Passes & Canyons Blog

I heard at the recent ABATE District 10 meeting that the Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF) was awarded the contract to administer Colorado’s Motorcycle Operator Safety Training (MOST) program, but the other bidder, Lee Parks’ Total Control is protesting that award.

Let’s recap.

The MOST program is paid for out of extra fees each of us pay each year when we renew our motorcycle registration. The program has passed most of that money along to motorcycle rider training programs to keep their prices for their training programs as low as possible, with the intent that this would encourage more riders to get trained.

With little oversight, however, it developed that some of this money was not being used as intended and so the state decided to hire a contractor to oversee the program. Bidders on the contract were Total Control and the MSF, both of which are curriculum providers. And therefore, in some people’s minds, awarding the contract to either would be a conflict of interest.

That much is pretty straightforward. From there it gets really twisted. My associate, Matt Wessels, had intended to present a comprehensive discussion of the numerous claims and counterclaims regarding the MSF and MOST but after I ran a post quoting some of what Matt had told me, I received an email from Robert Gladden at the MSF claiming that much of what Matt said is untrue.

“Based on the words I see here I can guess who is likely sources are and they have long history of making similar false claims about the MSF,'” said Gladden.

I replied to that email making the point that I had asked the MSF for comment and had not heard back from them, but that Matt and I would welcome the opportunity to speak with them. The reply to me was “Our media department received your inquiry and are working on a response, we are waiting for a few more pieces of the puzzle to come together.” That was May 15 and the last I’ve heard.

However, more recently I checked in with Matt on this and he told me, “Concerning the MOST issue, taking to heart that last email that was sent to me, I saw I needed to keep digging, and have been doing just that to unearth this incredibly convoluted history. Gotta set the records straight and finding the people with an accurate account of what happened a decade and a half ago is very difficult, however, should have something soon.”

So now you’re up to date.

Biker Quote for Today

Motorcycling is not, of itself, inherently dangerous. It is, however, extremely unforgiving of inattention, ignorance, incompetence, or stupidity.

Tags: MOST program

This entry was posted on Monday, August 31st, 2015 at 3:18 pm and is filed under Motorcycle Safety. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.