now, with a lot more time available, I’m not going to spend entire days tracking down this kind of comprehensive information. And with a fast-breaking story like this anti-MOST bill, I would have ended up not publishing anything until long after the matter was decided. So I get comments from one person and present them and then get rebuttal from someone else and present that. Gradually I get more expert in the subject myself and can discuss my understanding of what the truth of the matter is, but in the meantime I do my best to present all sides.

With that lead-in, I got an email Friday from Terry Howard, no longer with ABATE but now with Motorcyclists Advocacy of Colorado, who has had a lot of experience with the MOST program and rider training issues. She had this to say in response to what I’ve published about the late bill to kill the MOST program.
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Hi Ken,

I just read your article and I am not sure where people are getting their information from, but it is incorrect information. I helped Mr. Parks write the bid for the MOST administrative program. Nothing can be further from the truth about a Total Control training monopoly! A monopoly is what MSF has in Colorado today. ALL rider training licensing courses in Colorado use MSF. In fact, Total Control Training is the ONLY company that would admin the program in Colorado with a choice of curriculum. They have the staff to provide Q&A for 3 different curricula. If the bid were to be awarded to Total Control Training, schools can teach MSF and/or Total Control. It is not a one or nothing deal.

I applaud Mr. Parks for asking for an endorsement from SMSA. We can ask why no one else has ever bothered to do this. While SMSA is not an accrediting agency, they are composed of state motorcycle safety administrators, so I would think their review would hold some credibility. Where could you find a better group of people to review a curriculum? MSF can do the same thing, they just haven’t.

While I understand that the Senate bill had the SMSA component in there, Mr. Parks was not aware of this until it was written in the bill. Mr. Parks had no contact with the senator whatsoever. Someone else must have suggested that wording to Senator Sonnenberg.

I like the Total Control Training program. When I found out that they had licensing courses I was quite interested in learning more about it. After learning that Texas, Maryland, US Navy, and the US Marine Corp all are using this curriculum, I felt it should be explored in Colorado. Anyone that knows me (including MOST staff) is well aware that I have always been a proponent for a second curriculum that would address riding conditions in Colorado more in depth than what the MSF curriculum does. I will admit when I first met Lee Parks I wasn’t really sure about him. After taking the time to speak with him and work with him over the past couple of years, I can say this man truly believes in his work and I have the utmost respect for him. He is passionate about motorcycle safety and training. He is always striving to improve his program and takes suggestions from instructors in the field. I told Lee that I would be happy to bring his curriculum to MOST to go through the approval process. Which is exactly what one of his instructors and I did back in early March.

I have copied him on this email and I am suggesting to you to get his point of view. I know you are only reporting what has been stated to you. I also know you well enough that you would like the other side of the story, so please email Lee. Get the full story. So many people out there seem to jump to conclusions without going to the source to find out exactly what the intentions are. So many folks are, dare I use the word “afraid” of change, that they panic without knowing all the facts. My comment to the training companies, before you get in a tizzy, learn all the facts and quit listening to rumor.

Thanks Ken, I always appreciate your interest and pursuit in getting information out to motorcyclists.

Terry
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I’ll tell you where this matter leaves me: I look forward eagerly to the definitive exposition of this whole business that Matt Wessels is working on. It will be a while yet. Matt is getting married soon so he can be excused for not making this his top priority. But at this point I don’t think there’s any rush. I certainly do hope he has it ready to go before the next legislative session, however.

Biker Quote for Today

Gear: Because walking away in disgust beats riding away in an ambulance.

A Beginning Rider course.

SB 15-286 to eliminate the Colorado Motorcycle Operator Safety Training (MOST) program has been killed.

The bill, introduced in the Senate by Jerry Sonnenberg (R), was passed on May 5 and was introduced in the House by Lori Saine (R) and Jovan Melton (D). Bipartisan sponsorship did not prevent it from being sent to the House Finance Committee where it was “postponed indefinitely,” legislative verbiage for “killed.”

While I’m trying to help interested readers be informed about this bill and what is happening, I’m really just doing my best to learn about it, too. Someone who is a lot more knowledgeable about it than me is Matt Wessels, which is one of the reasons I agreed to have him join me in posting on this blog. Matt is working on a deep, broad series on the whole business surrounding MOST but for the meantime he filled me in a bit on some of the background here.

