MRF.org - Motorcycle Riders Foundation - Ride with the Leaders

Search the MRF site




Sign up for MRF News
Email:  
For Email Marketing you can trust


Protecting Your Rights In Our Nation's Capital!

Maine

This Page Updated 03/23/10

Maine Legislative Session of 2010

The United Bikers of Maine and the Maine Motorcyclists Political Action Committee has had a very active February testifying and working with the Transportation committee concerning two bills under consideration.
This legislative session was the second year of the 124th legislature here in Maine. There were two bills that were of concern to motorcyclists. The first was LD 1642, An Act to Reduce Road Noise within Posted Areas. This bill was not directly aimed at motorcycles but could in the end effect them through the establishment of Quite Zones throughout the state. Basically this bill was aimed at large commercial trucks, except that it had to exempt trucks used for interstate commerce because they are regulated by Federal standards.
At the public hearing held by the Transportation committee the Department of Transportation testified that it had no criteria for establishing Quite Zones and did not think it was feasible to do so. After much discussion during committee work sessions, an amendment was offered to change the name of the bill to, An Act Relating to Road Noise. The amendment would change the language of the bill to eliminate establishing Quite Zones and would require vehicles to have a muffler (already required in separate law). It would also prohibit Amplification of exhaust sound by modifying the exhaust system and the language directs the Department of Public Safety, Bureau of State Police to convene a working group to study issues relating to Highway Traffic Noise. The study group will report to the Transportation committee their findings and recommendations no later than January 15, 2011.
The amendment was accepted and passed through the Transportation committee. The full legislature voted to pass the bill and send it to the Governor for his signature.

The second bill, LD1675, An Act to Reduce Noise Created by Motorcycles and Improve Public Health, was directly related to motorcycles and was seeking to raise the sound created by motorcycles to a level of Health Hazard. This bill’s genesis is the high volume of motorcyclists who frequent the coastal areas of the compacted (population wise) southern part of the state. The citizens in this part of the state are fed up with the minority of motorcyclists who operate their motorcycles with excessively loud exhaust systems and these citizens have pushed their legislators to enact legislation to try and control the noise. During testimony at the public hearing held by the Transportation committee it was brought to the attention of the legislators that only 60% of the registered motorcycles in the state are inspected. This information changed the direction of the bill to inspection enforcement as the legislators felt that if the inspection stickers were placed on the motorcycle then law enforcement could readily tell if a motorcycle had been inspected and would increase compliance with the law. They also felt that this would solve a lot of the noise issue so they voted to put the stickers on the motorcycle. It ended up with language that specifies the inspection sticker will be displayed on the rear of the motorcycle on a separate plate from the registration tag. This provision will be effective on 1 January, 2012.
The Department of Public Safety, Bureau of State Police was directed to convene a study group to study the issues relating to motorcycle noise and report their findings and recommendations to the Transportation committee no later than January 15, 2011. This study group will include law enforcement officials, local municipalities, affected citizens groups, the motorcycle industry and motorcyclist rights groups. The group will investigate the SAE standard J 2825,’Measurement of Exhaust Sound Pressure Levels of Stationary On-Highway Motorcycles’ to determine if it would be applicable to establish testing procedures for enforcement. It will also investigate the feasibility of incorporating United States Environmental Protection Agency noise emission labeling standards into state law.
The amendment was accepted and passed on a unanimous vote. The full legislature has voted on this bill and it passed and has been sent to the Governor for his signature.
Because this was the second session of a two year legislature and only bills of a financial or emergency nature could be debated we did not have a helmet bill to deal with this year. Stay tuned

 


Join and support the MRF
Read the latest MRF News here

Copyright 2007, Motorcycle Riders Foundation.
Contact Us