NHxj4x4
04-23-2008, 09:33 AM
Guys,
I keep getting deeper and deeper into the idiocy that is the NH State DMV. Yesterday was the final straw so I wrote a letter. I sent this to all the e-mails addys I could find in the DOS & DMV, all 400 or so State Reps, all of the Senators and the local news. It's so foolish sometimes.
To all; with hopes it may concern you,
Hello,
I am writing this letter out of sheer frustration with my paradoxical “Live Free or Die” state. I am law abiding, tax paying, teeming with good intent but seemingly out of alignment with what the NH DOS / DMV believes to be just. As I said I am law abiding and don’t want for this entire letter to be a mass of anger produced self contradiction, but it is difficult for myself to find any intellectual reason behind the hurdles with which I find myself faced with today. The main reason for my writing this is the way the NH DOS / DMV handles the procurement of a motorcycle license and or permit.
Last year around this time I got a motorcycle permit from the Keene DMV. Unfortunately at that time the weather nor my machinery was willing to cooperate with my desire to learn and I was only able to ride perhaps a total of 5 hours over that 30 days. As mentioned my motorcycle at that time had mechanical failures so I decided to save a little more for a slightly better bike and learn next year, no harm done. This year I acquired a new motorcycle that I felt would be perfect for learning. I went to procure yet another permit and was told that the NH Motorcycle Permit is valid once per lifetime and that in order to ride my motorcycle further I would either need to take the road test for my license, or enroll in the Motorcycle Ride Training Program. I opted for option two at this time figuring that it would be the best bet for me to learn how to adequately learn to ride safely. This however was not ultimately the way I was able to go as the wait for this course is a daunting 10-12 weeks at this point of the year, which would push the class for myself to approximately August, and even this was a “best guess”. Now it seems that the course has been heavily touted and recommended by the DMV and perhaps the demand has been overwhelming contrary to Virginia Beecher’s comments in RSA 263:34-b section V that states “An adequate number of rider training courses shall be provided to meet the reasonably anticipated needs of all persons in the state who are eligible and who desire to participate in the program.” In my mind 10-12 weeks does not meet that statement.
This brings us back to the one permit per lifetime. I struggle to talk about this with any type of gentle reservation as the senselessness of this leaves me dumbfounded. I understand that the permit can’t and should not be used as a yearly free pass to say Laconia for bike week…but ONCE? I would think that with everything the state has supposedly done to make this a safe place to drive and ride that surely someone would view this as asinine as I do. What about 2 times per lifetime? Perhaps someone would have has a similar detriment as I and weren’t unable to learn enough to consider oneself as proficient in riding a motorcycle. Surely you would agree that this is a responsible statement, and should be regarded as such. As I stood at the DMV and was told this I think the Trooper saw that I was quite discouraged and went on to share her thoughts on the matter which paralleled mine above. She just couldn’t see the reason either. I searched for hours online to find proof of this law and in the entirety of chapter 263 I could not find a reference to “once per lifetime”. Perhaps in RSA 263:32 section III where it states “The permit shall be valid for 30 days from the date of issuance or until the holder of the permit obtains a special license to drive motorcycles, whichever is sooner.” I should be reading in assumptions, but that is typically not the case with the state.
Lastly I would like to talk about the event that inspired this letter, which is the Motorcycle Road Test. This morning I set out to take the test on a 1986 Yamaha Virago (and I’m sorry to bore you with models, but I chose this bike due to its ease of drivability and nimbleness which play nicely to the skills test). The last few days leading to the test it was running rather strangely which concerned me quite a bit. I marched on however, going to the Keene DMV on 3 separate occasions to practice for the test, trailering my bike each time as I didn’t have a permit. I had the test down, I was running the test and the trepidatious “cones” flawlessly, and was prepared to go.
I arrived this morning (4/22) at 7am to the testing location and started my bike to get it warmed up and do a final check on everything. As the throttle came up for whatever reason the bike was spewing gas out of the tail pipe. Knowing nothing about why, but knowing enough to see that this was quite unsafe I asked to use my Father-in-laws bike as he was there with his bike as well taking the test. Now a bike is similar to car in that the basic functions are the same, but dissimilar in the “feel” of the different bike. Shape, size and weight play major roles in riding a bike as each is different. Mine was a nimble smaller bike, and his is a full sized cruiser. Needless to say I was worried and began practicing the test immediately on his bike to try and learn that “feel” I mentioned. I was close and it was going to be a 50/50 shot for me having never ridden his bike before. I knew that at that time and I was OK with it, thinking the worst that can happen is I fail and I take the test tomorrow in Merrimack.