Matt pointed out a number of things. For instance, while I reported a few days ago that this bill, if it had passed, would have created something of a monopoly in Colorado for the Lee Parks Total Control rider training curriculum, “The MOST program has only ever had the MSF (Motorcycle Safety Foundation) curriculum approved as a curriculum which results in an endorsement from DOR (the Colorado Department of Revenue). When the MOST program was created, there was another curriculum, offered by the State of Oregon, which MSF lobbied not to include the Oregon curriculum in the MOST bill, so they could have a monopoly in Colorado. It worked and there was an agreement struck between CDOT (Colorado Department of Transportation)/MOST and MSF. There are many curricula out there, some better suited to Colorado riders than MSF. Lee Parks’ is one of them. Oregon and Idaho also have very good curricula.”

So it’s not as if the state has been exactly neutral in the past.

Matt continued: “Under the new bill, no curriculum would be “approved,” since SMSA doesn’t approve curricula, which means it would be interpreted that all curricula are OK as the standard isn’t defined. It would be a free-for-all. This means, any curriculum could be taught, and any vendor could teach, without any standards or quality assurance. The risk of the bill is in the lack of regulation, and the risk that provides to the new student who wouldn’t know which vendor is teaching the right thing or not. It’s also a direct attack on MSF, which has had the monopoly and foothold in Colorado for so long, in their push to become the national curriculum. They’ve done this in other states as well. They have board members on the MIC (Motorcycle Industry Council) board, and are working with motorcycle vendors and seller to become a monopoly and secure their curriculum, their product as the end all, be all. It WOULD hurt Harley, as they have their Rider’s Edge training program, which has special provision through MOST to be taught, and does not comply with NHTSA, as they teach on 500cc motos, not 250cc as required by NHTSA.”

So OK, it’s a pretty complicated situation. For now at least it’s on hold. The bill failed. But I think we can count on seeing this kind of thing in the next legislative session. We can only hope that the next bill will be better written.

Biker Quote for Today

Safety is a cheap and effective insurance policy.

A screen grab from the MOST program website.

I’ve been digging into this story of Senate Bill 15-286 and it’s getting curiouser and curiouser. I spoke today with Dave Tolbert, who runs the Motorcycle Training Academy. Dave has been very busy all day talking to legislators and other operators of training outfits, all of it focused on this bill.

The word on this bill, mentioned by Robert Frank in the notice from him I ran here, and reiterated by Dave, is that Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg introduced this bill on behalf of ABATE and T3RG. Very interesting if that’s the case considering I belong to ABATE and go to meetings and I sure hadn’t heard anything about this.

While the original bill didn’t say this, amendments late on Friday night added wording to this effect: The bill repeals the motorcycle operator safety training program and instead requires the department of revenue to issue a motorcycle endorsement to an applicant who:

* Provides proof of completion of a motorcycle training program; and
* Attests that the program used the curriculum established by the National Association of State Motorcycle Safety Administrators.

Dave explained this to me. Many of you may be familiar with Lee Parks and his Total Control program. Parks is, in Dave’s term, a “curriculum vendor.” He offers a fully developed curriculum for rider training and markets or franchises it across the country.

So according to Dave, Lee Parks asked the State Motorcycle Safety Administrators (SMSA) organization, “Can you verify that my curriculum meets the NHTSA (National Highway Transportation Safety Administration) model standards?” These standards were only recently introduced.

“SMSA had never done that before,” said Dave, “they’re not an accrediting agency, but they said, OK, sure, we can evaluate that. And now Lee Parks is the only curriculum vendor who has sent his program to SMSA because the rest of the vendors say, ‘well they’re not an accrediting agency. Why would we send it to them?’ So he is the only vendor who has curriculum that SMSA says has met the national model standards.”

Look back at that second bullet in the amendment to this bill: Attests that the program used the curriculum established by the National Association of State Motorcycle Safety Administrators.

In other words, if a student rider wants to take a course and get accreditation so he or she doesn’t have to pass the driving part of the licensing test, the only curriculum vendor whose program would meet that standard is Lee Parks. Currently, most rider training courses in the state use the curriculum offered by the Motorcycle Safety Foundation, a competitor of Lee Parks. All the MSF training in Colorado would lose the ability to offer students automatic exemption when they went to get licensed.

