Passes & Canyons Blog

Another useless bureaucracy defies death.

If you care about passing the hands-free bill that would prohibit a lot of this nonsense of cagers killing bikers because they’re on their cell phones the time is now to contact your state representatives. I’ll just insert what Stump sent out.

The important information this week is about SB20-065 (Use of Mobile Electronic Devices While Driving). The Bill will be heard by the House Transportation & Local Government Committee on Wednesday, March 18, in the Legislative Services Building (200 E 14 Ave on the first floor, conference room on the left as you enter the building). The meeting starts @ 1:30 pm and right now it is scheduled 2nd on the agenda. Below is a list of the committee members. Please contact them asking for their support of the bill. ABATE’s official stance is to support the bill, as it will make our roads safer, but of course, you always have the option to represent yourself and oppose it.

Matt Gray, Chair matt@matthewgray.us 303-866-4667

Tony Exum tony.exum.house@state.co.us 303-866-3069

Terri Carver terri.carver.house@state.co.us 303-866-2191

Marc Catlin marc.catlin.house@state.co.us 303-866-2955

Meg Froelich meg.froelich.house@state.co.us 303-866-2921

Edie Hooton edie.hooton.house@state.co.us 303-866-2915

Stephen Humphrey rephumphrey48@yahoo.com 303-866-2943

Jovan Melton jovan.melton.house@state.co.us 303-866-2919

Alex Valdez alex.valdez.house@state.co.us 303-866-2925

Donald Valdez donald.valdez.house@state.co.us 303-866-2916

James Wilson representativewilson@gmail.com 303-866-2747

Last year this bill passed the Senate but died in the House. We need to make sure it passes this time.

Not surprisingly, the bill to renew the Motorcycle Operator Safety Training (MOST) was approved and passed along to the House Finance Committee. Why do we have the Sunset review law if bureaucracies are renewed without any real consideration of their ongoing merit? Why can’t we just let them die?

Once the Finance Committee rubber-stamps it the bill will go to the full House. Contact your legislators and tell them it needs to die.

Biker Quote for Today

You might be a Yuppie biker if you have doubled the weight of your bike with bolt-on chrome.

The current MOST site.

After I wrote that post on Monday about needing to get rid of the Colorado Motorcycle Operator Safety Training program (MOST) I decided the most logical thing to do would be to contact the legislator who was carrying the bill. That would be Rep. Tom Sullivan who represents District 37 in Arapahoe County. Here is what I wrote.

Hello Rep. Sullivan. I see that you are sponsoring the sunset renewal of the Motorcycle Operator Safety Training program and that is what I wish to address.

This program seems to be on autopilot for renewal and it really should not be. When MOST was created we motorcyclists supported it and we supported paying extra on our license and plate renewals to pay for it. It was intended to promote rider safety by subsidizing the cost of rider training, and for a long time that is what it did. Administration of the program was to take no more than 15% of the funds raised.

Now there is no trainee subsidy at all and while the state agency doing the administering presumably spends no more than 15%, an outside vendor has been brought in to actually run the program, at a considerably higher cost, in addition to what the state spends. And where does the rest of the money go? No one seems to be able to offer an adequate answer to that question.

We motorcyclists are not getting our money’s worth and I for one am no longer happy to pay that money if I’m not getting what I’m paying for.

But you will not hear the training organizations calling for elimination of MOST because without MOST they would not be able to certify their trainees as having passed the riding portion of the test. Thus, riders would have less incentive to get training and we would probably end up with more untrained and unlicensed riders on the road and the training organizations would suffer a loss of income.

What is really needed, and I’m calling on you for this, is to rewrite current legislation or write new legislation that would allow the elimination of MOST or else its significant revision so that the trainers can still certify but we eliminate all the bureaucracy. I would think simply one dollar on each motorcycle plate renewal would be plenty to pay the moderate costs of ensuring that all training vendors meet the standards and the rest of what we pay can be cut.

Or maybe you have a better idea. I’d be interested to hear it. What I am not interested in hearing is that this Frankenstein thing that MOST has turned into gets automatically renewed for five more years.

Thank you for your time.

Who knows, maybe if a lot of us wrote to him he would pay attention. Wouldn’t hurt to try.

Now it’s your turn.

Biker Quote for Today

Rocket bike is all her own, it’s called a Hurricane. — David Wilcox

Back in 2013 there was opposition to continuing the MOST program. Most supporters from those days now wish they had lost that battle.

