Compiled & Edited by
Bill Bish,
National Coalition of
Motorcyclists (NCOM)
FEDERAL RULE WILL REQUIRE A
“BLACK BOX” IN NEW VEHICLES
Congress failed to pass
legislation that would have required manufacturers to install event data
recorders (EDRs) in all new vehicles, so a federal safety agency is using its
rulemaking authority to mandate that all new cars sold in the United States be
equipped with so-called “black boxes” - capable of capturing what happened in
the moments before and during a crash.
Citing privacy concerns,
House
Republicans had succeeded in removing a Senate provision requiring EDRs from the
final transportation bill last year, so the Obama administration is bypassing
the legislative process in favor of the administrative rule.
Insisting the devices are
meant for crash investigation purposes, and not for invading privacy, the U.S.
DOT National Traffic Safety Administration mandate will require all automobiles
and light trucks manufactured after September 1, 2014 to have an EDR device that
stores driving information for federal investigators.
Automotive EDRs are similar
to -- though not nearly as sophisticated as -- the black boxes used in
commercial airliners, and they are already installed in nearly 92% of today's
vehicles, according to industry officials, and provide important information for
industry engineers and, in some circumstances, law enforcement authorities.
But Horace Cooper of
the National Center for Public Policy Analysis called the move “an unprecedented
breach of privacy for Americans.” Cooper said that contrary to what is being
claimed, EDRs “can and will track the comings and goings of car owners and even
their passengers” -- and what they can record is virtually
unlimited.
In the meantime,
U.S.
Representatives Mike Capuano (D-MA) and Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) have announced
their intentions to introduce the “Black Box Privacy Protection Act” that will
protect drivers’ and riders’ rights by requiring dealers to disclose to
consumers if a vehicle is equipped with an EDR, would require manufacturers to
allow consumers to deactivate the device, and clarifies that the owner of the
vehicle owns the data and it cannot be accessed without
permission.
"Consumers should
have control over the information collected by event data recorders in vehicles
that they own and they should have the option of disabling the device if they
choose to do so. This is a basic issue of privacy," said Rep.
Capuano.
DESPITE MEDIA HYPE,
MOTORCYCLING IS SAFER
Record numbers of
motorcycles over the past few years have resulted in an increased number of
annual motorcyclist fatalities, and in light of overall motor vehicle fatalities
steadily decreasing gives the impression that motorcycling is becoming more
dangerous, but just the opposite is true.
While so-called safety
experts point to more and more states relaxing their helmet laws as the root of
all this evil, it’s in fact a numbers game that motorcycle enthusiasts are
winning.
Over the past five years,
since 2007 when there were just over seven million motorcycles in the U.S.,
motorcycle registrations nationwide have ballooned to eight and a half million;
an increase of 15% more motorcycles on the road today, while at the same time
fatalities per 100,000 registered motorcycles has actually decreased by nearly a
quarter! Moreover, over the past decade motorcycle registrations have risen
40.7% (from 5,004,156 in 2002 to 8,437,502 in 2011), but the fatality rate
dropped 17.3% (from 65.35 per 100K to 54.66).
Check out the most current
statistics acquired by the National Coalition of Motorcyclists (NCOM) from the
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Fatality Analysis Reporting
System (FARS), compared to motorcycle registration numbers found on the U.S. DOT
Federal Highway Administration website:
Year - Registered
Motorcycles / Rider Fatalities = Fatality Rate per 100,000
Motorcycles
2007 - 7,138,476 / 5,174 =
72.48
2008 - 7,752,926 / 5,312 = 68.52
2009 - 7,929,724 / 4,469 =
56.35
2010 - 8,009,503 / 4,518 = 56.40
2011 - 8,437,502 / 4,612 =
54.66
**NOTE: According to these
data analyzed by the National Coalition of Motorcyclists, motorcycle
registrations have increased 15.4% over the past five years, while fatalities
decreased by 10.9% and the fatality rate declined 24.6%...why isn’t the news
media reporting THESE facts?
GERMAN STUDY CLAIMS
MOTORCYCLE HELMETS COULD BE SIGNIFICANTLY SAFER
A study carried out by the
German Hohenstein Institute in Bönnigheim shows that motorcycle helmets could
indeed be a lot safer if some other measurements would be taken into account,
concluding that inner shell size alone is not enough for providing the best
protection-to-fit ratio, and the head shape is just as critical.
The Hohenstein Institute
study narrowed the head shapes to 6 major categories, with an amazing width
variance of 3.5 cm (1.37”), determining that one helmet size cannot possibly
offer the best fit for all these head shapes, even provided the circumference is
the same.
With the way the inner
impact layer fits on the rider's head being one of the critical elements in
shock absorption and G-dispersion, it's apparent that the same shape will create
different pressure points on a motorcyclist's skull, leading to various outcomes
in similar crash conditions.
Spaces between the skull and
the protective layer / liner result in less optimal protection in case of an
impact, and such anthropometric head data could improve helmet design and
manufacturing significantly, should the leading brands take notice of the
study's finding.
JAYHAWKERS SEE THE LIGHT
The
Kansas legislature unanimously passed House Bill 2318 which allows a motorcycle’s headlamp to be wired
with a headlamp modulation system, which must meet federal standards. The bill
also allows certain types of lights on the sides of motorcycles, visible only
from the side and not from the front or rear and to not protrude beyond or
outside the body or wheel of the motorcycle. The side lights may emit white,
amber, or red light without glare.
