The impact of crash barrier designs upon motorcyclists is an important topic for state motorcycle safety task forces. Currently most road engineering and crash barrier design overlook the impact upon motorcyclists. This ezine issue provides several reference sources for motorcyclists serving on motorcycle safety task forces and other interested parties.
A recent article in the newsletter (reprinted below) has generated many positive comments and requests for more information regarding BOLT of the Carolinas. I'll be meeting with roughly 40 interested bikers this weekend to further discuss BOLT and answer questions. If you would like me to speak at your group's next meeting kindly send a request.
Reader comments are always welcomed in the Biker Ezine.
This is not the end but rather just the beginning,
~FF
1) What a Long Strange Trip It's Been
2) Motorcyclist Advisory Council (MAC-FHWA)
3) National Agenda for Motorcycle Safety: Roadway Characteristics
4) National Agenda for Motorcycle Safety: Other Vehicle Design
5) National Agenda for Motorcycle Safety: Intelligent Transportation Systems
6) 2006 International Motorcycle Safety Conference
7) Motorcyclists & Crash Barriers Project Report
8) Lowcountry GOP Breakfast Club to mark 9/11
9) Soldier recounts ambush
10) 3 reasons why Andre vs. Lindsey won’t happen
11) S.C. homeowners to get big tax cut
12) Beatty becomes justice today
13) Festival honors mill heritage
14) Nonprofit will target lawmakers in SC
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1) What a Long Strange Trip It's Been
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What a Long Strange Trip It's Been
Written by FastFred Ruddock, August 13, 2007
Shortly after writing last month’s report the North Carolina General Assembly reinserted language adding FMVSS 218 into North Carolina’s current helmet law via House Bill 563. After January 1, 2008 you may be ticketed for wearing a novelty helmet just as someone not wearing any helmet is now. CBA has created a legislative subcommittee tasked with creating a helmet defense packet; I am a contributing member of the CBA’s Helmet Defense Project ... Full Article>>
http://www.fastfreds.com/articles/20070813statecoordreport.html
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2) Motorcyclist Advisory Council (MAC-FHWA)
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http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/mac/
Motorcyclist Advisory Council (MAC-FHWA)
The Motorcyclist Advisory Council to the Federal Highway Administration (MAC-FHWA), coordinates and advises the Secretary of the Department of Transportation, acting through the Administrator of the Federal Highway Administration, on infrastructure issues of concern to motorcyclists, including: (1) Barrier design; (2) Road design, construction, and maintenance practices; and (3) The architecture and implementation of Intelligent Transportation System technologies.
The MAC-FHWA does not exercise program management or regulatory development responsibilities, and makes no decisions directly affecting the programs on which it provides advice. The MAC-FHWA provides a forum for the development, consideration, and communication of information from a knowledgeable and independent perspective.
According to section 1914 of SAFETEA-LU, the Council shall consist of not more than 10 members of the motorcycling community with professional expertise in national motorcyclist safety advocacy, including: (1) At least: (A) one member recommended by a national motorcyclist association; (B) One member recommended by a national motorcycle riders foundation; (C) One representative of the National Association of State Motorcycle Safety Administrators; (D) Two members of State motorcyclists' organizations; (E) One member recommended by a national organization that represents the builders of highway infrastructure; (F) One member recommended by a national association that represents the traffic safety systems industry; and (G) One member of a national safety organization; and (2) At least one, and not more than two, motorcyclists who are traffic system design engineers or State transportation department officials.
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3) National Agenda for Motorcycle Safety: Roadway Characteristics
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http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/people/injury/pedbimot/motorcycle/00-NHT-212-motorcycle/environmental53-54.html
National Agenda for Motorcycle Safety: Roadway Characteristics
ISSUE STATEMENT
Roadway design, maintenance, and construction are generally directed toward the needs of multi-wheel vehicles, with the needs of motorcycles often addressed as an afterthought.
WHERE WE ARE
Poor road design and maintenance contribute to motorcycle crashes, injuries, and fatalities. A variety of common road conditions and design factors can pose hazards to motorcyclists. Debris on the road can also cause a motorcycle to crash. In addition, roadside objects may create an injury mechanism for a motorcyclist.
• Current highway standards permit pavement ridges of up to 1.5 inches without tapering, which pose a significant hazard to motorcycles.
• Potholes are a hazard that can cause motorcycle crashes.
• Slick materials that interfere with traction are applied to road surfaces with increasing frequency. A motorcycle’s traction can be seriously compromised by bituminous rubberized asphalt sealer used for crack repair and plasticized adhesive pavement-marking tape.
