HB16-1172 is a bill dealing with a CDOT Efficiency and Accountability Committee. ABATE’ s concern comes in the statement,“ The responsibilities of the committee are clarified and expanded to ensure that the committee addresses commission and CDOT accountability, specifically with respect to compliance with federal and state legal requirements …”. Again this relates to the Federal Statute on motorcycles as HOV and possibly the MOST Program.
The Senate Joint Resolution of concern was SJR16-038, this would establish May as Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month in Colorado. I started looking for as sponsor in late March. Senator Tate stepped up with help from Sen. Todd, but by the time we got a house sponsor( Reps. Ginal & Sias) and all the wording straightened out, it didn’ t get introduced to the Senate Floor until 4 / 28. It passed on 4 / 29 and was sent to the House Floor on 5 / 2. Due to it being the last few days of the session and other“ more important” issues, SJR16-038 kept getting laid over until finally it was never addressed in the House. Lesson learned on my part, start with that resolution next January.
Another issue ABATE was hoping would be addressed was Autocycles. Last year during a Transportation Legislative Review Committee( TLRC) meeting, Autocycles was briefly discussed and Chairman Tyler suggested it might be brought up during the 2016 session. When I addressed the issue with several legislators in late February, it was already too late to introduce a bill. The TLRC is an interim committee that meets after session and throughout the rest of the year, discussing possible issues for next year’ s session and getting updates and reports from various state agencies. Sen. Baumgardner is this year’ s Chairman so I’ ve requested the issue be put on the agenda for this year. We’ ll see, as I will try to attend the committee meetings. The issue being, there are some 3-wheeled vehicles out there( Polaris’ s Slingshot, Toyota’ s Elio and I-Road and even Tuk-Tuks) that are truly not motorcycles, but because of having 3 wheels, their“ statistics” fall under the motorcycle category. In order to maintain accurate accident and fatality statistics( the Colorado State Patrol agrees with this) these vehicles should have their own category. Google these vehicles and see what you think, are they motorcycles? Maybe next year we’ ll get some action on the issue.
Lastly, ABATE is working on a questionnaire to send out to candidates for the State Senate and House seats. The Primary is June 28th, so as soon as we know who our“ motorcycle friendlies” are, we’ ll get the word out to help you decide who to vote for. Now would be a good time to join a State Motorcycle Rights Organization and become more legislatively active.
Stump Legislative Affairs Office – ABATE of Colorado
www. thunderroadscolorado. com June 2016 Thunder Roads Magazine ® Colorado 7