Posted by Girl Geek on Bruce and Rays. Now on the surface this looks good because it looks as if NHTSA may finally address one of the major flaws in their statistic gathering methodology. But read on. Maybe I'm paranoid. Maybe I'm becoming one of them conspiracy wackos. Or maybe, just maybe...............................Motorcycle Travel Symposium NTSB Conference Facility - L'Enfant Plaza October 10 - 12, 2007: Motorcycles are the fastest growing form of personal transportation in the United States, yet estimating travel for them is difficult at the local, State, and national level. At all levels of government, and throughout the private sector, estimates of motorcycle travel play an important role, from providing input into policy discussions, to estimating motorcycle fatality rates.
On January 30, 2007, FHWA and NHTSA Administrators Capka and Nason signed a joint memorandum to the FHWA Division and NHTSA Regional Offices stressing the importance of motorcycle travel data. This memo also outlined an accelerated timeline for the mandatory reporting of these data by State DOTs beginning in June 2008. The Federal Highway Administration and the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration are hosting the Symposium as a way to:
continue the discussion on the topic initiated by NTSB at their Motorcycle Forum held September 2006, share State best practices in the collection of these data, explore ways to merge the data from the various groups represented at the Symposium, and
propose future research in the area that would ultimately lead to better State and National estimates of motorcycle travel.
The Motorcycle Travel Symposium will bring together groups interested in measuring or using motorcycle travel data along with the groups currently collecting some form of motorcycle travel data. The target audience is federal, state, and local agencies that collect travel data, vehicle registration data, and vehicle inspection data. Private industry representatives which include groups that develop equipment for measuring travel, motorcycle manufacturers, motorcycle riders groups, toll facility operators, and any other individual or organization that as a course of business may record motorcycle odometer readings such as service stations and vehicle maintenance businesses. Other sources of motorcycle travel data will also be explored, such as active theft deterrent/recovery systems, aerial and satellite imagery, vehicle mounted digital short-range communication (DSRC) equipment, civilian adaptations of military technology, GPS, and cell phones.
Ok now this is probably going to be some kind of absurd, but then I am some kind of absurd (loved "Waiting for Godot", or think I did, can't remember). But is this like analogous to the Feds saying well we don't know what the terrorists are up to so we gonna have to monitor everybody's actions so we can figure it out? I mean like NHTSA is a Federal agency so like they are admitting what we all already knew, they don't know what the hell there doing. So the way they are going to fix it is tracking motorcycle travel by " active theft deterrent/recovery systems, aerial and satellite imagery, vehicle mounted digital short-range communication (DSRC) equipment, civilian adaptations of military technology, GPS, and cell phones"?
Maybe the thing that makes my head go "danger Will Robinson" is the "military technology (they do not specify what military technology. Maybe it's smart bombs to insure their stats match) and the mention of cell phones???? Helloooo, somebody help me understand how this works. Please. Are they going to monitor cell phone conversations to determine how far a motorcycle travels? Am I missing something here? Or will all motorcyclists have a tracking device installed not only on their motorcycles but on their cell phones to0? Aerial and satellite imagery ? I know this is probably a stretch but has anyone considered the fact that if they are tracking your motorcycle, they are tracking you too? I especially like that vehicle mounted DSRC stuff. I just got one question, will it make you sterile?
OK, now I am sure I am over reacting here and am unwittingly placing myself squarely in the conspiracy wacko camp. Because I know the government is not really devious enough to figure this kind of thing out. Just like we all knew that America would never sink so low as to set up detainment camps in countries that insured we would not have to abide by the Geneva convention. But the other thing we know, is that to date NHTSA hasn't been smart enough to figure it out. OH hell, yeah I know thats apples and oranges. Isn't it?
Well I for one am going to weigh in on the side of caution here because I really don't want to be a conspiracy wacko. I end up over dosing on my meds and running a dry tattoo needle up and down my leg singing, "We all live in a Yellow Submarine." But I'm thinking we may be better off if NHTSA just stayed stupid. Ride Free (while they watch ya of course) rc
