http://www.reason.com/0511/fe.js.freedom.shtml
Freedom Riders
How motorcyclists won the right to feel the wind in their hair—and why drivers still have to buckle up.
Jacob Sullum
"...Richard Quigley’s idea of fun, whether riding a motorcycle without a helmet or arguing with the police about it, may not be the same as yours or mine. But his enthusiasm for fighting California’s helmet law, a battle in which he has been engaged for seven years “on the streets and in the courts,” helps explain a public policy puzzle: While almost every state requires adults to wear seat belts, most do not require them to wear motorcycle helmets, even though riding a motorcycle is much more dangerous than driving a car. The story behind this anomaly is both inspiring and discouraging—inspiring because it shows that a highly motivated minority can make a successful stand for freedom, discouraging because it shows that politics is more important than principle in determining why certain laws aimed at protecting people from their own risky behavior become widely accepted while others remain controversial.
In 2003 there were 5.4 million registered motorcycles in the U.S., compared to about 136 million registered cars. Despite their relatively small numbers, motorcyclists have been far more effective than drivers at resisting traffic safety paternalism. After some initial grumbling, most motorists got used to buckling up and are now unlikely to put up much resistance as states move toward primary enforcement, allowing police to pull people over for not wearing seat belts (as opposed to issuing citations after stopping them for other reasons). By contrast, going back to the 1971 founding of the American Brotherhood Against Totalitarian Enactments (ABATE) by the staff of Easyriders magazine, motorcyclists have been willing to invest the time, effort, and money required to fight helmet laws. Call it the Quigley Factor.
“Motorcyclists Believe in Freedom”
“Motorcyclists believe in freedom, and we attack anything that is attacking our freedom,” explains Robert Fletcher, coordinator of the Texas ABATE Confederation. “Helmet laws go against the grain of everything this country stands for,” says New York Myke, ABATE of California’s state director and owner of San Diego Harley Davidson. Just as abortion rights groups insist they do not favor abortion, motorcyclist groups are at pains to make it clear they do not oppose helmets. Jeff Hennie, vice president for government relations at the D.C.-based Motorcycle Riders Foundation, says, “What we’re advocating is freedom of choice.…It should be the decision of the rider whether to put on extra safety equipment.” He describes the attitude of helmet law opponents this way: “Let me decide what is right for me, instead of the government jamming regulations down my throat.”
During the last few decades motorcycle activists have been remarkably successful in bringing that message to state legislators and members of Congress.
... “They knew that if they didn’t directly get involved, nobody else was going to,” he says.
...The way helmet laws are enforced tends to confirm motorcyclists’ sense of themselves as a picked-on minority. To begin with, police in states that require adults to use helmets have the authority to stop a motorcyclist simply for failing to wear one, while police in most states still need some other reason to stop a motorist before they can cite him for not buckling up. Even in states with primary seat belt enforcement, a helmetless motorcyclist is more conspicuous than an unbuckled motorist, making him more vulnerable to traffic stops. “The police really don’t spot the guy not wearing a seat belt as much as a guy not wearing a helmet,” says Texas ABATE’s Fletcher. “You can see [the helmetless motorcyclist] three blocks away.” Because he cannot credibly attribute his noncompliance to forgetfulness, says Baxter, “a motorcyclist who doesn’t wear a helmet is a direct affront to the enforcement community,” which makes a stop even likelier and raises the potential for a hostile encounter. And once he is stopped, a motorcyclist may be forced to park his vehicle and walk, unlike an unbelted driver, who can simply buckle up and continue on his way after getting a warning or a ticket.
... “We’re passionate about our motorcycles,” says ABATE of California’s Myke. “This is something that’s more of a way of life than a hobby or a sport. It really goes to the core of our being.…Riding a motorcycle is my celebration of freedom.” Few motorists feel the same way about driving, which for most of us is a workaday means of getting around, not an important part of our identities.
Hennie, head of the Motorcycle Riders Foundation, says it’s hard for the uninitiated to understand how a method of transportation could acquire so much meaning. “If you’ve never ridden a motorcycle,” he says, “there’s no way to describe the feeling of freedom. It’s got to be the next best thing to being able to fly. When you start putting restrictions on that freedom, people take it personally.”
In the final analysis, not enough people took seat belt laws personally. For the most part, whatever objections they harbored were overcome by force of law and force of habit. By contrast, substantial numbers of motorcyclists have complained loudly, conspicuously, and persistently about helmet laws for more than three decades. “Apparently,” says the National Safety Council’s Ulczycki, “legislators are easily convinced that the perceived rights of motorcyclists to injure themselves are more important than the public good.” Aside from the tendentious definition of “the public good,” this gloss is misleading on two counts: Resistance to helmet laws hasn’t been easy, and it hasn’t necessarily involved convincing legislators of anything but the motorcyclists’ determination. Politicians didn’t have to understand their passion to respect it. And therein lies a lesson for the world’s busybodies and petty tyrants.
Senior Editor Jacob Sullum is a syndicated columnist and the author of Saying Yes: In Defense of Drug Use (Tarcher/Penguin).
