Seacoast online reported recently that a pair of bills aimed at motorcyclists in the state of New Hampshire have been shot down.

The first bill would require that all motorcyclists in the state would be required to wear helmets. New Hampshire, along with 30 other states, currently allows motorcyclists to ride without helmets if they wish.

The second bill was designed to require that motorcycles built in the past 30 years have noise emission systems labels on them.

The bills were sponsored by North Hampton State Representative, Judith Day. Day believes that the measures would help riders to be responsible while riding on public roads.

Day based her argument for the helmet law on the idea that head injuries actually raise the cost to everyone through things like increased hospital and rehab costs, as well as the loss of employment. She argued that it also contributes to higher medical insurance costs and higher motorcycle insurance costs, as well.

The emissions sticker requirement would make it so that motorcycles would have to meet federal noise standards. Day based this legislation on complaints that she was hearing from the residents she represents in Hampton.

Unfortunately for Day, the New Hampshire legislature didn’t seem to agree with her. The House Transportation Committee dismissed the bills after they decided that they were “too inexpedient to legislate.”

Opponents of the bill celebrated the victory. Many motorcyclists petitioned their state legislatures on these bills, and some attended hearings at the Statehouse. Approximately 150 opponents of the legislation attended the hearing on the day the bills were dismissed.

Motorcyclists in the North Hampton area that Day represents may well be up in arms about the proposed laws, even though they didn’t pass. Around two thirds of customers who buy bikes in that area do so intending to ride them without helmets.

Still, these efforts will come back around. They always do. Day has stated that, if she chooses to seek re-election this year, she’ll bring the legislation up again.

This isn’t the first time that Day has introduced this kind of motorcycle legislation, either. Last year, she put forth a bill that would have specifically targeted the decibel level that comes from motorcycle exhaust pipes. That one didn’t pass, mainly, because of the sheer logistics of trying to measure the noise coming from exhaust pipes while going down the road.

Photo via Allerina & Glen MacLarty