Letter Of The Month: Road Design Matters

I read Rob Dingman’s warning about the coming of automated vehicles, motorcycle crash risks and government inattention to motorcyclist needs (March issue). All I could think was, “Amen, brother!”

Motorcycle operators will probably be much better protected from multi-vehicle crashes, but only if the systems are designed effectively for it. The problem is whether motorcycles are expressly considered as vehicles in the design criteria for automated car systems, and are expressly part of the same rigorous testing of self-driving cars and trucks for crash avoidance. Everyone just assumes that of course they will be, but, NOT SO FAST…

Consider that as recently as the 2000s, highways were designed with cars and trucks in mind, but not two-wheeled vehicles. Strict design criteria for minimizing hazards to cars and trucks are applied whenever a road is built, especially for use in construction zones, but those criteria were not developed with any consideration for motorcycles. Since highways have a long life, highway design mistakes have a long life too.

Bikers just had to accept that there were edge traps at highway paving sites, and that some types of railroad crossings were problematic, for two examples. Drivers of cars would never be exposed to that level of risk if it could be designed out of the road. (I’m no longer in the industry, so I don’t know if current American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials guidance includes motorcycle-informed design criteria.)

Beyond just crash avoidance with bikes, we need to make sure the systems are designed so not to restrict operation of motorcycles on public roads. We need AMA to push for our interests at the Department of Transportation because automated vehicles will be regulated, and they will certainly be required to meet government design requirements. There is some risk that two-wheeled transportation will get squeezed off the road by the juggernaut of high-tech transport because we came late to the table.

We can expect that cars will change first, but soon road design will change in favor of automated vehicles, and the effects could be profound: no STOP signs, lesser sight distance, diminished parking.

Where will motorcycles end up in that picture?

So I applaud Rob Dingman’s alarm, and I think we should all be plenty worried that there’s more than one way to become roadkill!

Jack Joyce | Reisterstown, Md.

Thanks, Jack. The AMA has been tracking and reporting on automated vehicle technology for years. We have been attempting to integrate motorcycles into the dialogue since the ’90s when this technology was just an idea. This year, we’ve urged the Senate to pass legislation that explicitly includes motorcycles when regulating manufacturers’ documentation, testing and validation.

Starting Early

I had left the latest edition of American Motorcyclist on our coffee table, only to turn around and find my 1-year old daughter had pulled it off and was “reading.” I wasn’t planning on starting her this young, but if she’s got the interest, well then who am I to stop her?

Dave Nicolato
Winston-Salem, N.C.

 

THE MAN HAD MOXIE!

As I sit here and read Perry King’s wonderful thoughts of Homer Knapp (“Missed Chances,” March issue), it took me back to the many meetings we had in the years leading up to the now legendary 2010 Catalina Island Grand Prix. Homer would come and sit in our clubhouse while the meetings were held and listen as the plans came together, and point out stuff about the many old pictures and trophies we have. Vinnie and DaveO were quick to introduce him to us all, a legend!

I never knew or had heard of Homer before, but it was obvious that he was a special guy. He almost always had a bike that looked like it was from ages ago in the back of what I think was an old El Camino. We would all go look and ask questions, and Homer would fill us in on the details of what we were looking at.

Later when the race was confirmed and the dates were set, my club had the privilege of handling what would become “the field of dreams”—more than 700 bikes, all in shipping containers, brought by barge to Catalina for the race.

I had the luck to be asked to load and unload the bikes on both ends of the trip. One of those belonged to Homer. I’ll never forget seeing it in the container that day on the island, and the dread I felt knowing that I had to just coast this monster bike down the big ramp to the ground.

It was so heavy that I thought, “How can anyone ride this around this place?” Well, Homer rode it, and I was amazed at how easy he made it look.

Of all the bikes I rode down the ramp that day for names like Smith, Renner, Petty, Pastrana, Campbell, Norman, even the chief of the L.A. Police Department, I’ll remember Homer Knapp’s bike most of all.

The guy had—what did they call it?—moxie!

Mike Gellis
Hilltoppers MC
Long Beach, Calif.

 

Remembering Rocky

The motorcycle world has lost one of the grandfathers of the sport.

Rodman B. “Rocky” Burkhart, 89, of Exeter Township (Pennsylvania), passed away Sunday, Dec. 17, 2017, in Pottstown Memorial Hospital. He was the widower of Catherine Joan (Kintzer) Burkhart who passed away Oct. 7, 2008.

Rocky was a United States Marine Corps Veteran of World War II.

Rocky was a life member of the Reading Motorcycle Club and the AMA. His passion was fixing and restoring antique motorcycles. He was a racer, having raced at Daytona, Langhorne, Reading Fairgrounds and many other tracks.

Rocky worked as an operating engineer on the construction of the Glenn Canyon Dam in Arizona. He then returned to Pennsylvania and worked for Bethlehem Steel at Grace Mines.

Rocky is survived by a daughter, Rhonda Soth of Hallandale Beach, Fla., and a stepson, Robert Fields of Jacksonwald, Fla.

R. “Razz” Ravel and Jeff Homan
Reading, Pa.