Handicap Plates on a Motorcycle
I was trying to come up with something new and exciting to write about for this week. While I come up with that, please allow me to tell you about this odd thing I saw in front of my building the other night.
As I was coming home at the end of another long day, I was turning left into my parking structure when I noticed a nice big Harley parked across the street. My headlights swept the massive beast from forks to tail lights, and it looked like every other hog in the District with one exception. This one had a handicapped license plate. I was so struck by the idea that I brought my car to screeching (If you can screech going 5 miles an hour) halt.
Handicapped? Yep. Motorcycle? Again, yep. Double checking my facts to see if my tired eyes were playing tricks on me didn't change things. I was looking at a motorcycle with a disabled plate. In my head, I started to go through the list of things that qualify you for a handicap plate. Deaf? Maybe. Blind? Certainly. Paraplegic, quadriplegic, epileptic, diabetic, tragically overweight, what is it that qualifies you for disability tags, but still allows you to pass the motorcycle test? I was so curious that I had to look up the requirements for getting a little wheelchair guy on your plate. Here is what I found.
If you are "missing lower extremity or are unable to walk without the aid of motorized wheelchair", you are good to go. Although, if you were missing the lower half of you, I am certain that running the rear brake and the shifting action would be a little tough. Not to mention staying on the bike in the event of, say, a turn. And what are you going to do when the bike stops moving? Gyroscopic action will keep it upright while it is rolling, but when bikes stop, they tend to fall over. The motorized wheelchair thing is out too. If you have one of those, you could just get it souped up and drive it around town. No need to blow $30,000 on a Harley. So what else?
Next on the list is, "Has applicant lost the use of one (1) or both legs? " (I am quoting off the DC DMV site) One leg I think you could do okay. If you lost both, you are right back up to not having 'lower extremity' and would fly off the bike in corners and have trouble holding the bike up at stop lights, not to mention the shifting thing. So, one leg = good. Both legs = not so good.
As an aside. I watched the episode of American Chopper where they built this cool custom trike for a guy who was in a chair. The bike (trike) was cool when it was finished, tricked out with an automatic transmission, reverse, custom tractor style seat (complete with seat belt) and foot beds with Velcro strips to keep the dude's feet in place. Very cool. (I cried on the reveal of the bike cause the guy was so happy. Man, I am sappy.)
"Is the applicant severely disabled and unable to walk without the aid of a mechanical device? Note: Mechanical device includes wheelchair, walker, crutches, cane and long leg braces." I think this might be the one. My flaw with this one should be pretty obvious. Where are you going to store your walker or wheelchair when you are riding? You might need a little trailer for your "mechanical aid". A cane or the leg braces would still work, while crutches might be a little trying but so far, this is a the winner.
"Does the applicant suffer from a respiratory disease or ailment?" -- There is a paragraph of explanation after this, but the site won't let me cut and paste from it and I am too lazy too type it all in while toggling back and forth between the two windows. Sorry. Just a fact. -- So if you have asthma, you could get the disabled tags and maybe emphysema. They would still work because you could wear a backpack with your Oxygen tank in it. I still think you wouldn't want anyone who couldn't really breathe hurtling down the freeway at 70 plus miles an hour. What if a bug went in their mouth? If you can't cough that sucker up, you could be in for a world of hurt. The bug might not be that well off either.
The last one makes it for sure, "Does the applicant have a physical disability that is long-term and substantially impairs the individual's mobility?" I see this as the catch all clause. You could have nothing really wrong with you except being 500 pounds -- Really though, if you are that big, you probably have loads of other problems -- and you could still get a motorcycle license. Like those two guys that held the record for fattest guys on the smallest motorcycles.
Okay, after further examination and much scrutiny, you could pretty much have anything and be able to get Disability tags. Fair enough. The only thing left to do is figure out what needs to be done to get a motorcycle permit. I might be running out of ramble space, so I will have to look in to that in the future. You think there are any events coming up I should talk about?
What if I tell you about two and let you pick. First up is a very cool little book by a very cool author. The book is called "Smart Girls Like Me" and the Author is Diane Vadino. Diane is a Brooklyn based writer (a lot of them are now days) who has been pounding out articles for a number of years. Google her name and see how many hits you get. Diane used to work for those nice kids at McSweeney's along with being the brains behind bunnyshop.org, senior contributing editor at Spin and editor at Surface. Her work can be seen in Nylon, Allure, ReadyMade, Jane, Seventeen and all over the internet. I even found a little bit she wrote about Mountain Biking and too much Testosterone. The people on that web site are trying to find her. She is one of their "Lost Authors".
Anyway, her new book is called Smart Girls Like Me, and she is touring the entire country (At least one event per state) for this book. We are lucky to have her for two separate events, in two separate states, at two different stores! Her first reading will be in our Dupont Circle Location on October 9th at 7pm. Her second will be in the ultra-hip, Courthouse Locale on the following day. (Oct. 10th, 7pm)
From what I have read of her work, Diane is not to be trifled with. If I were you, I would come out to one (or both) of these events and hear the words of this confident young woman.
Editor's Note:
The blogger above pulled all the questions about Disability plates directly off of the Washington DC DMV website. Any angry missives about handicapped plates on motorcycles should keep that in mind. If you have these plates on your bike, ride on! But can you please explain the whole thing to him? He gets confused easy.
