LANSING – How will you get to work on July 18?

Motorcycle maybe?

That’s what Rep. Richard LeBlanc—the proud new owner of a Harley-Davidson Peace Officer Ultra Classic—hopes.

The Westland Democrat and 13 fellow Democratic lawmakers—most of whom don’t own motorcycles—want the state to designate the third Wednesday of every July as “Ride Your Motorcycle to Work Day.”

“I’ve always loved motorcycles,” said LeBlanc, who got his first one as a gift from his grandfather at age 9. He’s owned roughly 130 over his lifetime, including five now—counting the new Harley—and gave his sons their first ones at ages 2 and 4.

But he confesses that he hasn’t ridden any of them yet on his 170-mile daily round-trip commute between Westland and Lansing since taking office in January.

Not all his cosponsors share his fascination for motorcycles. Nor do they all share his support for repealing Michigan’s 1969 mandatory helmet law.

 For example, Rep. Steven Lindberg of Marquette doesn’t own a motorcycle but did ride his motor scooter in parades and while campaigning door to door last year in his Upper Peninsula district, according to his legislative director Troy Hagon.

“I don’t know whether he plans to ride his motor scooter to work,” Hagon said, adding that Lindberg favors keeping the helmet law.

Among the other geographically scattered sponsors are Reps. Mary Valentine of Norton Shores, Coleman Young of Detroit, and Michael Lahti of Hancock.

Another attempt to repeal the law is expected this year.

In 2006, Gov. Jennifer Granholm vetoed a bill that would have exempted operators who are over 21 and with at least two years’ experience from the helmet requirement if they pass a safety course and have at least $10,000 in medical insurance.

Granholm labeled the $10,000 amount “woefully inadequate” in light of the full costs of treating head injuries.

Motorcycle fatalities dropped 7 percent in 2006, contrasted with a 35.6 percent jump from 2004 to 2005, according to the state Office of Highway Safety Planning.

Repeal—a longtime lobbying goal of motorcyclist rights advocates and their American Bikers Aiming Toward Education organization—faces strong opposition from AAA of Michigan, the Brain Injury Association of Michigan and the Michigan State Medical Society, among other safety and health groups.

Dr. Paul Farr of Grand Rapids, president of the medical society, said his group will continue to fight to keep the law on the books

When legislators voted for repeal last year, “I thought they were brain dead,” Farr said. He cited the devastating nature of closed head injuries and the “societal good” of reducing the severity and cost to taxpayers, the health care system and insurers for treating motorcycle-related injuries.

Rep. Barb Byrum of Onondaga, another cosponsor of LeBlanc’s motorcycle-to-work bill doesn’t have a motorcycle—although her husband used to—and favors repeal.

“We’re the only state in the region with a helmet law,” Byrum said, calling for a balance between “the interests of safety” and the condition of the economy. Eliminating compulsory helmet use “will encourage more motorcyclists to come to Michigan and spend tourist dollars.”

And LeBlanc said the decision of whether to wear a helmet should be left up to each motorcyclist.

“I know it’s in conflict with the governor’s position and some of my cosponsors,” he said, but “ O believe it should be a choice thing. "