• Fluid spills can cause loss of traction and a resulting crash.
• Roadway debris poses a greater hazard to motorcycles than to larger vehicles. Debris can deflect a motorcycle’s wheel when it is struck.
• Metal road surface components, either temporary or permanent, offer almost no traction, and when wet, may also be the most difficult to see.
• Many roadside barriers designed to retain cars and reduce injuries to automobile occupants are deadly to motorcyclists who collide with them. Wire-rope barriers are one example, but a motorcycle or the body of a fallen motorcyclist can also strike portions of other barrier designs in ways that an automobile cannot, causing severe injuries. Other roadside fixtures, such as signage, which may yield when struck by a car, can injure a motorcyclist who hits them. Even curbs can be deadly to a fallen rider who slides into them.
• Current work-zone signage practices may not adequately address the safety needs of motorcyclists.
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4) National Agenda for Motorcycle Safety: Other Vehicle Design
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http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/people/injury/pedbimot/motorcycle/00-NHT-212-motorcycle/environmental55.html
National Agenda for Motorcycle Safety: Other Vehicle Design
ISSUE STATEMENT
The design of other vehicles plays a role in motorcycle safety. For example, mirror design may compromise visibility. Vehicle height may obscure a motorcyclist’s ability to survey the surrounding traffic environment.
WHERE WE ARE
There is little effort to design or test other vehicles to increase motorcyclist safety.
There are increasing numbers of tall vehicles on the road. Tall vehicles obscure a motorcyclist’s view of the environment and surrounding traffic. They also obscure other drivers’ views of motorcycles. In a collision with a tall vehicle, a motorcyclist is less likely to vault over the vehicle after the collision than in a collision with a lower vehicle.
Blind spots on automobiles and trucks make it harder for drivers to see motorcyclists. Mirror design may compromise the ability of drivers to detect motorcycles.
The design of other vehicles as it pertains to injury agents also affects motorcycles when a crash occurs.
DRL on automobiles may reduce the effectiveness of operating motorcycles’ headlights during the day as a conspicuity measure.
The spray from vehicles, especially heavy trucks, on wet roads may adversely affect a motorcyclist’s vision.
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5) National Agenda for Motorcycle Safety: Intelligent Transportation Systems
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http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/people/injury/pedbimot/motorcycle/00-NHT-212-motorcycle/environmental59-60.html
National Agenda for Motorcycle Safety: Intelligent Transportation Systems
ISSUE STATEMENT
The deployment of Intelligent Traffic Systems (ITS) within traffic is rapidly increasing. Current ITS and Intelligent Vehicle Initiative (IVI) development efforts have generally ignored the presence of motorcycles and their riders.
WHERE WE ARE
• Motorcycle safety has received little, if any, consideration in the development and deployment of ITS technologies.
• The plan to accelerate deployment of vehicle-based ITS technologies, via DOT’s Intelligent Vehicle Initiative, raises concerns that these systems have not been adequately tested to perform reliably in a mixed traffic environment that includes motorcycles.
• Research and development of ITS technologies have been directed only toward the improvement of automobile safety. No research has been directed toward the improvement of motorcycle safety.
• Motorist awareness of motorcycles remains a pervasive safety issue (see Motorist Awareness, page 31 http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/people/injury/pedbimot/motorcycle/00-NHT-212-motorcycle/social31-32.html) and ITS technologies are essentially awareness-enhancement tools for the motorist. Therefore, a tremendous opportunity exists to apply these technologies toward the improvement of motorcycling safety through technology-enhanced motorist awareness. This opportunity is being ignored.
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6) 2006 International Motorcycle Safety Conference
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http://www.msf-usa.org/imsc/proceedings/d-Sharp-IHIEGuidelines-ImprovingSafetyThroughEngineering.pdf
2006 International Motorcycle Safety Conference
“The Human Element”
IHIE GUIDELINES FOR MOTORCYCLING
- Improving safety through engineering and integration.
Riders of motorcycles are susceptible to serious injury, even in low-speed collisions, yet the specific safety needs of motorcycles with their reliance on an adequate and consistent friction between their tyres and the road surface, are frequently overlooked by policy makers, planners, road designers and maintenance engineers ...
Subsidised public transport, Car sharing and cycle facilities are often promoted in such travel plans yet Motorcycles can offer similar benefits to cycle usage but for greater distance of travel more than 5 miles where commuters are unlikely to opt for cycling. When including motorcycles (and indeed cycles) in travel plans items to consider should include Safe, secure parking; Changing Facilities and Accessibility to the site and Safety ...
