The Lonely Rider

Oregon has become the third state to pass a law requiring all new motorcyclists regardless of age to pass a rigorous training course, in hopes of reducing accidents and fatalities. Current law requires such course completion for prospective riders under age 21.

The new law, Senate Bill 546, passed by the state legislature this year will phase in the requirement for all first-time bikers over the next six years. Lawmakers also voted to double the fine for riders caught without the proper license, increasing the penalty to $720 starting in January.

Team Oregon trained about ten-thousand riders last year, and the majority of them were older than 21. More than 4,400 people bypassed the class in favor of a free skills test at the DMV, but soon all first-time riders will have to shell out about $150 to take the Team Oregon course, which is administered by Oregon State University.

Executive Director of BikePAC says he’s been riding for 35 years and he thinks the new requirement will save lives: “A trained rider is a safe rider. And we’re trying to cut down the deaths, especially the unnecessary deaths of people that are making stupid mistakes because they don’t know what to do.”

A similar mandatory training bill was recently passed in North Carolina, but was amended to require rider education courses only for those under 18. Senate Bill 64, which also limits learners permits to 12 months with one 6 month renewal, was signed into law August 26th by Governor Mike Easley and goes into effect January 1, 2011.
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While most states across the country continue to experience increases in motorcycle accidents and fatalities in the wake of increasing motorcycle usage, the state of Texas has reported a significant decrease in rider deaths due largely to safety and awareness programs initiated by motorcyclists and the Texas Department of Transportation.

According to TxDOT, fatalities declined more than 23% over the same time period from 2008, with 264 deaths reported from January 1 – August 24, 2009, versus 344 deaths the previous year.

“I would say this is a direct result of the Texas Transportation Institute put together to cut down on Traffic fatalities, especially for motorcyclist,’ explained Sputnik, State Chairman of the Texas Motorcycle Rights Association (TMRA-II) and Chairman of the National Coalition of Motorcyclists Legislative Task Force (NCOM-LTF). “Several of our members sit on the Board of that newly formed Institute.”

Sputnik gave further credit to the Motorcycle Awareness Program put together by TxDOT at riders’ insistence and added; “We have very high hopes that SB 1967 (a multi-faceted motorcycle safety bill enacted earlier this year) and the year round airing of Public Service Announcements, increased penalties for negligence and Rider Training will bring that number down even farther.”

Texas is one of the largest motorcycling states in the nation in terms of motorcycle registrations and year-round riding weather, and largely through the efforts of TMRA-II under Sputnik’s leadership repealed their mandatory helmet law in 1997.
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