Just a perspective on how bikers are still not tolerated in some places, the City of Canyon Lake, CA, is debating a vote on whether or not to allow motorcycles in their town.

Right now, it's illegal to ride a motorcycle in much of the city. Specifically, Canyon Lake is a gated city, with about 90% of its inhabitants sealed behind a wall and secured gates. You can't ride a motorcycle within the gated area. You can ride a motorcycle in other parts of the city, outside the gate.

But believe it or not, there's a motorcycle club existing inside the city, within the gated area, called Canyon Lake Motorcycle Club. They can't ride their bikes there, they can't even ride them to get out of the gated area. They have to be pushed or trailered out.

Chuck Marler, the President of the club, was able to get a special ballot measure created to vote on whether or not to allow motorcycles to ride within the gated area. This ballot doesn't open the doors wide open to motorcycles, it only allows speeds no faster than 15mph, and still prohibits riding on streets with bike lanes. The ballot was created so that all riders don't have to trailer their bikes out.

And the ballot is getting a lot of criticism. The town's newspaper, The Friday Flyer, has an article about it.

He reiterates that he and other motorcyclists only want to be
able to ride their bikes to and from their homes to the gates. They are not asking to ride here recreationally or to attend Taco Tuesday and other functions on their bikes, he maintains.

I happen to live in Menifee, which borders the town of Canyon Lake. For most of us, Canyon Lake is kinda like a mythological place. No one can enter unless you have a guest pass. You often hear about how great life is there. On the public roads, you can see residents driving their golf carts in and out of the gated area. In some places you can get a glimpse of the boats floating on the lake.

Obviously, the rallying cry against the ballot measure is that people knew ahead of time that you can't ride motorcycles there, hence, no one has the right to complain. On the other hand, a lot of people in this greater area, known as the "Inland Empire", ride motorcycles because they all commute 50-100 miles each way to work. Whereas Canyon Lake once started out as an upper-class retirement community, it's now a place where families seek refuge from gang influence.

That's really at the heart of the matter. Residents are worried about biker gangs.

But the truth is that there's a lot more to be worried about. Other gangs, that don't ride motorcycles, can still enter the gated area of Canyon Lake, provided they live there. Kids can still buy dope within the gated area, and kids can still get molested there too. It's not like motorcycles are the beginning of the end.

But for Canyon Lake, it sounds like it is.

Labels: Biker Discrimination, California Motorcycle Laws, Motorcycle Bans

That's the opinion of Dave Mathena, of Meridian, Mississippi, based on his letter to the Meridian Star Newspaper back on April 6, 2006.

He quotes...

I am confident that even the cheapest, lightest, plastic-made car protects its passengers more than the safest motorcycle. So why should we allow the iron horse to ride?

At first I thought it was a commentary on all the motorcycle safety laws. But it doesn't appear so. It seems that Mr. Mathena is quite adamant that motorcycles ought to be outlawed.

Data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration shows that there are far more people dying in cars than on motorcycles. Why not outlaw cars? Wouldn't we save more lives if cagers wore helmets too?

If eating hamburgers and french fries cause people to have heart failure, why not outlaw them too?

His letter actually produce several published replies...

Michael Sumrall wrote: "So shouldn't we address the real issue and have better auto drivers? Are we willing to outlaw the young and old drivers because they cause the majority of accidents?"

Gayle Dew wrote: "Outlaw motorcycles? Why can't we outlaw or banish stupid people?"

Syndi Knibbe wrote: "This kind of mindset is one of the major causes of motorcyclist accidents - the attitude that we somehow deserve to be run over because we're out there doing something we shouldn't be."

Alex Fleury wrote: "One of my favorite riding shirts says, "I REFUSE TO TIPTOE THRU LIFE ONLY TO ARRIVE SAFELY AT DEATH." I don't ask you to agree with my life's choices, but I do ask you allow me to live my life as I choose."

There were many other responses, but I won't summarize them all.

This is the kind of elitist attitude that we bikers have to deal with. People who hate motorcycles, who try to pass laws making it difficult for us to ride, and telling us they're doing this because we're too stupid to know better.

Labels: Biker Discrimination, Motorcycle Bans