The legislation was
signed into law on April 4, 2013 by Governor Sam Brownback and goes into effect
July 1st.
RED-LIGHT CAMERA COMPANIES
FIGHT LAWS AND RULINGS AGAINST TICKET CAMS
Purveyors of red-light
cameras continue their quest to place cameras on every street corner in the
nation, and one strategy is to put the hit on states that have traditionally
been “protected” from cameras either through legislation or court
ruling.
Redflex lobbyists recently
swarmed over the Minnesota Statehouse pushing a bill to allow ticket cameras
into the state. The bill was written to thwart a 2007 Minnesota Supreme Court
ruling that Minneapolis’ red-light camera program was unconstitutional. The bill
was defeated in committee, thanks in part to the efforts of ABATE of Minnesota
and the National Motorists Association (NMA).
In Michigan, where a 2007
ruling from the state’s attorney general has been keeping cameras at bay,
recently introduced camera legislation has turned Michigan into the latest photo
enforcement battleground state.
The NMA (www.motorists.org)
warns that if you live in one of the 15 states that have taken steps to keep
cameras out, stay alert. Chances are that a camera company lobbyist is cozying
up to a friendly state lawmaker with a nice campaign donation and a pre-written
camera bill that needs support.
HONDA & BMW EXPERIMENT
WITH “AUTONOMOUS MOTORCYCLE”
Most connected
vehicle technologies have focused squarely on the car, but BMW and Honda are
working to develop autonomous driving technologies that work on two wheels. Both
BMW and Honda have already added plenty of connectivity to their cars, but now
the two automotive giants are working with the University of Michigan and
Australian startup Cohda Wireless to put networking smarts into their
motorcycles.
Adelaide-based Cohda
designs radio systems and software that will not only link nearby vehicles on
the road to each other, but also to the road itself. The idea behind its
autonomous car technology is to create an ever-changing ad-hoc network of
vehicles communicating their intentions and interacting with the infrastructure
of the road.
Known as
vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I), these technologies
could help power self-driving cars of the future. The University of Michigan
Transportation Institute (UMTRI) runs one of the key test-beds for that
technology, and its lab is running an ongoing trial of 3,000 connected vehicles
in Ann Arbor, Mich., which is where Honda and BMW will put their connected
motorcycles through the paces, according to a report on
GigaOM.com.
Motorcycles may not
have much room on their instrument panels for the connected infotainment systems
going into today’s cars, but they could definitely benefit from any technology
that makes mounting a motorcycle safer, and one of the major goals of V2I and
V2V efforts is to reduce accidents and improve safety on the road. Vehicles
could make quicker and better driving decisions than drivers because they would
be able to access more info from the networks around them and react to it nearly
instantaneously (they’re also less easily distracted than human
drivers).
As for motorcycle
applications, Cohda and UMTRI plan to test technologies that let bikes talk to
traffic lights, roadside beacons and other cars, warning them of green lights
about to turn red and dangerous curves ahead requiring them to slow down. By
using a long-range secure form of Wi-Fi, a motorcycle could communicate with a
car long before the drivers can see one another as they both approach a blind
intersection.
Previously, a
riderless motorcycle was developed in 2005 by graduate students from UC Berkeley
to compete in a 150-mile off-road race for autonomous vehicles to further
develop self-navigating vehicles for the Department of
Defense.
CANADIAN INSURER TO
TRACK MOTORCYCLIST BEHAVIOR WITH “TELEMATICS”
With an eye to
calibrating insurance rates, Saskatchewan Government Insurance plans to use new
technology to track how fast and how far motorcycles go. It's called telematics
and someday could be used to help set insurance rates, among other things, but
for now SGI is just trying the technology out with a pilot
program.
It's looking for
several hundred motorcycle users to volunteer to have their bikes equipped with
telematics technology. The “black box”-type gadgets would record speed,
braking, mileage and location. The volunteer riders would have weekly updates
on their driving behavior, to show them what information SGI would be looking
at.
"Usage-based
insurance is the ultimate in rating fairness because it essentially lets the
driver control their own insurance rate through their driving behavior," said
Donna Harpauer, the minister responsible for SGI. "Simply put, those who drive
responsibly pay less and those who don't pay more."
While no one's rates
will be affected by the pilot program, the experiment is one of the ideas coming
out of the Motorcycle Review Committee, a group formed in the wake of a storm of
controversy after SGI had proposed boosting motorcycle rates an average of 73%
to compensate for high injury claims. Government-owned SGI later withdrew its
proposal and came back with some milder proposed increases for motorbikes,
including the telematics pilot program that could begin as early as this
season.
POPE BLESSES HARLEYS &
RIDERS
Thousands of Harley riders
from around the world were blessed by Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Square on
Sunday, June 16 as one of the stops in a worldwide celebration of the famous
motorcycle maker's 110th anniversary, which will roar across 11 countries before
concluding in Milwaukee over Labor Day Weekend.
Choral music mixed with
revving engines as the Holy Father blessed a sea of Harley-Davidson motorcycles
and riders from all parts of the planet flocking to Italy over the weekend of
June 13-16 to celebrate Harley-Davidson’s milestone, and earlier in the weekend
festivities, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church was presented with two
white classic Harley-Davidson motorcycles for use by Papal police and his own
black leather jacket.
Get in on the action while
the anniversary tour is still in high gear. Check out
www.110.Harley-Davidson.com for schedules and cities.
QUOTABLE QUOTE: “Men love
their country, not because it is great, but because it is their own.”
Seneca
(4 BC – AD 65), Roman philosopher and statesman