WISCONSIN - Legislative Lobby Day 2012 Set

OFF THE WIRE
http://www.abatewis.org/page.php?section=2&subsection=3&article_id=5080
Legislative Lobby Day 2012 Set

By Dave Dwyer
Madison: AB 55 - On November 2 at 8:03 pm the State Assembly passed AB 55 on a voice vote. This is our bill that moves the license suspension for Right-of-Way (ROW) that cause injury or death to an administrative function of the DOT instead of relying on the court system to sentence violators to the required suspension. The bill included an amendment that I explained wrong in the ABATE News Release I sent out. I had wrongly stated that the amendment set a minimum time for the violators ROW class when it actually set 30 minutes as the minimum amount of time that must be spent teaching Driver Education students how to watch for motorcycles. I apologize for the confusion.
Now that AB 55 has passed the Assembly it is time to go to work in the State Senate. The Chair of the Senate Transportation and Elections Committee is planning to hold a hearing on AB 55 in the early part of January. With this in mind our Legislative Committee has chosen January 24, 2012 as the ABATE of Wisconsin Lobby Day. This should put our Grassroots Lobbyists in the Capitol before the full Senate has a chance to consider our bill, and possibly before the Transportation and Elections Committee has held their Executive Session to vote on moving AB 55 out of committee. The prospects for passage are good, but nothing is guaranteed until the Governor has signed the bill. Please plan on joining us for Lobby Day. The date we set is after the collection of signatures in the recall drive against Governor Walker is finished so that should not interfere with getting our message to our Senators. Our main goal will be encouraging passage of AB 55 with no further amendments because any changes now would have to also be approved by the Assembly after the Senate votes on the bill. We will also be talking with both the Senators and Assembly members about how to best keep motorcycle death and injuries in check in Wisconsin.
Your Regional Reps and Legislative Officers will be working to get meetings set up with your legislators and their staff along with working with Lisa getting the bus schedule set up. ABATE will supply all the handout materials you will need along with highly experienced members to help you talk with your legislators if you are not comfortable doing that on your own. We will again have the "I Lobbied" patches and year rockers available. Your first patch is free just for coming down as are the year rockers. If you want a second patch for another vest or jacket, you may buy one for $5. These patches are only available at ABATE of Wisconsin Lobbying events and are not sold through Products so if you see someone wearing one you know that they have made the trip to Madison to protect that crown jewel of motorcycling, our Freedom of the Road.
Washington D. C. - About the only thing going on in Washington with a direct impact for motorcyclists is work on the new highway spending bill. Both the Senate and House Transportation committees are working to put something together. There are some that want to limit the spending to 4 billion dollars and others that feel that it will take 8 billion dollars to meet the transportation infrastructure needs of America. They all agree that the gas tax at its current level will not raise enough money to pay for all the work that needs to be done to get our roads and bridges back in shape. Options being floated include everything from no gas tax increase to increasing the gas tax or creating a new funding mechanism that would automatically charge you tolls based on the roads you drive and the time of day you use those roads. I would hope that if this is what happens congress will recognize the fact that motorcycles are a much more efficient way to move people. Motorcycles can help eliminate congestion, take much less room to park and cause much less wear and tear on the roads and tax us accordingly.
We will also have to keep a close eye on the development of the Intelligent Transportation System (ITS). This is the concept of vehicles communicating with the vehicles around them and the road to help prevent crashes and keep traffic moving. If the road or other vehicles can not recognize motorcycles there is a chance we could be banned from these roads in the name of safety
Along the safety and congestion topics there has been some discussion lately in a national motorcycle magazine of the benefits and dangers of lane filtering, or lane splitting, on congested urban highways as a way to reduce traffic jams. I know many motorcyclists feel strongly either in favor or opposed to this. Lane filtering, as it is referred to in Europe, is a common and accepted practice across the pond. The only place in this country you can lane split without getting a ticket is California (don't ask me how I know) and it seems to be working there.
With the holiday season coming up keep in mind that you can give the gift of Motorcycling Freedom, you can give the gift of an ABATE of Wisconsin or Motorcycle Riders Foundation (MRF) membership to bring another Freedom Fighter into our family.