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7) Motorcyclists & Crash Barriers Project Report
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http://www.fema.ridersrights.org/crashbarrier/index.html
Motorcyclists & Crash Barriers Project Report
A proposal for a Project to develop recommendations to Road Traffic Authorities for reducing injuries to motorcyclists in collision with crash barriers, with emphasis being given to low-cost protective measures and preferred crash barrier systems and installation practices
Crash barriers exist to protect road users when they are involved in a road traffic accident. For one group of users however they usually result in greater injuries and a greater likelihood of being killed. The motorcyclist is not contained within a vehicle and consequently it is often the rider that makes contact with the crash barrier, which is made to withstand the impact and absorb the energy of a vehicle weighing up to 40 tons.
The very construction of certain crash barriers in common use, with their exposed, sharpedged metal posts, the height and profile of their guard-rails, their proximity to the carriageway, and even in some instances, their use of steel ropes as the means of arresting a vehicle, could not be more damaging to a motorcyclist coming into contact with them than if they had been designed with that objective in mind.
The seriousness of the situation is recognised by Directorate-General VII with the question of crash barriers and motorcycles being identified as a priority action in the European Commission's communication "Promoting Road Safety in the EU - The Programme for 1997 to 2001". COM (97)131 final, of the 9th April 1997. The document set out a work programme for Commission action, and crash barriers and motorcyclists feature under Field III- "Reduction of Consequences of Accidents -Forgiving Roadside Design" ...
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8) Lowcountry GOP Breakfast Club to mark 9/11
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FF Note: This is a great opportunity to meet your elected officials in the Lowcountry.
http://www.charleston.net/news/2007/sep/05/breakfast_club_mark14941/
Breakfast Club to mark 9/11
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
Dorchester County Sheriff Ray Nash will moderate a tribute to those lost in the 9/11 terrorist attacks at this month's meeting of the Lowcountry GOP Breakfast Club.
The meeting, which will focus on homeland security issues, will be at 9 a.m. Saturday (September 8, 2007) at Kelly's BBQ Restaurant on U.S. Highway 78 near Summerville.
The sheriff's department will demonstrate some of its abilities to respond to local homeland security emergencies with a live tactical hostage rescue exercise. The department's mobile command center will be on-site for public tours, along with specialists and special equipment and gear used for emergency responses.
An honor guard from Eagle Military Academy will serve as the color guard for this event. Active-duty and retired military personnel are encouraged to attend, in uniform, as well as active and retired police, fire, and emergency services personnel, for a special tribute for attending uniformed heroes.
An "open mike" question and answer session will follow the presentations. Breakfast is $6.50.
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9) Soldier recounts ambush
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http://www.charleston.net/news/2007/sep/04/soldier_recounts_ambush14898/
Soldier recounts ambush
By GENE CRIDER
ORANGEBURG — Bill Connor can't say where he was. He doesn't know exactly how many Taliban fighters were killed.
What he can say is that he's proud of the bravery that 21 soldiers, most from South Carolina, showed when they were ambushed in Afghanistan last month by between 150 and 200 Taliban fighters.
"Nobody lost their cool," he said. "South Carolina should be very proud of how their soldiers are doing."
When he's home in Orangeburg, Connor is an attorney. In Afghanistan, he's an infantry officer serving as an adviser to the Afghan national security forces.
Speaking by phone from southern Afghanistan, Connor told of how, on Aug. 21, he and his six-vehicle convoy were returning from an advisory mission when they were attacked. "We knew the area we were going through was a high-risk area. We're more alert in that area because units have been attacked there before."
They drove south on the dirt road as the mountainous terrain began to yield to the desert. And then there was gunfire.
"My gunner started to fire his machine gun at a location. He was doing it because we were fired upon," Connor said. "I didn't realize we were fired upon until he fired."
They couldn't hear where the gunfire was coming from, but "you could hear the crack of the bullet coming toward you," he said.
Then the convoy came under fire from another direction.
"Shortly after the firing started from both sides and we were moving, we started seeing" rocket-propelled grenades, he said "One actually hit one of the vehicles" but did not cause any casualties.
Mortar rounds landed near their vehicles. The Taliban had improvised explosive devices, but the convoy was moving at such a pace that they exploded behind the vehicles.
Even when two tires were blown off one of the vehicles, the convoy kept moving, the truck dragging along on its axle.
Connor says that during a battle, there is little time to think. The training just kicks in. "When I had to fire my weapon, I fired my weapon. ... The primary emotion is to get through the task at hand, which pretty much everyone did. Nobody lost their cool," he said.
The fighting was over in about 20 minutes, Connor said.
