Biker Rights Issues
By Rebekah Metzler, Staff Writer
AUGUSTA — You've heard the roar of motorcycles cruising down the highway or past your house at all hours.
State lawmakers on the Transportation Committee met Friday to discuss how best to address the problem, wary of the feelings of both motorcycle enthusiasts and parents of sleeping babies.
“It's not a problem in Farmington, but I can see it is a big problem in Old Orchard Beach,” said Sen. Walter Gooley, R-Farmington.
Sen. Nancy Sullivan, D-Biddeford, sponsored a measure that asks the Legislature to address the issue, but it's not a new subject; efforts to add noise controls have failed in the past.
“During the summer when you like to have your windows open, it has become a problem,” Sullivan said. She had informed the panel during the public hearing held earlier this session that about 38 percent of Maine motorcycle owners do not get the required state inspections, which check the vehicles for legal mufflers.
“(It's) really important that everybody follows our laws, and motorcycles do need to be inspected,” Sullivan said.
But because motorcycle inspection stickers are not required to be displayed, law enforcement officials can't easily determine whether a motorcycle has passed inspection.
The panel, leery of opposition from state motorcycle groups, decided to require bikers to display inspection stickers, rather than to enact noise restrictions specific to motorcycles.
Members also voted to establish a working group of stakeholders, including representatives from law enforcement, citizen groups, the motorcycle industry and motorcycle enthusiasts, to discuss other solutions. It would work over the summer and report findings to the next Legislature.
“(We would) require that an inspection sticker be placed on the left front to ensure that motorcycle was inspected and that the inspection does call for a muffler to be on that motorcycle, which is of an acceptable variety,” said Sen. Dennis Damon, D-Trenton, the committee chairman.“We hope that the inspection requirements are sufficient to reduce the noise," Damon said. "This we feel will give local enforcement the opportunity to see if the motorcycle has been inspected.”
Sullivan said the inspection sticker display would help, but many people feel it's a bigger problem.
“They need to have some hope that by the next summer season (in 2011), they will be entitled to have peace and quiet in their homes also and that people are living by the law,” she said.
The full Legislature will take up the issue in the coming weeks.
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