Latest Posts:
Asphalt & Rubber
Tag

senate bill

Browsing
News

Oregon Kills Lane-Splitting Law in House Committee

By 19 Comments

It’s bad news for Oregonian motorcyclists who were hoping to join the 21st century with the lane-filtering privileges that most of the world enjoys, as the Oregon House of Representatives has killed bill SB 694, in committee.

The bill, which had passed through the Senate Judiciary committee with an unanimous vote and the Oregon Senate with a two-thirds majority, was denied access to a general vote, by the bi-partisan Oregon House Committee on Transportation and Economic Development.

SB 694 had faced strong opposition from the Oregon Department of Transportation and law enforcement agencies because of perceived added danger to motorists if motorcycles were to filter through stopped traffic, and the opinions of the organizations carried weight with the House Committee, fueling its decision to kill the bill.

Keep Reading
By
News

Oregon Looking at Two Possible Lane-Splitting Bills

By 16 Comments

The great State of Oregon, my newfound home, now has two lane-splitting laws on the docket for 2015. Senate Bill 172, introduced by State Senator Brian Boquist (R-Dallas), would permit motorcycle and moped riders to pass in a lane with traffic, if that traffic is stopped or has slowed to less than 10 mph, and the lane-splitting rider is traveling at a speed of 20 mph or less.

Meanwhile Senate Bill 420, introduced by State Senator Jeff Kruse (R-Roseburg), is a little less restrictive in its provisions, and would allow lane-splitting if traffic is stopped or slowed to 25 mph or less, and the motorcyclist is traveling at 35 mph or slower.

Both laws are more restrictive than the guidelines put forward by the California Highway Patrol (California being the only state in the USA that permits motorcycles to lane-split), but would be a start in the right direction for The Beaver State.

Keep Reading
By
News

New Law Would Make Motorcycle Data-Logger Info Private

By 11 Comments

On January 14, 2014 Senators John Hoeven (R-N.D.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) proposed a still pending substitute amendment to the Driver Privacy Act, which formerly applied only to vehicles that were required to be equipped with an event data recorder which included passenger cars, multipurpose passenger vehicles, trucks, and buses.

Now thankfully, the language of the bill has been changed to a broader reaching scope to include motorcycles, but also to ensure that all of the information collected by “black boxes” for any vehicle is now protected.

Keep Reading
By
News

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger Signs California Exhaust Bill into Law – Nothing Changes

By 7 Comments

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has seemingly just terminated loud and free flowing exhaust systems on motorcycles in the Golden State of California. Affecting only motorcycles and aftermarket parts made in 2013 and on, the California’s law cracks down on noisy bikes by imposing fines  of $50 to $100 for first-time offenses, and fines of $100 to $250 for subsequent offenses.

The law’s passage has been a big issue for Californian motorcyclists, with the fires being fanned by both the MIC and AMA, who would like to state and national exhaust noise laws adopt an SAE standard. The reality though is that California’s law brings the state in-line with Federal laws on the issue, which already superseded California’s lax standards, which were widely unenforced by the state’s law enforcement officers.

With nothing changing from a legal perspective, it remains doubtful that California LEO’s will ramp-up their enforcement of the new provisions, considering how seriously they took the federal statutes.

Source:

Keep Reading
By