ABSTRACT
This chapter considers a pair of failed—though not completely failed— federal mandates: the first requiring that all the states pass mandatory helmet laws for those riding motorcycles, and the second forcing the states to adopt mandatory seat-belt laws for drivers and passengers in automobiles. The motorcycle as a mode of transportation, a statement of one’s free spirit, even a way of life reached an apex of sorts in the 1960s, capped by the classic youth on the road movie, Easy Rider, wherein two hippies took off for a ride across the country in search of sex, drugs, and freedom. Between 1964 and 1976, the number of registered motorcycles in America grew from slightly less than one million to five million. The US Department of Transportation, under that ubiquitous queen of meddlesomeness, Secretary Elizabeth Dole, promulgated on July 17, 1984, a final rule on the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 208: Occupant Protection Systems.