I failed…passing the 1st test, then in the 2nd test hitting two cones (which is fine), but then in the U-Turn part of that 2nd test I touched the Yellow line as I completed the U-Turn. He failed me right there for touching that line, saying that 2 cones is 6 point and that line is 5, thusly I had 11 points and 10 is the maximum. I had never ridden that bike, and it was much heavier and bigger than my own. Again I was fine with this thinking that I could fix my bike tonight and take the test tomorrow in Merrimack. I’ll apologize again for this lengthy lead-in but this is the part that quite literally blew my mind and this e-mail is the result: He told me that I had to wait 10 days before taking the test again.
Now before you all ask “where’s the fire sir” I’ll answer it. I purchased a brand new 2007 Motorcycle, left a deposit and was slated to pick it up this weekend. My deposit is only good for 1 week as there were other buyers for this bike and it is the last one as it is a “leftover” from 2007. So that explains the hurry. Again, before you tell yourself that I jumped the gun, perhaps, but in all of Chapter 263 which I read due diligently before pursuing my license nowhere does it mention you have to wait 10 days to retest. I talked rationally with the Test Instructor and he said that it was the Director’s (Virginia Beecher) idea and that she wouldn’t budge on it. This basically meant to me that this is a “known issue” as I call it, and that I was certainly not the only one to think of this as completely devoid of intelligence. I flat out dare someone to explain to me what reason there is to wait 10 days before taking the test other than some arbitrary unsaid punishment or taunting laughter that one would find on a little league field when the kid with coke bottle glasses comes up to the pitcher’s mound. Does this really speak to the Mission Statement proudly displayed under Virginia Beecher’s welcome letter on the DMV’s main page? Does this follow anything that any of us are taught in any facet of the coveted “Golden Rule”? Are you all as the Sheppard’s of New Hampshire Citizens really that daft to think that these type of things will be viewed as acceptable? They’re not, they’re preposterous and insulting.
In closing I expect nothing to come of this letter as I can’t imagine this would be the 1st written about this subject. I have written two other letters to the NH DOS / DMV and both were met with deaf ears. I merely wanted to bring some sort of attention and perhaps a minute of focus to how completely and utterly disconcerting this really is for the citizens of New Hampshire that pay your salaries.
Sincerely,
Todd P Maillet
I keep getting deeper and deeper into the idiocy that is the NH State DMV. Yesterday was the final straw so I wrote a letter. I sent this to all the e-mails addys I could find in the DOS & DMV, all 400 or so State Reps, all of the Senators and the local news. It's so foolish sometimes.
To all; with hopes it may concern you,
Hello,
I am writing this letter out of sheer frustration with my paradoxical “Live Free or Die” state. I am law abiding, tax paying, teeming with good intent but seemingly out of alignment with what the NH DOS / DMV believes to be just. As I said I am law abiding and don’t want for this entire letter to be a mass of anger produced self contradiction, but it is difficult for myself to find any intellectual reason behind the hurdles with which I find myself faced with today. The main reason for my writing this is the way the NH DOS / DMV handles the procurement of a motorcycle license and or permit.
Last year around this time I got a motorcycle permit from the Keene DMV. Unfortunately at that time the weather nor my machinery was willing to cooperate with my desire to learn and I was only able to ride perhaps a total of 5 hours over that 30 days. As mentioned my motorcycle at that time had mechanical failures so I decided to save a little more for a slightly better bike and learn next year, no harm done. This year I acquired a new motorcycle that I felt would be perfect for learning. I went to procure yet another permit and was told that the NH Motorcycle Permit is valid once per lifetime and that in order to ride my motorcycle further I would either need to take the road test for my license, or enroll in the Motorcycle Ride Training Program. I opted for option two at this time figuring that it would be the best bet for me to learn how to adequately learn to ride safely. This however was not ultimately the way I was able to go as the wait for this course is a daunting 10-12 weeks at this point of the year, which would push the class for myself to approximately August, and even this was a “best guess”. Now it seems that the course has been heavily touted and recommended by the DMV and perhaps the demand has been overwhelming contrary to Virginia Beecher’s comments in RSA 263:34-b section V that states “An adequate number of rider training courses shall be provided to meet the reasonably anticipated needs of all persons in the state who are eligible and who desire to participate in the program.” In my mind 10-12 weeks does not meet that statement.
