Passes & Canyons Blog

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.

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.

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

Given a reprieve last year following years of poor oversight, the Colorado MOST program’s new rules have been agreed upon and should go into force in mid-March.

MOST, or Motorcycle Operator Safety Training, provides funding to reduce the cost of motorcycle safety training for riders. That funding comes from an extra fee motorcyclists pay each year when they renew their plates, and when they renew their drivers’ licenses.

After surviving the legislative inquest regarding the poor oversight, the program was once again threatened when legislators on the relevant committee concluded they wanted to keep the fees but eliminate the trainee benefit, using the fees only to pay for other motorcycle safety efforts. That would have totally negated the purpose of the MOST program and left motorcyclists paying extra for programs that people in cars and trucks pay nothing extra for. Talk about unfair!

That challenge was faced and overcome, and now the final rules have been laid out and, according to ABATE of Colorado State Coordinator Terry Howard, they are acceptable. Howard told members at yesterday’s ABATE District 10 meeting that now it is time for members to let their legislators know they support the rules.

The process now was spelled out in an email from Emiliano Barela, of the Colorado Department of Transportation:

This email is to let you know that the rules were adopted by the Executive Director with no changes on January 14th. We have submitted them for review to the attorney general’s office today. That office has 20 days to review them, so must send us an opinion prior to Feb. 3rd. Once they send us the opinion, we file them with the Secretary of State: http://www.sos.state.co.us/CCR/RegisterHome.do and they are published in the Colorado Register. We believe they will be published on Feb. 10th, and they become effective 5 weeks later, so by mid-March. Attached are the same rules you reviewed for the public rule making hearing (red-line and final draft). There are no changes (except maybe numbering corrections) since that draft. The clean version will be the official rules when they are published.

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Biker Quote for Today

Practice makes perfect and is just an empty parking lot away.

OK, you’re going to be riding around Colorado as much as possible this year no matter what. Are you interested in an something that can perhaps introduce you to places you’ve never been, and that might also put some cash in your pocket?

Oh, caught your interest, did I?

Here’s the deal. ABATE of Colorado is doing a fundraiser, for the second time, where you can purchase ($15) a Colorado Statewide Tour 2012 Passport Book that lists 178 businesses, points of interest, events, and other things. Each time you go to one of these you document it–receipt, signature, photo, whatever–and at the end of the year you turn your book in. For every five points you have checked off you get one entry in a drawing with three prizes: $1,000, $500, and $250.

Now, we all know that the odds with a drawing are that you will not win. Although three somebodies in this case will win. So while winning would be sweet indeed, it’s only a remote reason for playing. The real reasons are two-fold: Discovering new places or revisiting cool places you’ve been before, and raising money for ABATE.

The first reason needs no explanation. Why should you care about funding ABATE? Well, it seems like every legislative session that some bill gets introduced that motorcyclists get very interested in. Some we like, some we don’t. If we like them we want to support them; if we hate them we want to fight them. ABATE is our proxy in that effort. No motorcycling group in the state has more influence down at the gold dome.

Enough about that. What are some of the spots on the list? Here’s a random selection.

• Corral Sports Bar in Brush
• Barbour Ponds near Longmont
• Beecher Island Battlefield south of Wray
• Sunset Inn in Pueblo
• R’s Pizza in Silver Cliff
• Hovenweep National Monument near Cortez
• All ABATE Campout near Ignacio Sept. 1-3
• The Bike Shop in Sterling
• Motobreck in Breckenridge

As I said, random. So how many of those places have you been to? Here’s your chance to go someplace new.

So I bought my passport book. I’ll be checking off spots any time I can. And who knows, maybe I’ll win some cash. But I’m not banking on it.

Biker Quote for Today

You can’t be lost if you still have half a tank.

That didn’t take long. One day a bill came up for consideration in the Colorado House that would prohibit businesses from barring bikers from their establishments because they are wearing colors. The next day that bill was killed on a 6-3 vote in the State, Veterans, & Military Affairs Committee.

The bill, HB 1128, was proposed by Rep. Joe Miklosi, at the urging of constituents who belong to the Veterans of Vietnam America Motorcycle Club. I would assume it also had the support of the Colorado Confederation of Clubs, considering that they are whole-heartedly against businesses that ban erstwhile customers wearing colors. Just an assumption, but I could be wrong.

As an aside, here’s the Biker Friendly Or Not page on the CCC’s website where they list establishments that sit on both sides of that fence.

The vote in this case was not strictly a party-line vote. With five Democrats and four Republicans on the committee, the three who sought to keep the bill alive were all Democrats but two Dems joined with all four Republicans to “postpone the bill indefinitely.”

I have to think this was another situation where the biker community, at least those of the cruiser persuasion, and the Republicans who they generally work in concert with, ran into some friction. They would seem to be opposing views of freedom, i.e., the freedom of business owners to run their businesses as they see fit vs. the freedom of individuals to dress as they choose without fear of retribution.

There was a time years ago when my buddies and I went out to a bar on our bikes and were denied entrance because we were wearing motorcycle jackets. No colors or anything, just jackets. We figured that was pretty absurd. And you can bet we’ve never been back to that bar.

On the other hand, “No shirt, no shoes, no service” is a common sign and people seem to accept that with no argument. So the issue would come down to how you write a law that goes far enough without going too far. You probably can’t, so maybe it’s just best to leave it alone. The government doesn’t need to make the rules on everything.

