Maybe I should clarify just a bit and in retrospect say that a national voice need not be only one individual but perhaps a national direction for which has the ability to set forth that direction with one voice.
I get it, there are motorcyclists which will never see eye to eye in their style of riding, their behviours and such but think about something a simple as lane splitting or lane sharing. In the time it has taken California to get with it, many states, like it or not have legalized cannabis. They did that through highly coordinated efforts even though the results were state by state but anyone thinking those were individual efforts supported and funded by the people of those states is badly mistaken, there is a national movement to get that done. The plain fact is that motorcyclist can easily travel across a state line within a few hours and what you can and can't do while riding changes dramatically, unlike a car where very few rules change. Sure, some of the rules of the road change but then they change for everyone including motorcycles. Lane sharing isn't a motorcycle only rule as it also places upon the drivers of other vehicles certain responsilities.
As for the comparison to another country or city in another country and saying their problems with congestion are far worse or different I say head to southern California and tell me that the congestion there isn't horrendous and that in California and other states the models for restrictions upon certain groups don't have theor origins elsewhere, they do. How often have we heard that it won't happen and then sure enough, it does?
Within 5 years, we'll be smog testing motorcycles and the EU is a model for it and we have the means right here. Other states have safety checks already and while I am not in any way adovcating against either here, as motorcyclists we have no real say in that either.
The risks to national efforts is high but at some point, as we'll all find out, IMHO, a failure to secure a national platform will be to our deteriment and the thing about saying adverse things won't happen is that once they do, those saying it wouldn't happen seem to disappear into the crowd hoping to return to better times.
This idea I speak about is probably considered a significant deviation from the just wait and see or go along philosophies but as motorcycling has taken a back step in advocating for itself, the money, power and influence behind the evolution in the primary road user, the car, have coalesced behind national exposure and there is zero interest in motorcycles.
There is a reason why so few rules of the road consider motorcycles, realtively speaking and it isn't because cars make up the most use of the roads, we have proven that minority groups often get an entire nation to change, it is because we as a group are so quick to divide ourselves and fail to see the end of the tunnel, and for motorcycles there is no light there.
Just my opinion though and I understand and accept few if any will agree.
