Behind the Handlebars Host Tony "Pan" Sanfelipo interviews ABATE of WI Legislative Committee Chair Steve Panten about the annual lobby day event that takes place at the Wisconsin State Capitol.

Tony Sanfelipo: Tony Pan, Behind the Handlebars for Hupy and Abraham. I’m here with Steven Panten, Legislative Director for ABATE of Wisconsin, Committee Chairman, whatever your title is.

Steven Panten: I like committee chair.

Tony Sanfelipo: There you go. Tell us a little bit about this years lobby day and how these have progressed over the years.

Steve Panten: This is the most important day for motorcycling in Wisconsin. Through the years we’ve seen crowds grow larger and larger here and we’ve been more effective because of it. The more people that show up, the more effective we are. The more we can pass, legislation, work on bills that are important to motorcyclists in the state of Wisconsin. 

Tony Sanfelipo: And what’s on the agenda today?

Steve Panten: We’re working on defining a motorcycle. What is a motorcycle? If it has a steering wheel and a gas and a brake pedal should it be a motorcycle? No. So were working on that. We’re working on vehicle date recorder, you know, the information that’s in your vehicle. Who owns that information? We feel it should be the vehicle owner’s information. And we’re also working on autonomous vehicles. We want to make sure that as technology changes and driverless cars become more popular, that they recognize motorcycles.

Tony Sanfelipo: Great. Well this is a great turn out today. I think we might hit the 500 mark. I know the bus I was on was packed.

Steve Panten: Yeah, I’m hoping, I think we should hit 500.

Tony Sanfelipo: Great. We’re happy to sponsor at least the one bus coming out of Southeastern Wisconsin. We’d sponsor more if we had more riders but I think Mike Mueller did a good job of filling that bus up today.

Steve Panten: Yeah. Hupy and Abraham have been very good to us for a long time and we appreciate that. 

Tony Sanfelipo: Great. OK, Steven Panten here with Tony Pan at Behind the Handlebars. We’re going to go in and see our legislators and we’ll report back after.