A federal lawmaker has introduced legislation to prevent the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) from giving money to states and local jurisdictions for motorcycle-only checkpoints, the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) reports.
On March 3, Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) introduced the bill. The legislation, with original co-sponsors Reps. Tom Petri (R-Wis.) and Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), would prohibit the DOT “from providing grants or any funds to a state, county, town, or township, Indian tribe, municipal or other local government to be used for any program to check helmet usage or create checkpoints for a motorcycle driver or passenger.”
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which is part of the Transportation Department, recently gave Georgia a $70,000 grant to conduct one or more roadside motorcycle-only checkpoints. New York state has operated a similar program using state funds. The AMA has been tracking this disturbing development of motorcycle-only checkpoints since it first appeared in New York several years ago.
Personally I don’t like it. We have to get our bikes inspected once a year to make sure they are road legal and that should be good enough. They start with something like this and soon enough they will do it for cars and trucks too.
fuck I hate those things and wasting 45+ minutes getting stuck in one when the state worker or trooper goes in their van and rubs one out and then comes back with a piece of paper.
THIS is the point they are trying to make. Its nothing to do with safty, it has to do with money hungry fucks ie. NYS driving away riders from large events.
Thats the bull shit that went on like Mike just said. The state new massive amounts of riders were headed to one place, and stretched the nets at door #1 and door #2 coming into LG. knowing full well 9-10 harley riders have beanie helmets that ante DOT legal and they could get roughly $80 a head in fines for each rider. Not to mention the exhaust on just about EVERY bike going there was illegal. Thats like knowing a $160 paycheck to NYS X 10,000+ riders that week would add up.
This is why the Americade event coordinators said fuck you NYS (one of a few reasons) we dont even want to come back this year. The town of LG depends on 2 major events each year to basically stay afloat, ask any business owners down there. bull shit like that stunt they pulled is putting that town out of business.
I am sure the Americade people contacted AMA and pushed for this for this reason.
Honestly the AMA has been a damn good foundation, much more supportive than a lot of other motorsport foundations I know of. Get a lot accomplished too!
I totally agree with Mike…safety checkpoints are one thing but the ones in NY are ridiculous, all they do is hand tickets for exhaust or whatever other minor infractions they can find they have zero effect on the safety of the motorcycle itself.
They are only “safety checkpoints” by name as I am sure they do catch some bikes with safety issues, but in reality it is more a legalized and government funded revenue generating event where they DON’T need to have a reason to pull you over, and write you a ticket for very non OEM parts you have on your bike.
LOL. That was fun to go through on the SMR. Baffle-less OEM muffler, license plate covered in mud mounted just above the rear tire, one mirror, LED tail/signal strip held onto the fender with double sided tape…
“You didn’t have to turn your bike off. You’re good to go.” :rofl Took 5 seconds, tops.