Oh, and The DC site has Extremity spelled "Extrimity".
As I was coming home at the end of another long day, I was turning left into my parking structure when I noticed a nice big Harley parked across the street. My headlights swept the massive beast from forks to tail lights, and it looked like every other hog in the District with one exception. This one had a handicapped license plate. I was so struck by the idea that I brought my car to screeching (If you can screech going 5 miles an hour) halt.
Handicapped? Yep. Motorcycle? Again, yep. Double checking my facts to see if my tired eyes were playing tricks on me didn't change things. I was looking at a motorcycle with a disabled plate. In my head, I started to go through the list of things that qualify you for a handicap plate. Deaf? Maybe. Blind? Certainly. Paraplegic, quadriplegic, epileptic, diabetic, tragically overweight, what is it that qualifies you for disability tags, but still allows you to pass the motorcycle test? I was so curious that I had to look up the requirements for getting a little wheelchair guy on your plate. Here is what I found.
If you are "missing lower extremity or are unable to walk without the aid of motorized wheelchair", you are good to go. Although, if you were missing the lower half of you, I am certain that running the rear brake and the shifting action would be a little tough. Not to mention staying on the bike in the event of, say, a turn. And what are you going to do when the bike stops moving? Gyroscopic action will keep it upright while it is rolling, but when bikes stop, they tend to fall over. The motorized wheelchair thing is out too. If you have one of those, you could just get it souped up and drive it around town. No need to blow $30,000 on a Harley. So what else?
Next on the list is, "Has applicant lost the use of one (1) or both legs? " (I am quoting off the DC DMV site) One leg I think you could do okay. If you lost both, you are right back up to not having 'lower extremity' and would fly off the bike in corners and have trouble holding the bike up at stop lights, not to mention the shifting thing. So, one leg = good. Both legs = not so good.
As an aside. I watched the episode of American Chopper where they built this cool custom trike for a guy who was in a chair. The bike (trike) was cool when it was finished, tricked out with an automatic transmission, reverse, custom tractor style seat (complete with seat belt) and foot beds with Velcro strips to keep the dude's feet in place. Very cool. (I cried on the reveal of the bike cause the guy was so happy. Man, I am sappy.)
"Is the applicant severely disabled and unable to walk without the aid of a mechanical device? Note: Mechanical device includes wheelchair, walker, crutches, cane and long leg braces." I think this might be the one. My flaw with this one should be pretty obvious. Where are you going to store your walker or wheelchair when you are riding? You might need a little trailer for your "mechanical aid". A cane or the leg braces would still work, while crutches might be a little trying but so far, this is a the winner.
"Does the applicant suffer from a respiratory disease or ailment?" -- There is a paragraph of explanation after this, but the site won't let me cut and paste from it and I am too lazy too type it all in while toggling back and forth between the two windows. Sorry. Just a fact. -- So if you have asthma, you could get the disabled tags and maybe emphysema. They would still work because you could wear a backpack with your Oxygen tank in it. I still think you wouldn't want anyone who couldn't really breathe hurtling down the freeway at 70 plus miles an hour. What if a bug went in their mouth? If you can't cough that sucker up, you could be in for a world of hurt. The bug might not be that well off either.
The last one makes it for sure, "Does the applicant have a physical disability that is long-term and substantially impairs the individual's mobility?" I see this as the catch all clause. You could have nothing really wrong with you except being 500 pounds -- Really though, if you are that big, you probably have loads of other problems -- and you could still get a motorcycle license. Like those two guys that held the record for fattest guys on the smallest motorcycles.
Okay, after further examination and much scrutiny, you could pretty much have anything and be able to get Disability tags. Fair enough. The only thing left to do is figure out what needs to be done to get a motorcycle permit. I might be running out of ramble space, so I will have to look in to that in the future. You think there are any events coming up I should talk about?
What if I tell you about two and let you pick. First up is a very cool little book by a very cool author. The book is called "Smart Girls Like Me" and the Author is Diane Vadino. Diane is a Brooklyn based writer (a lot of them are now days) who has been pounding out articles for a number of years. Google her name and see how many hits you get. Diane used to work for those nice kids at McSweeney's along with being the brains behind bunnyshop.org, senior contributing editor at Spin and editor at Surface. Her work can be seen in Nylon, Allure, ReadyMade, Jane, Seventeen and all over the internet. I even found a little bit she wrote about Mountain Biking and too much Testosterone. The people on that web site are trying to find her. She is one of their "Lost Authors".
Anyway, her new book is called Smart Girls Like Me, and she is touring the entire country (At least one event per state) for this book. We are lucky to have her for two separate events, in two separate states, at two different stores! Her first reading will be in our Dupont Circle Location on October 9th at 7pm. Her second will be in the ultra-hip, Courthouse Locale on the following day. (Oct. 10th, 7pm)
From what I have read of her work, Diane is not to be trifled with. If I were you, I would come out to one (or both) of these events and hear the words of this confident young woman.
Editor's Note:
The blogger above pulled all the questions about Disability plates directly off of the Washington DC DMV website. Any angry missives about handicapped plates on motorcycles should keep that in mind. If you have these plates on your bike, ride on! But can you please explain the whole thing to him? He gets confused easy.
Oh, and The DC site has Extremity spelled "Extrimity".
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