Bureaucracies never die, you just wish they would. Take Colorado’s MOST program–please!

The Motorcycle Operator Safety Training (MOST) program is up for sunset review this year, as House Bill 20-1285, and although it is no longer doing anything close to what it was intended to do, it appears destined to continue to exist. HB20-1285 will be heard in the House Business Affairs & Labor Committee on March 3 if you want to go register your preferences.

It started out as a good thing. Colorado motorcyclists supported the creation of MOST, willingly agreeing to pay an extra $4 every time we renew our drivers licenses and an extra $2 for every motorcycle license plate renewal in order to fund the program. In return, money raised was used primarily to lower the cost for students taking motorcycle rider training courses. The legislation limited program administrators to using only up to 15% of the funds to cover the cost of administration.

Today the program brings in about $800,000 per year but not one penny goes to reducing the cost of training. And while the administrators say they keep their cost to under 15%, a good deal more than that is used to fund “contract administration,” which is to say, to pay for an outside vendor to run the program. Isn’t that what the state agency was supposed to do with the 15%? And just what exactly are they doing with the rest of the money? Putting up road signs warning drivers to watch out for motorcycles? That doesn’t seem a particularly good return on the investment of $800,000. Per year.

You might think there would now be a concerted effort to get rid of MOST but you would be wrong. I raised this question at my ABATE D-17 meeting last week and it seems the matter comes down to one consideration. All organizations and companies in Colorado that offer motorcycle rider training, if they operate under the MOST umbrella, can sign off a student on the riding portion of their motorcycle riders license presuming they pass the course successfully. Then all they need to do is take the written test and boom, they’re done.

The concern is that if MOST went away, so would this ability to certify the riders, and the impetus to take training would diminish. That would mean more untrained–and possibly unlicensed–riders out there and a lot less income for ABATE, T3RG, and other training organizations.

A number of years ago the MOST program was up for review and was facing harsh criticism. The Colorado Confederation of Clubs was actively campaigning to abolish it. ABATE of Colorado fought to keep it.

Now, from what I gather, everyone hates MOST but we have to keep it or else.

How about a different approach? How about we get rid of MOST but pass a bill allowing rider training vendors to certify trainees as long as they meet certain standards? We could cut the amount we riders contribute to maybe $1 on our plate renewals and that should completely cover the modest expense to monitor the training vendors.

Of course, passing the legislation is the sticker. That requires finding sympathetic legislators, crafting a bill, and building a constituency to get it passed. That’s not easy. It’s just so much easier to renew the program for another five years and move on to the next bill. Even if the program is not doing what it was created to do. This is why bureaucracies never die.

Biker Quote for Today

You know you’re a biker if you pile boxes and laundry on your car, but your bike must have 6 feet or clearance in the garage.

MOST Program annual report

Now we come to what I consider a particularly interesting portion of the 2018 report on motorcycle crashes put together by the Colorado Motorcycle Operator Safety Training (MOST) program. I’m talking helmet usage and rider legality, i.e., having motorcycle accreditation on your driver’s license.

Unlike the other tables in this report, where they list the top 10 items, there are only 7 choices here. There are 2,470 crashes counted.

“Helmet properly used” was ticked off for 1,223, or 49.5% of all motorcycle operators, and 66.7% for all riders trained through MOST. “No helmet” comes second at 882, for 35.7% of all riders and 18.0% of MOST-trained riders. So far rider training is looking pretty good, although we again have the unanswerable question of, did they get the training before or after the crash?

Number three on the list (109) is “not applicable.” These 177 are explained as “(Cars/Trucks).” Which seems odd. If these were people in cars and trucks, why were they included in this listing of motorcyclists? Then, with 54, is “Helmet improperly used.” Gosh guys, if you’re going to bother wearing a helmet maybe you should at least strap it on properly.

Then there is “Available, not used” at 20 and then “Bicycle helmet” at 5. Really? You think a bicycle helmet is going to do much good in a motorcycle crash? Heck, I don’t see how bicycle helmets do much good even in bicycle crashes. They sure haven’t helped my sister-in-law in the two crashes she has had on her bicycle.

That’s the list. What we are told elsewhere in the report is that there were 103 fatalities in 2018 and of them, 54, or 52%, were not wearing helmets. Which means 48% were wearing helmets, which, as always, gives the lie to those who seem to think the answer to motorcycle fatalities is to make everyone wear a helmet. Helmets help but it’s going to take more than just helmets.