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10) 3 reasons why Andre vs. Lindsey won’t happen
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http://www.thestate.com/politics/story/161727.html
3 reasons why Andre vs. Lindsey won’t happen
Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer last week downplayed speculation he’s planning to challenge U.S Sen. Lindsey Graham, a fellow Republican.
Bauer, 38, told the Spartanburg Herald-Journal he’s not planning on a run. But he also told the paper “never say never.”
Here’s three reasons why it will never happen, none of which involve Andre driving a car or flying a plane.
1. Money. Graham has more than $4 million in the bank. A challenger to Graham would have to spend serious money.
2. And more money. Graham has become a national lawmaker, meaning his support base — especially financially — goes far beyond South Carolina. He could easily raise millions more if pressed.
3. An easier target. U.S. Rep. Bob Inglis, who represents Spartanburg and Greenville in Congress, might be an easier target for Bauer. Inglis, like Graham, got on the wrong side of GOP activists when he challenged fellow Republicans on Iraq. Bauer told the Herald-Journal he’s considering buying a home in Greenville, which is in Inglis’ district. Stay tuned.
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11) S.C. homeowners to get big tax cut
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http://www.thestate.com/politics/story/162421.html
S.C. homeowners to get big tax cut
Residents soon won't pay for school operations because of sales tax boost
By JOHN O’CONNOR
joconnor@thestate.com
S.C. residents likely will get a larger-than-expected cut to their home’s tax bills — possibly totaling $88 million — according to state economists.
Beginning this fall, homeowners will no longer pay for school operating taxes for the home in which they live, typically 50 percent to 60 percent of their property tax bill. Statewide, school operating taxes total $500 million.
The additional windfall, the result of a 20 percent increase to the state sales tax this year, means homeowners will not pay about a fifth of their county and city property taxes as well.
However, those savings won’t appear until next year, when tax bills are sent out in fall 2008.
The Board of Economic Advisors said two weeks ago that a recession could loom in South Carolina’s near future. But Bill Gillespie, the state’s top economist, said sales tax revenues should continue to grow despite that possibility.
Historically, Gillespie said, the sales tax has grown about 5.5 percent a year. Slower growth could cut into the amount of sales tax money available to pay property taxes, he said, but the sales tax surplus still would be at least $70 million, based on current data.
According to state projections, residents will pay a total of $372.9 million in city and county property taxes in 2007. After paying homeowners’ school taxes, any sales tax revenues left over from the additional penny sales tax would help pay city and county bills.
The windfall also likely means the state will collect enough money from the increased sales tax to pay in full the growing cost of homeowners’ school operating taxes for the next few years.
The money raised by the penny-a-dollar increase in the state’s sales tax is placed in a separate account. It can only be used to pay homeowners’ property tax bills.
“That is great news,” said state Sen. Larry Martin, R-Pickens, a skeptical supporter of the property tax relief plan. “(But) we’re not out of the woods if the economy were to peak out on us.”
Martin said the sales tax surplus gives lawmakers a chance to see how well the new property tax relief plan is working and make adjustments. Historically, Martin said, school taxes have increased faster than state tax revenues have grown.
School districts and local government also are worried the growing cost of education and services might lead to future budget cuts, because their ability to approve tax increases is capped by the new law. However, Martin said a surplus would give lawmakers a chance to address those concerns, if needed.
Emerson Read, whose NoHomeTax.org group helped lead the charge for tax relief last year, said the surplus is good news. But Read still wants all home taxes eliminated.
In addition, Read said, the property tax relief law did nothing to address years of overtaxing or taxes on other properties, including rental property, second homes or businesses.
Read said his group likely will propose eliminating taxes on the homes of senior citizens and the disabled next year.
“I feel very sorry for (them)” Read said. “The taxes are still too high in many cases.”
Reach O’Connor at (803) 771-8358.
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12) Beatty becomes justice today
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http://www.thestate.com/politics/story/163854.html
Beatty becomes justice today
Judge Don Beatty will be ceremonially sworn in today as the second black justice to serve on the S.C. Supreme Court since Reconstruction.
Chosen over two white colleagues on the Court of Appeals, Beatty was elected in May by the S.C. General Assembly to replace E.C. Burnett III, who retired after 12 years on the high court. Beatty will fill the remainder of Burnett’s term, which expires July 31, 2010.
South Carolina is the only state where legislators alone choose judges.
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13) Festival honors mill heritage
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FF Note: This might be a fun place to visit over the weekend. Many bikers and therefore cops will be in Cherokee to the south of this event.
http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200770905105
Festival honors mill heritage
By Clarke Morrison
The burning of the landmark Beacon Manufacturing plant four years ago marked an end to what was once a vibrant town center.
