badmaners
01-08-2008, 09:48 AM
January 7, 2008
Time to curtail the ATV expansion plan
By CONNIE WOODCOCK
I was driving down my street one summer day when out in front of me roared three all-terrain vehicles, each bearing a driver and passenger, all obviously underage.
They circled the block and after I pulled into my driveway, I watched as they came around again -- and again and again.
By my count, there were three laws being broken here: Underage drivers, no helmets and carrying passengers. But I saw them frequently before we moved away a year later and no one ever stopped them.
Meet the latest scourge of exurban, rural and even sometimes suburban life: The ATV. Big, noisy and polluting, they've taken over from snowmobiles and jet skis as the most offensive vehicles ever.
As unpleasant and often misused as jet skis and snowmobiles are, at least their use is limited to two or three months a year. The ATV is usable 24/7, 12 months a year -- or until the snow gets too deep. And although Ontario law imposes ostensibly strict limits on their use, they're all too often misused -- ridden improperly or while impaired, on public roads and private property. And because their popularity is skyrocketing, given the number of winters with little snow for snowmobiling lately, their owners, no longer just farmers and hunters, are beginning to become a force to be reckoned with and they're strongly backed by the manufacturers.
Although their use is supposed to be limited to Ontario's network of trails, too often they pop up on back roads and private property all over the place.
Now, ATV owners and their clubs are pushing for even more: Access to our roads.
And at least one southern Ontario county is even considering giving it to them. Northumberland County, just east of Durham Region, is in the midst of an acrimonious debate on whether to pass a bylaw that would grant access and most of its municipalities are holding public meetings to gauge residents' mood. Chatham-Kent, in southwestern Ontario, is also considering a bylaw. Several other municipalities in Ontario have bylaws now, mostly in the north.
25 DEATHS
At one Northumberland public meeting, an emergency room doctor and an OPP officer -- there were 25 deaths last year, double the year before, 11 on municipal roads -- were there to oppose the idea. A roomful of ATV riders were there to say they deserve to win.
"What would you do?" one local politician asked me with a helpless shrug. "Where we are with ATVs now is where we were with snowmobiles 20 years ago."
Well, not quite. Until this winter, snowmobiles with for sale signs on them decorated many a front lawn. But ATVs can go any time, anywhere and they're fast, making them hard to catch when they're breaking the law.
And if you live near a popular trail, you might as well live in the middle of the Don Valley Parkway.
The supporters sound reasonable. They claim they just want to be able to access the roads -- including routes through urban areas -- so they can move from trail to trail, whether it's 60 feet or 60 miles.
YAHOO FACTOR
"They're well meaning," says the politician. But the issue is so hot, he's seen more public input on it than all of the other issues he's dealt with in his four years in politics put together.
Most opponents at public meetings worry about the yahoo factor -- and with 44% of Ontario deaths last year involving alcohol, you can bet there are lots of yahoos.
The politician has heard "horror stories about someone following an ATV and he can't catch it. They're doing 80 and the driver has his kid on it.
"It's insanity, absolute insanity."
But there's also a larger issue. There are all kinds of motorized vehicles these days that take to the roads and sidewalks with impunity, as anyone knows who has ever encountered a kid with a scooter on a sidewalk or an elderly handicapped man charging along the road in his motorized chair.
"We need to figure out better ways to manage motorized vehicles in general," my politician friend says. "It's a real challenge for us."
- - -
A sharp-eyed Coloradan pointed out to me that there is no Spokane County in Colorado. I'd like to blame the fine print on the Environment Canada website, but I can't. I goofed. Spokane County is in Washington.
Some input here would be good.
Her E-mail is connie.woodcock@sunmedia.com
No pun intended with her name LOL.
Time to curtail the ATV expansion plan
By CONNIE WOODCOCK
I was driving down my street one summer day when out in front of me roared three all-terrain vehicles, each bearing a driver and passenger, all obviously underage.
They circled the block and after I pulled into my driveway, I watched as they came around again -- and again and again.
By my count, there were three laws being broken here: Underage drivers, no helmets and carrying passengers. But I saw them frequently before we moved away a year later and no one ever stopped them.
Meet the latest scourge of exurban, rural and even sometimes suburban life: The ATV. Big, noisy and polluting, they've taken over from snowmobiles and jet skis as the most offensive vehicles ever.
As unpleasant and often misused as jet skis and snowmobiles are, at least their use is limited to two or three months a year. The ATV is usable 24/7, 12 months a year -- or until the snow gets too deep. And although Ontario law imposes ostensibly strict limits on their use, they're all too often misused -- ridden improperly or while impaired, on public roads and private property. And because their popularity is skyrocketing, given the number of winters with little snow for snowmobiling lately, their owners, no longer just farmers and hunters, are beginning to become a force to be reckoned with and they're strongly backed by the manufacturers.
Although their use is supposed to be limited to Ontario's network of trails, too often they pop up on back roads and private property all over the place.
Now, ATV owners and their clubs are pushing for even more: Access to our roads.
And at least one southern Ontario county is even considering giving it to them. Northumberland County, just east of Durham Region, is in the midst of an acrimonious debate on whether to pass a bylaw that would grant access and most of its municipalities are holding public meetings to gauge residents' mood. Chatham-Kent, in southwestern Ontario, is also considering a bylaw. Several other municipalities in Ontario have bylaws now, mostly in the north.
25 DEATHS
At one Northumberland public meeting, an emergency room doctor and an OPP officer -- there were 25 deaths last year, double the year before, 11 on municipal roads -- were there to oppose the idea. A roomful of ATV riders were there to say they deserve to win.
"What would you do?" one local politician asked me with a helpless shrug. "Where we are with ATVs now is where we were with snowmobiles 20 years ago."
Well, not quite. Until this winter, snowmobiles with for sale signs on them decorated many a front lawn. But ATVs can go any time, anywhere and they're fast, making them hard to catch when they're breaking the law.
And if you live near a popular trail, you might as well live in the middle of the Don Valley Parkway.
The supporters sound reasonable. They claim they just want to be able to access the roads -- including routes through urban areas -- so they can move from trail to trail, whether it's 60 feet or 60 miles.
YAHOO FACTOR
"They're well meaning," says the politician. But the issue is so hot, he's seen more public input on it than all of the other issues he's dealt with in his four years in politics put together.
Most opponents at public meetings worry about the yahoo factor -- and with 44% of Ontario deaths last year involving alcohol, you can bet there are lots of yahoos.
The politician has heard "horror stories about someone following an ATV and he can't catch it. They're doing 80 and the driver has his kid on it.
"It's insanity, absolute insanity."
But there's also a larger issue. There are all kinds of motorized vehicles these days that take to the roads and sidewalks with impunity, as anyone knows who has ever encountered a kid with a scooter on a sidewalk or an elderly handicapped man charging along the road in his motorized chair.
"We need to figure out better ways to manage motorized vehicles in general," my politician friend says. "It's a real challenge for us."
- - -
A sharp-eyed Coloradan pointed out to me that there is no Spokane County in Colorado. I'd like to blame the fine print on the Environment Canada website, but I can't. I goofed. Spokane County is in Washington.
Some input here would be good.
Her E-mail is connie.woodcock@sunmedia.com
No pun intended with her name LOL.