Then we come to licensing. Out of 2,470 riders, there were 1,393 total listed as “Endorsement required & complied with.” For MOST-trained riders it was 64.0%. Again, that’s looking good for training though it also is particularly muddy regarding training before or after the crash.

A total of 563 riders had no endorsement, and then we have 371 with “Endorsement required & not complied with.” I’m really not at all sure what that is supposed to mean. How does that differ from no endorsement?

Then there are 51 listed as “Endorsement required & compliance unknown” and another 92 with “Unknown.”

I don’t know about you but I tend to suspect that riders who have MC endorsements are more likely to be safe riders. At the very least it presents a certainty that you have at least a minimum of ability to control the machine. No it doesn’t say a thing about the ability to maneuver a tight curve at a high speed but at least it’s a start. That’s where further rider training is a good thing. I’ve taken five rider training courses and done one track day and I can tell you pretty confidently that I’m a better rider than my friends who have done none of these.

Biker Quote for Today

You know you’re a biker if you can identify bugs by taste.

Others in attendance.

As I noted on Monday, Bruce Downs, ABATE of Colorado’s state coordinator, had a series of suggestions for fine-tuning the Motorcycle Operator Safety Training (MOST) program. The fact is, Bruce had printed out the program rules and flagged every spot in the document where he had changes to offer.

One of the bigger issues Bruce raised was one that ABATE has raised for quite some time now. The legislation the MOST program is based on seems to state clearly that of the funds raised through licensing fees, no more than 15 percent can be used for administration. But ever since an outside contractor has been brought in to administer the program, those costs have eaten up about 65 to 70 percent of the funding, he said. Can we come up with a compromise that falls somewhere in the middle.

While other suggestions at this meeting were met with discussion and an openness on all sides to work something out, this item got completely shot down. Glenn Davis, representing the Colorado Department of Transportation, replied that this issue was studied and a state attorney issued an opinion that the use of the funds in this manner is acceptable.

What my wife, an attorney, tells me about this is that basically this is saying, you can sue us if you like, and maybe you’ll win, but unless you do that we are going to keep doing what we’re doing. End of discussion.

And it did end that discussion.

Another significant issue Bruce brought up was the limitation of the MOST program to beginner rider training. In the past, MOST funds could be used to defray the costs of other rider training courses beyond the Beginning Rider Course (BRC). His initial proposal was simply to add a definition of Advanced Rider Course (ARC) into the rules.

Bruce’s point, however, which was echoed by several in the room, was that a large percentage of riders being killed are not the newbies, but experienced riders with years under their belts.

“If we don’t do advanced rider training are we shortchanging riders who are paying in for the program?” he asked.

While no action was called for or expected at this time, the idea was that the stakeholders involved with MOST ought to be considering this issue in the days ahead.

The rest of Bruce’s issues were small ones affecting primarily the training vendors, and often specifically ABATE. These included definitions of mobile training operations, clarifying what background check findings should render possible Rider Coaches unqualified, and making travel expense reimbursements conform to the reality of costs.

A second stakeholder engagement meeting will be held in the same location (15055 S. Golden Road, Building 100) on Friday, January 26, from 9 a.m. to noon.

Biker Quote for Today

Who needs a time machine when one twist of my wrist will leave you in the past!

The CSP’s first stakeholder engagement meeting.

The Colorado State Patrol (CSP) held its first stakeholder engagement meeting Friday, with about 20 people present, as it takes over control of the Colorado Motorcycle Operator Safety Training program (MOST) from the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT). Essentially the meeting presented an opportunity for the organizations that provide rider training to propose tweaks to the program to help bring regulatory concepts into line with on-the-ground reality.

The first–and most extensive–discussion was on allowing larger bikes to be used in the Beginning Rider Course (BRC). Current limitations say no more than 350cc but it was argued that the limit should be raised to 500cc. The gist of the argument was that if most riders are going to actually get out on the road on larger bikes, why shouldn’t they be trained on the bikes they’re actually going to ride? It was agreed that the training vendors need to continue to have smaller training bikes on hand for those trainees who need them, but for those capable of handling larger bikes, why not make that an option?

As I understand it, there is also the consideration that the Harley-Davidson training programs all use larger bikes and thus are currently excluded from participation with MOST due to the 350cc limitation.