Freedom Riders
How motorcyclists won the right to feel the wind in their hair—and why drivers still have to buckle up.
Jacob Sullum
"...Richard Quigley’s idea of fun, whether riding a motorcycle without a helmet or arguing with the police about it, may not be the same as yours or mine. But his enthusiasm for fighting California’s helmet law, a battle in which he has been engaged for seven years “on the streets and in the courts,” helps explain a public policy puzzle: While almost every state requires adults to wear seat belts, most do not require them to wear motorcycle helmets, even though riding a motorcycle is much more dangerous than driving a car. The story behind this anomaly is both inspiring and discouraging—inspiring because it shows that a highly motivated minority can make a successful stand for freedom, discouraging because it shows that politics is more important than principle in determining why certain laws aimed at protecting people from their own risky behavior become widely accepted while others remain controversial.
In 2003 there were 5.4 million registered motorcycles in the U.S., compared to about 136 million registered cars. Despite their relatively small numbers, motorcyclists have been far more effective than drivers at resisting traffic safety paternalism. After some initial grumbling, most motorists got used to buckling up and are now unlikely to put up much resistance as states move toward primary enforcement, allowing police to pull people over for not wearing seat belts (as opposed to issuing citations after stopping them for other reasons). By contrast, going back to the 1971 founding of the American Brotherhood Against Totalitarian Enactments (ABATE) by the staff of Easyriders magazine, motorcyclists have been willing to invest the time, effort, and money required to fight helmet laws. Call it the Quigley Factor.
“Motorcyclists Believe in Freedom”
“Motorcyclists believe in freedom, and we attack anything that is attacking our freedom,” explains Robert Fletcher, coordinator of the Texas ABATE Confederation. “Helmet laws go against the grain of everything this country stands for,” says New York Myke, ABATE of California’s state director and owner of San Diego Harley Davidson. Just as abortion rights groups insist they do not favor abortion, motorcyclist groups are at pains to make it clear they do not oppose helmets. Jeff Hennie, vice president for government relations at the D.C.-based Motorcycle Riders Foundation, says, “What we’re advocating is freedom of choice.…It should be the decision of the rider whether to put on extra safety equipment.” He describes the attitude of helmet law opponents this way: “Let me decide what is right for me, instead of the government jamming regulations down my throat.”
During the last few decades motorcycle activists have been remarkably successful in bringing that message to state legislators and members of Congress.
... “They knew that if they didn’t directly get involved, nobody else was going to,” he says.
...The way helmet laws are enforced tends to confirm motorcyclists’ sense of themselves as a picked-on minority. To begin with, police in states that require adults to use helmets have the authority to stop a motorcyclist simply for failing to wear one, while police in most states still need some other reason to stop a motorist before they can cite him for not buckling up. Even in states with primary seat belt enforcement, a helmetless motorcyclist is more conspicuous than an unbuckled motorist, making him more vulnerable to traffic stops. “The police really don’t spot the guy not wearing a seat belt as much as a guy not wearing a helmet,” says Texas ABATE’s Fletcher. “You can see [the helmetless motorcyclist] three blocks away.” Because he cannot credibly attribute his noncompliance to forgetfulness, says Baxter, “a motorcyclist who doesn’t wear a helmet is a direct affront to the enforcement community,” which makes a stop even likelier and raises the potential for a hostile encounter. And once he is stopped, a motorcyclist may be forced to park his vehicle and walk, unlike an unbelted driver, who can simply buckle up and continue on his way after getting a warning or a ticket.
... “We’re passionate about our motorcycles,” says ABATE of California’s Myke. “This is something that’s more of a way of life than a hobby or a sport. It really goes to the core of our being.…Riding a motorcycle is my celebration of freedom.” Few motorists feel the same way about driving, which for most of us is a workaday means of getting around, not an important part of our identities.
Hennie, head of the Motorcycle Riders Foundation, says it’s hard for the uninitiated to understand how a method of transportation could acquire so much meaning. “If you’ve never ridden a motorcycle,” he says, “there’s no way to describe the feeling of freedom. It’s got to be the next best thing to being able to fly. When you start putting restrictions on that freedom, people take it personally.”
In the final analysis, not enough people took seat belt laws personally. For the most part, whatever objections they harbored were overcome by force of law and force of habit. By contrast, substantial numbers of motorcyclists have complained loudly, conspicuously, and persistently about helmet laws for more than three decades. “Apparently,” says the National Safety Council’s Ulczycki, “legislators are easily convinced that the perceived rights of motorcyclists to injure themselves are more important than the public good.” Aside from the tendentious definition of “the public good,” this gloss is misleading on two counts: Resistance to helmet laws hasn’t been easy, and it hasn’t necessarily involved convincing legislators of anything but the motorcyclists’ determination. Politicians didn’t have to understand their passion to respect it. And therein lies a lesson for the world’s busybodies and petty tyrants.
Senior Editor Jacob Sullum is a syndicated columnist and the author of Saying Yes: In Defense of Drug Use (Tarcher/Penguin).
