More On Motorcycles In HOV Lanes
As far as HOV lanes are concerned, these are motorcycles.
I got a note the other day from William, at Iron Buffalo Motorcycle Training.
Hello Ken
Just something you might ad to your post as no one thought of it until after the fact…
There are a growing number of 3-wheel riders out there that seem to get ignored.Straight from CDOT:
“Here is the official definition of what is a motorcycle, including a 3-wheeler:(55) “Motorcycle” means a motor vehicle that uses handlebars or any other device connected to the front wheel to steer and that is designed to travel on not more than three wheels in contact with the ground; except that the term does not include a farm tractor, autocycle, low-speed electric vehicle, or low-power scooter.”
So in case anyone was unsure, yes, three-wheelers do count as motorcycles in using HOV lanes without needing a transponder. Although I’m curious. It mentions “autocycles” as not being considered motorcycles. Autocycles is the term that is more and more in use around the country to describe all these various three-wheelers that are not out and out motorcycles, i.e., two-wheels one behind the other.
Counting three-wheelers as motorcycles skews crash statistics because these things just handle differently, have different problems, and crash differently, at least in some instances. So what happens in the future if Colorado decides to rewrite its legislation to create an autocycle category that would include trikes? I do suspect, however, that bikes with sidecars will always continue to be considered motorcycles, even though they do have three wheels.
So this latest success at getting procedures changed so motorcycles don’t get ticketed/fined for using HOV lanes without transponders was very much a topic of discussion at Sunday’s ABATE District 10 meeting. It turns out the fix to the computer system was not as simple as you might think it would have been.
According to Bruce Downs, the system now has the ability to distinguish motorcycles by the size of their front tires. For the first 90 days they’re doing a side-by-side comparison with the computer making the ID and a person making the ID. The idea is to be sure the computer is identifying bikes successfully. If it’s working sufficiently well it will go completely by computer after the 90 days.
And there is back-up. Before any dunning statements are mailed, a human views each one, and if a motorcycle has slipped past, that person will remove them.
Beyond that, there is always the possibility of a screw-up. Nothing and nobody is perfect. Carol Downs told of someone they know who received a letter demanding payment and it turned out when she protested that the license plate number had been read incorrectly and the vehicle in question was a car belonging to someone else entirely. So the bottom line is, you’re free to use any HOV lane on your bike and if you get a bill, don’t just pay it, protest it. It will be dismissed.
Biker Quote for Today
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I can’t change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know when to just go riding.
Tags: HOV lanes
November 2nd, 2016 at 5:10 pm
HOV is far more about revenue enhancement than about traffic management. The Elio vehicle has gotten itself categorized as an “autocycle” for purposes of skirting the various helmet laws and for a while it looked like it might be legal in the HOV lane as well but I guess CDOT decided that sitting in a car seat on your 3-wheeler was too comfortable to escape the toll charges.