MOST Will Not Die
The Colorado Motorcycle Operator Safety Training program, or MOST, is up for renewal in the legislature this next session and despite the desires of much of the motorcycling community, it will probably be continued. That was the word at ABATE recently.
The issue now, said ABATE State Coordinator Bruce Downs, will be to figure out how to live with it as best we can.
This first selfie I have ever shot shows the group at the Piper Inn, with the arrow pointing out Sen. Nancy Todd.
Now, however, the amount paid to lessen the cost has been radically reduced and the program is spending its money–money paid in by motorcyclists as add-ons to our license renewals–is being spent in large measure for oversight of the program. Let’s see . . . MOST is no longer helping make training affordable but is spending the money to keep itself functioning. For what reason? I mean, if not for rider training, for what reason? So ABATE would now like MOST to die.
But as Bruce says, that does not appear likely to happen, at least not this time around. So the issue becomes figuring out how to get that money going back to training. This is where State Senator Nancy Todd comes in. For a number of years, Sen. Lois Tochtrop was one of the strongest motorcycling proponents in the state legislature. She was term-limited and is now gone from the Senate. Nancy Todd has stepped into the void. ABATE arranged a meet and greet with Todd and others interested in motorcycling issues about a week ago at the Piper Inn, which is a popular biker bar in southeast Denver.
Sen. Todd was the one who held the Colorado Department of Transportation’s (CDOT) feet to the fire over this recently resolved issue of motorcycles being required to have transponders in order to freely use HOV lanes. And according to Bruce, she agrees that there appears to be some conflict of interest in the idea that the Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF) is serving as both one of several competing rider training curriculum providers AND as the overseer of motorcycle rider training programs in Colorado in general. And of course, as ABATE points out, the funds paying MSF for its role as overseer are coming out of MOST funds far in excess of what the legislation seems to allow.
Sen. Todd said she intends to set up a meeting soon with CDOT and MOST to ask them to justify these issues.
And the beat goes on.
Biker Quote for Today
You’re not leaving work early, you’re just stretching your legs . . . all the way to your bike.