This brings us back to the one permit per lifetime. I struggle to talk about this with any type of gentle reservation as the senselessness of this leaves me dumbfounded. I understand that the permit can’t and should not be used as a yearly free pass to say Laconia for bike week…but ONCE? I would think that with everything the state has supposedly done to make this a safe place to drive and ride that surely someone would view this as asinine as I do. What about 2 times per lifetime? Perhaps someone would have has a similar detriment as I and weren’t unable to learn enough to consider oneself as proficient in riding a motorcycle. Surely you would agree that this is a responsible statement, and should be regarded as such. As I stood at the DMV and was told this I think the Trooper saw that I was quite discouraged and went on to share her thoughts on the matter which paralleled mine above. She just couldn’t see the reason either. I searched for hours online to find proof of this law and in the entirety of chapter 263 I could not find a reference to “once per lifetime”. Perhaps in RSA 263:32 section III where it states “The permit shall be valid for 30 days from the date of issuance or until the holder of the permit obtains a special license to drive motorcycles, whichever is sooner.” I should be reading in assumptions, but that is typically not the case with the state.
Lastly I would like to talk about the event that inspired this letter, which is the Motorcycle Road Test. This morning I set out to take the test on a 1986 Yamaha Virago (and I’m sorry to bore you with models, but I chose this bike due to its ease of drivability and nimbleness which play nicely to the skills test). The last few days leading to the test it was running rather strangely which concerned me quite a bit. I marched on however, going to the Keene DMV on 3 separate occasions to practice for the test, trailering my bike each time as I didn’t have a permit. I had the test down, I was running the test and the trepidatious “cones” flawlessly, and was prepared to go.
I arrived this morning (4/22) at 7am to the testing location and started my bike to get it warmed up and do a final check on everything. As the throttle came up for whatever reason the bike was spewing gas out of the tail pipe. Knowing nothing about why, but knowing enough to see that this was quite unsafe I asked to use my Father-in-laws bike as he was there with his bike as well taking the test. Now a bike is similar to car in that the basic functions are the same, but dissimilar in the “feel” of the different bike. Shape, size and weight play major roles in riding a bike as each is different. Mine was a nimble smaller bike, and his is a full sized cruiser. Needless to say I was worried and began practicing the test immediately on his bike to try and learn that “feel” I mentioned. I was close and it was going to be a 50/50 shot for me having never ridden his bike before. I knew that at that time and I was OK with it, thinking the worst that can happen is I fail and I take the test tomorrow in Merrimack.
I failed…passing the 1st test, then in the 2nd test hitting two cones (which is fine), but then in the U-Turn part of that 2nd test I touched the Yellow line as I completed the U-Turn. He failed me right there for touching that line, saying that 2 cones is 6 point and that line is 5, thusly I had 11 points and 10 is the maximum. I had never ridden that bike, and it was much heavier and bigger than my own. Again I was fine with this thinking that I could fix my bike tonight and take the test tomorrow in Merrimack. I’ll apologize again for this lengthy lead-in but this is the part that quite literally blew my mind and this e-mail is the result: He told me that I had to wait 10 days before taking the test again.
Now before you all ask “where’s the fire sir” I’ll answer it. I purchased a brand new 2007 Motorcycle, left a deposit and was slated to pick it up this weekend. My deposit is only good for 1 week as there were other buyers for this bike and it is the last one as it is a “leftover” from 2007. So that explains the hurry. Again, before you tell yourself that I jumped the gun, perhaps, but in all of Chapter 263 which I read due diligently before pursuing my license nowhere does it mention you have to wait 10 days to retest. I talked rationally with the Test Instructor and he said that it was the Director’s (Virginia Beecher) idea and that she wouldn’t budge on it. This basically meant to me that this is a “known issue” as I call it, and that I was certainly not the only one to think of this as completely devoid of intelligence. I flat out dare someone to explain to me what reason there is to wait 10 days before taking the test other than some arbitrary unsaid punishment or taunting laughter that one would find on a little league field when the kid with coke bottle glasses comes up to the pitcher’s mound. Does this really speak to the Mission Statement proudly displayed under Virginia Beecher’s welcome letter on the DMV’s main page? Does this follow anything that any of us are taught in any facet of the coveted “Golden Rule”? Are you all as the Sheppard’s of New Hampshire Citizens really that daft to think that these type of things will be viewed as acceptable? They’re not, they’re preposterous and insulting.
In closing I expect nothing to come of this letter as I can’t imagine this would be the 1st written about this subject. I have written two other letters to the NH DOS / DMV and both were met with deaf ears. I merely wanted to bring some sort of attention and perhaps a minute of focus to how completely and utterly disconcerting this really is for the citizens of New Hampshire that pay your salaries.
Sincerely,
Todd P Maillet