MC Advisory Council Extended

The United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) on May 2, 2008, renewed the charter for the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Motorcycle Advisory Council (MAC) for an additional two years.

The MAC advises the Secretary of Transportation on all issues concerning motorcyclists and infrastructure issues such as roads, bridges, and barriers. No rulemaking was required to extend the charter; instead it was the positive results of the MAC that warranted the go-ahead from the country's chief transportation boss, Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters. Under normal circumstances Secretary(s) do not reauthorize councils that they do not required to by law. Peters did not have to renew the charter for the MAC, which uses some of her very limited discretionary dollars to fully fund the council.

The MAC met a total of four times over the initial two-year charter. The meetings are open to the public and generally span a couple of days. The MAC has no authority to issue any binding recommendations, but it does have the ear of the agency officials, and several MAC's recommendations have been acted upon.

The MAC has put forth some meaningful and useful recommendations to the Secretary. Recent recommendations include implementing motorcycles into the department-wide goal to reduce congestion and fuel consumption. Another was to continue the practice of letting motorcycles use high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes. On a related note, New York City police have continued to violate federal law by not letting motorcycles use HOV lanes, making this recommendation very important for motorcyclists in the Big Apple. Visit http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/mac/index.htm for more information on the MAC and its members.