Passes & Canyons Blog

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