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Virginia bill banning motorcycle-only stops enacted; federal legislation pending

Biker Quote for Today

You know you’re becoming addicted to riding when you start putting your gear on in the morning, only to realize you need to take the cage to work . . . but you consider leaving your gear on to make the commute “more motorcycle-ish.”

Senate Bill 89, which would have eliminated Colorado’s Motorcycle Operator Safety Training (MOST) program, died in committee Tuesday. But the senators who wish to give reform efforts a chance to succeed made it clear they will vote differently in the future if the program is not fixed.

The idea that the program has problems was not contested by anyone. The only discussion was on whether to kill the program outright or first let those involved with MOST do what they can to fix it. On a party line vote, the majority Democrats on the committee voted for the latter while the minority Republicans voted to kill the program.

In arguing for killing MOST, Sen. Scott Renfroe, the bill’s sponsor, challenged the need for such a program and said it was an area in which the government need not get involved. Sen. Renfroe made it clear he supports rider training, pointing out that he himself rides motorcycles, but that he feels the program has outlived its usefulness.

Opponents of the bill expressed concerns that killing MOST could result in the loss of an annual $100,000 grant for motorcycle safety efforts from the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration. They also said that in talks with the Colorado Department of Revenue (DoR), DoR had made it clear that if MOST was killed, the department would no longer accept Beginning Rider Course certification in lieu of the department’s own testing of riders seeking to get licensed. Sen. Renfroe said he questioned whether DoR would in fact do that.

If DoR did do that, opponents pointed out, it would mean that the expense of testing, which is currently borne by the riders taking the courses, would fall on DoR, driving up government expenses.

Sen. Renfroe pointed to results of a survey conducted among riders who had taken the courses, saying that the riders themselves stated overwhelmingly that an increase in the price of the class would not have deterred them from taking them. Speaking for the Colorado Department of Transportation, which supported allowing time for the program to be fixed, Herman Stockinger pointed out that in fact, the survey showed that nearly 50 percent had said a $70 increase would indeed have caused them to reconsider. Seventy dollars per student is the amount that rider training is subsidized through MOST.

“That’s perhaps 4,000 plus people (per year) who wouldn’t have taken the training,” said Stockinger.

So MOST has a reprieve but it is not out of the woods. It is now up to those involved with MOST to put into effect the recommendations of a legislative audit report. And if those recommendations are not enacted, the next time this issue comes up the outcome could be very different.

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
Colorado motorcycle training program gets reprieve

Biker Quote for Today

It’s our job. Burnin’ gasoline, killin’ bugs, and wearing out tires! — StevenE Fristoe

Are you aware that when you renew your plates on your motorcycle(s) each year in Colorado you pay $4 that goes into a fund to help defray the cost of rider training courses? Also, anyone renewing their driver’s license with motorcycle accreditation pays an extra $2 that goes to the same fund.

This is all set in place because some years ago the motorcycling community asked for it. The general idea is that it is a good thing for everybody to have the folks riding motorcycles actually get some training so they can do it competently. The accompanying concept was that such a program could help to forestall proposals that Colorado institute a mandatory helmet law. That is to say, education and better riding skills do more to prevent traffic fatalities than wearing helmets. Or, to put it differently, crash prevention is better than having safer crashes.

Regardless of how you might feel about helmet laws, I don’t see how anyone can argue that it is not better to avoid crashing than to crash and not get hurt so badly.

The vehicle for this funneling of fees to rider training is Colorado’s Motorcycle Operator Safety Training program or MOST. MOST is now under attack, in some cases from organizations that originally supported its creation.

I could go on at great length with the history and background of what is currently going on, as ABATE of Colorado’s State Coordinator Terry Howard did with me, but I’ll give you the short version.

ABATE, Riders for Justice, some of the motorcycle clubs, dealerships, and others pushed for the training approach. Over the years the program was not given sufficient oversight and some problems developed. The Colorado Legislature this past year conducted an audit of the program and identified a number of issues. Several of those issues were immediately addressed and rectified and the rest will soon have been fixed.

In the meantime, however, new people have replaced the old, and in organizations such as the Colorado Confederation of Clubs (COC) which came into existence later, there is no understanding of the history of and reasons for the fees. Some of the previous supporters are now saying, “Why should we have to pay to reduce the cost for other people to learn to ride?”

In a twist that gives fits to Terry Howard, a Republican, the legislative audit committee was divided on party lines–with the Republicans being the ones she finds herself in opposition to. In the current anti-tax atmosphere, the Republicans on the committee are in favor of eliminating MOST and letting us keep our $4 and $2 fees. It is the Democrats who are saying, “The motorcyclists asked for this program, and for these fees to be levied on them, so let’s keep the fees and keep the program they fund.”

One other thing to keep in mind: If MOST is killed there is no certainty that the fees will be eliminated. We could end up paying the fees without getting the benefit.

The committee deadlocked in this past session, but it seems likely that Republican Rep. Marsha Looper, of Colorado Springs, will introduce legislation in the next session to kill MOST. This would be a good topic for all Colorado motorcyclists to learn more about, and then do what you can to educate your legislators, whether you support MOST or oppose it. Most of them don’t know anything at all about it.

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Biker Quote for Today

Statistics show that most solo motorcycle accidents are caused by a defective nut holding the handlebars.