Also raised was the requirement that Rider Coaches be 21 years of age. The point made was that while there may not be a lot of 18-year-olds who you would want to trust as a Rider Coach, in the few cases where you would, why not allow it? This is especially important because there is currently a shortage of Rider Coaches in the Colorado and opening it up a little more could help. It was also suggested that the requirement that a Rider Coach training in Colorado must hold a Colorado driver’s license be amended.

This opened up the issue that some of the specifics vendors deal with are written in law while others are only regulatory in nature. CSP personnel at the meeting made it clear they want to get a solid year under their belts running MOST before they start talking about proposing legislative changes. The consensus at the meeting was that that was reasonable but that these sorts of issues ought to be presented as a package when the time comes.

Another suggestion was to try to have the law rewritten so as to reference the curriculum in use. That way, it would not be necessary to change the law every time the curriculum changes. Apparently, however, there are some limitations on citing outside sources “by reference” because there is the possibility that those sources might call for something contrary to state law. There do appear to be workarounds in this regard, though.

That brings us to the point in the meeting where Bruce Downs, state coordinator for ABATE of Colorado, took the floor to present a series of tweaks and revisions that his organization (of which I am a member) would like to see made. I’ll go over all that in my next post.

Biker Quote for Today

You’re a biker wannabe if all your leathers match.

Rider training is a good thing. You don’t think these guys got this good just on their own, do you?

As of January 1 the Colorado State Patrol (CSP) is now owner of the Motorcycle Operator Safety Training program (MOST). Now we’ll see if anything changes, and if so, what, and how.

Since its inception MOST had been managed by the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT). That seemed to work well for many years but not so much as time went on. As MOST came up for extension the decision was made to let CSP take over.

As a first move to figure out what needs doing, CSP has announced two Stakeholder Engagement Meetings, to be held this month.

The first is Friday, January 12, from 9 a.m. to noon at 15055 S. Golden Road, Building 100, which the the CSP facility at Camp George West.

The second meeting is set for two weeks later, Friday, January 26, from 9 a.m. to noon at the same place.

From the flyer announcing the meetings:

The Colorado State Patrol (CSP) will be hosting engagement meetings open to the public to obtain comments on the MOST Program Rules. Feel free to attend either meeting, it is your chance to talk with CSP staff about the MOST Program and offer feedback, recommendations, and comments. We look forward to seeing you there. Please see below for event details.

If you want to look over those rules, they are available as yet on the CDOT website: https://www.codot.gov/safety/motorcycle/documents/motorcycle-operator-safety-training-rules.pdf

I think I know where I’m going to be at 9 a.m. this coming Friday.

Biker Quote for Today

Behind every crazy biker is an even crazier old lady who is enjoying the ride.

Part of CDOT’s MOST website.

The Colorado Legislature officially moved the Motorcycle Operators Safety Training (MOST) program from the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) to the Colorado State Patrol (CSP) during this recent legislative session but that doesn’t mean CDOT is casting it aside during the transition. In fact, it seems like they may even have kicked things up a bit.

MOST is a program intended to promote rider training, with the idea that a rider who receives real training in operating the bike will be a safer rider than one who just learns by doing. I know this to be the case because I learned by doing and years later took some training courses. Guess what: I learned a bunch of stuff. I became a better and a safer rider.

May is commonly declared Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month and so with that theme in mind I was recently contacted by Megan Tobias, a public relations rep working with CDOT to promote the safety effort. She was asking if I could do something in this space to help promote training efforts. And in fact, she offered that if I wished, they could set me up to take a course on their dime. “Even if you’re a skilled motorist, we have an array of more advanced classes that can help fine tune your skills. Locations and class levels can all be found here: https://www.codot.gov/safety/live-to-ride/get-training.html/.”

This is a new level of promotion that I haven’t seen before. And I suspect I’m not the only one Megan has contacted to try to get this information out to the public. I say good on CDOT.

So initially I declined Megan’s offer but thinking about it now I may take her up on it. For one thing, I know that the Motorcycle Safety Foundation, whose curriculum the MOST instructors follow, has revamped its programs, so if I take the Experienced Rider Course a second time it is presumably going to be different from the first time. Plus, I don’t care how good or experienced you are, there’s always more you can learn. You’ll read about it here if I do.

Biker Quote for Today

Never twist the throttle with your ego.