The New US Infrastructure Bill: The Motorcycle Parts

[advrider]

The US Senate passed a trillion dollar infrastructure bill on August 11, 2021. What’s in it, and what does it mean for us motorcyclists?

If you want to read the full text of the bill, it’s available for free on the internet. Be warned, however, that the bill spans twenty-seven hundred and six pages, and may put you to sleep. I haven’t slogged through every page, but I have poked around a little. It’s more than just “roads and bridges.” There are some details that will impact the riding public; specifically, that it authorizes the creation of a Council just for us.

Title IV–Highway and Motor Vehicle Safety, Section 24111, calls for the establishment of a Motorcyclist Advisory Council, “not later than 90 days after the date of enactment of this section.” Despite the text it’s not new, but a reauthorization of the MAC that has existed before. The council itself has only a six-year term of existence, and so another bill will need to reauthorize it yet again.

The bill details the qualifications of the thirteen members who will comprise the Council, and lists them out individually. You can find the MAC-specific portion of the bill on pages 1015-1022 of the full text linked above. Council members serve only two years. It’s time to elect or appoint a whole new set of brains and eyeballs to those positions.

With that said, your chance is now. If one of your own state reps ends up on this council you can call ’em up and give them your perspective. If you yourself are qualified to sit on this council, and have the time and motivation, we could all have a fellow ADVRider with unique perspective (to say the least), making a difference in our democracy. Unfortunately, there’s no compensation for your service other than our eternal gratitude. And maybe some serious cred on the forums.

I’ll be reading through the rest of this infrastructure bill for you, dear readers. Feel free to hit me with specific questions and I will track down the answers. If you don’t see anything else about this in the coming week, it means the other 2,695 pages were really, really boring.

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