Why does the Federal government discriminate against motorcycles? National Parks are the biggest offenders.
A recent example is from a trip to Sturgis to visit the granite monolith of Presidents at Mount Rushmore. You pull up to the facility entrance and you’ll notice signs of a $10 (Cars, Motorcycles, and RV’s) fee. Clear thinking people will immediately notice that the price applies to a family of eight touring the Black Hills of SD in a rusted out RV or two-up on a motorcycle. Huh? Talk about a rip off!
So, I sent an email to the U.S. Department of the Interior to get the discrimination scoop:
Dear Mr. Interior,
As a motorcyclist I feel discriminated against when visiting your fine monument. I arrived over the summer to witness long lines of motorcycles, automobiles, vans, and RV’s packed with people eager to park and take photos of the stone Presidents. To my shock I was required to pay a $10 fee just like all the other vehicles. Yet, when my lovely “model” passenger informed the heavy soda drinking Park Ranger that we could not fit six people on the prize winning custom Black Harley-Davidson he just sneered and gave us $10 change from the Andrew Jackson…no sir not fair, not very fair at all…is it?
The attached photo (above) is of the posse who spent $80 to enter your facility on motorcycles.
Signed – Mac (Feeling ripped by the Department of the Interior)
The reply from the Interior’s head dude:
Dear Mr. Mac Rant,
Thank you for submitting an email on November 5, 2008, concerning your visit to Mount Rushmore National Memorial over the summer. The legislation that established Mount Rushmore National Memorial prohibits charging an entrance fee at the Memorial. No fees have been charged at the Memorial prior to the summer of 1997 when a parking fee was established.
This fee you reference is charged to pay for the cost of the construction and operation of the parking facility only. The new facility was necessary to accommodate the increased length of stay due to the new facilities now available at the Memorial. We determined after much effort that a federal appropriation to build the facility was not possible. Therefore, the National Park Service issued a concession contract for the design, construction and operation of a parking facility.
The concessionaire is allowed to collect a fee that will pay these costs. The concessionaire has set a standard rate of $10 for all personal vehicles. The concessionaire does not make special accommodations for various sizes of personal vehicles. In this method, we hope to keep our policies fair for everyone who visits the memorial. The parking concessionaire is also a non-profit organization, the Mount Rushmore National Memorial Society. Any income above expenses that might arise from the parking revenues is returned to assist the memorial with operations and maintenance.
We do appreciate your interest in Mount Rushmore National Memorial and you taking the time and initiative to learn more about the management of the memorial.
Signed – Park Ranger Bob
Bummer. The ‘ol form letter from the government. How ironic that I’ve been “stone-walled!” What is it with these government types? Let’s peel back some of the political layers here. The DOI is the nation’s principal conservation agency. It has over 80K employees at over 2400 locations across the U.S. It has a $15.8B annual budget of which $12.9B are revenues collected from energy, mineral, land sales and recreational management.
So, what we have here is an aggressive commercialization situation by parking thugs concessionaire’s and us motorcyclist provide financial assistance way above all others who have a similar desire to visit the park. This goes way beyond any reasonable common sense test! Yet we continue to pay and provide the most generous contributions. Clearly the Park Management knows this is the case. I’m sure they have attendance reports that show half of the parking fee revenue is generated from motorcycles yet we don’t consume the equivalent parking space. In 2007, over 2M visitors came to the monument. I’ve solicited a report via the freedom of information act (FOIA) which will provide detailed information on the revenue break out and I’ll provide an update on the findings.
Given that budgets have grown tighter and the reality of federal appropriations for parks, it would be a good bet that this parking policy will never change. So, on your next trip might I suggest as a sign of “cage” protest that we use one full parking space per motorcycle and send a message that we’re tired of the rip-off!
I got the same letter when I complained to the park service and you are right. it is a rip off.
The other issue is that they say it’s free to get into the park, but if there is no other place to park and you have to pay to park then it’s not free to get in to the park.
My comments about the park:
http://tinyurl.com/44j8x6
Enjoy your blog, keep up the good work.
Rex
I live in the south and I am sick of that word. Why is that discrimination? Yes, motorcycles are smaller and can technically fit more per space. But they charge for every motor vehicle that comes in. If you had not been together as a group, wouldn’t you have been using the whole parking space just for your motorcycle so as not to be damaged by other vehicles in the lot? Should it matter that you are a group? My 50 lb. (dripping wet), 10-yr. old son has to pay the same adult admission price to a theme park as the 12 year old who is 170 lbs. He weighs less, eats much less and takes up less than 1/2 the space but no one is asking that those rules be changed. Size is size and whether it be a motorcycle vs. a car or a thin child vs. an obese one, you can’t change the rules to accommodate one side without upsetting the other side. Charging based on size WOULD be illegal. If you were a lone person driving by yourself in a car, would you feel differently about what you’re asking?
@ Renee – unfortunate that my use of the word “discrimination” agitated your sensibilities. I don’t have time to create a Ross Perot-style chart and graph to educate on the concept of motorcycle “picked-on-ness”, but trust me they do and are.
In many non-southern states they charge different rates to license different size vehicles; they provide incentives to drive higher mileage vehicles and the list goes on and on and on…
If I was in a car it would not bother me in the least knowing that motorcycles pay $5 to park vs. I would pay $10.
Motorcycles used less gas to get to the park, are friendlier on the parks environment and many other considerations. They have I noticed, specific parking area’s for RV’s, even Semi’s, hmmmmm, special consideration there it seems.
What if there was a Sturgis rally and nobody showed up at Rushmore or Crazy Horse just out of protesting inequities.
I think, on a wide range of issues it is time for motorcyclists to start voting with their dollars. So many communities and places have become unfriendly to the American Biker that it is not even a surprise anymore to read something like this.
Motorcyclists spend hundreds of millions of dollars every year on travel. Ask Hollister California how they faired the year the rally was cancelled, and instead of 80,000 bikers only about 15,000 showed up. Yea, their economy didn’t much like that.
I really believe it is high time we stop letting people dictate to us, and start dictating to them……with our wallets.
WJ
It seems the only power and/or influence we have nowadays is the dollar. Spend it elsewhere and they finally sit up and take notice. For awhile…
Now, if we could only get everyone that rides on two wheels on the same page. What a powerful influence we could be…..