Can you understand that Dave Tolbert and a lot of other outfits around the state are in a tizzy?

But what about ABATE? The ABATE training is MSF based. Why would that group support this?

As I say, curiouser and curiouser. I hope to have more information soon.

Another Biker Quote for Today

Accidents hurt — safety doesn’t.

Rider trainees on the course.

This seems to have come almost out of nowhere, though I suspect it is actually the result of some behind-the-scenes efforts, but all of a sudden there is a bill in the Colorado Legislature to defund the Colorado Motorcycle Operator Safety Training (MOST) program. The bill was introduced on Thursday and the session ends on Wednesday so anyone who wants to contact their representatives needs to do so right away. And due to the nature of the situation, I plan to put up several posts in quick order, unlike my standard Monday/Thursday schedule.

I first got wind of this via an email from ABATE District 10 rep Carol Downs forwarding an email from ABATE legislative affairs officer, Stump. Here’s what Stump had to say.

The 2nd bill on Thursday at the Senate Transportation Committee was more exciting, SB15-286 (MOST Bill). On Tuesday, Senate Sonnenberg introduced a bill to get rid of the MOST Program. We had talked about this issue last year a few times at our SBOD Meetings and agreed that if the subsidies were going away, we didn’t want our $4.00 and $2.00 going to administration of the program (which wasn’t doing its job in the first place). The bill passed 3-2. Thanks to Bruce, Tiger, and Colleen Boyle (T3RG) for testifying. There was quite a bit of opposition from other Rider Ed. Vendors, but the truth prevailed and the bill was sent to the Senate Finance Committee. I expect it to pass that committee today then on to the Senate floor and hopefully to the House by Tuesday. It wouldn’t hurt to send a quick e-mail to your legislators asking them to vote yes on SB15-286 (MOST Bill). I’ve sent an explanatory letter to all the Senators already and will follow up with a similar letter to all the Representatives this weekend, so all you’d have to say is, “As a constituent, I urge you to vote yes on SB15-286 (MOST Bill).” That’s all it would take.

So we’re clear on where ABATE stands on this. My next thought was what position this new group, Motorcyclists Advocacy of Colorado (MAC), was taking on it. Turns out my still developing understanding of MAC was a little off. Here is the explanation of the group’s intent, as given to me by Terry Howard, who is a co-founder of MAC.

MAC does not take positions on issues. The purpose of MAC is to inform the motorcycling public of issues that will affect us. We produce facts surrounding the issue and publish the information. It is then up to the individual members what position THEY choose to take. We provide guidance and coaching to address the issue, whichever side they are on.

Pursuant to its intent to provide information, I found on their Facebook page an ongoing update on the progress of the bill. It seems it is now to go to the Senate Appropriations Committee today, after receiving some amendments.

Not all groups wish to see MOST abolished. Alan sent me the following from Robert Frank:

URGENT – Final legislative vote will happen on or before Tuesday 5-5-15

The people that are doing their best to kill the MOST program in Colorado (ABATE & T3RG) have introduced a bill to do just that, SB 15-286.

As first introduced it had a lot of holes, was poorly written, it had major issues.

Well, it’s been amended with exclusionary wording, that if passed, will disallow all MSF Motorcycle Safety Foundation training in Colorado.

It will make Lee Parks, Total Control the only certified course in Colorado.

Currently in California Lee is charging $258 for the equivalent of the MSF BRC (Get your license course) The MSF course is available in Colorado @ $160.

Lee’s charging $475 for his ‘Premier’ course. The MSF equivalent is available for $260.

If Lee Parks is made the only authorized course you will pay more for your training, loose your manufacturer training rebate, you HOG rebate and quality MSF products.

Please call, write, e-mail your state senator / representative and let them know you do not support this bad bill.

How likely is it that this thing will pass? I have no real insight but considering the fate of numerous other bills in the last few days I would tend to expect it to fail. At this time. I would expect to see it return in the next session if it doesn’t pass now. We’ll see. In the meantime, I have calls in to some folks and will be posting more very soon.

Biker Quote for Today

Biker Heaven: The road, full tank, full throttle