But dedicated volunteers are working to revitalize the downtown of unincorporated Swannanoa. They envision lively streets with shops, offices, restaurants and entertainment venues.
The group Swannanoa Pride Community Coalition will hold its first street festival Saturday, Mill Around the Village.
“We’re doing this festival as a way of bringing the community together, to bring people into what was the old downtown area of Swannanoa and to breathe some life into that area,” said resident and organizer Carol Groben.
Vendors will showcase local businesses and restaurants.
Historical photographs and memorabilia will be displayed, and residents can bring their own photos to be scanned and added to the collection at the Swannanoa Valley Museum.
There will be an open house at the former Beacon Music Hall, which developer Dean Pistor has almost finished refurbishing into an English-style pub, family restaurant, offices and a studio. A new visitors center on Whitson Avenue will be open.
Pistor’s project is the first redevelopment effort in the old downtown, and he hopes it won’t be the last.
“It has good access to roads. All utilities are available,” he said. “It’s a perfect spot for smart growth.”
The Beacon plant, long thought of as the cornerstone of the community, burned to the ground Sept. 3, 2003. An arsonist was charged and convicted.
The plant had employed more than 1,000 people for much of its 78-year history. Generations of Swannanoa families worked there.
The festival “is a way for residents of the Swannanoa Valley to come together as a community again,” Pistor said. “Since the closing of the Beacon plant that’s been hard to regain.”
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14) Nonprofit will target lawmakers in SC
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http://www.thestate.com/politics/story/164952.html
Nonprofit will target lawmakers
By JOHN O’CONNOR - joconnor@thestate.com
A political group with close ties to Gov. Mark Sanford is bringing in former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush to help raise money to influence State House elections next year, according to an e-mail sent to supporters Wednesday.
The e-mail, sent by Sanford chief of staff Tom Davis, said Bush’s Oct. 16 visit to Greenville, Columbia and Charleston will help raise money for Reform SC to inform voters “through television, direct mailings, radio” about lawmakers. Reform SC is headed by Chad Walldorf, a former Sanford staffer.
All 170 members of the General Assembly are up for election in 2008.
“No question, there are some great conservative legislators serving in Columbia,” Davis’ e-mail, sent from a personal account, said. “But there are also far too many who campaigned for election on a conservative platform and then failed to follow through on their promises.
“Until the creation of Reform SC, there has never been a statewide, grass-roots effort to inform voters of the disconnect between their legislators’ conservative campaign promises and the way they actually vote.”
The e-mail lists rising state spending, opposing cutting the state’s top income tax rate and not prioritizing state spending as three areas where lawmaker votes have not matched their words.
Walldorf said the group would target areas “where we can have the biggest impact,” but did not yet know where.
Scott Huffmon, a political scientist at Winthrop University, said next year’s elections could be the last chance for Sanford to achieve his three-part agenda of modernizing state government, making state business more competitive and improving the state’s quality of life.
Huffmon noted the contrast between Sanford, who stands up for what he believes, and former Gov. Jeb Bush, who coaxed lawmakers, often including Democrats, to support his ideas.
“If you are unwilling to compromise,” Huffmon said, “you replace the people you can’t compromise with with new people.
“This has been a strategy. Now it’s gone from kind of informal to formal.”
The group could have a tough time knocking off legislative leaders, Huffmon said, but might have more success with their supporters “at the margins.”
Sanford has endorsed a handful of candidates in the past, though most have failed to win.
In an interview with The State last month, Sanford said next year’s elections were important to his agenda’s future, but he declined to say if he would directly support candidates.
Rep. Bill Cotty, R-Richland, was targeted by another political, nonprofit group, South Carolinians for Responsible Government, during last year’s elections. Cotty supported Sanford’s right to get involved in elections.
But, Cotty said, political groups such as Reform SC should have to play by the same rules as lawmakers and disclose their contributors.
Senate Majority Leader Harvey Peeler, R-Cherokee, hoped Sanford would reconsider diving into State House races.
“I’m not apologizing for the fact that I’ve been a senator for 27 years,” Peeler said. “If he wants to come after us, that’s fine, but he’d better be successful.”
Reach O’Connor at (803) 771-8358.
REFORM SC
About nonprofit political groups
• Reform SC is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit political group.
• A recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling allows such groups to name candidates and discuss their positions, but the advertising may not advocate voting for or against a specific candidate.
• South Carolinians for Responsible Government, a group with that designation, has fought a state law that requires such groups to disclose their donors.
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