I rarely run these days due to back problems, but decided to head out for a short one on my favourite trail near my house. The weather was oustanding. 500m along the trail I encounter two young kids on mini 4wheel ATV’s. The younger one being restrained by a women holding a rope on the back of the ATV!
I stop, and politely ask the woman, what she is doing? The signage on ALL trail-heads clearly indicates the no motorized vehicles are aloowed on the trails. I explain this to her and add that it is a wetland area and environmentally sensitive. She says that the ATV’s were gifts to her kids from their Grandfather and they wanted to check them out( What sort of kids get $2,000+ gifts from grand-parents?). She added that her husband is a Police officer and said that it would be OK to take the ATV’s on the local trail. Why is it these people always have some story like this. I note that she is not wearing a wedding ring. Anyway, I said to her that I would not engage in an argument with an officer of the law, nor did I want to be a party-pooper on kids having fun, but I did say that:
It is clearly illegal
There are serious problems with ATV’s elsewhere in the province right now over their legitimacy and usage on all manner of trails and land where their use is NOT allowed. In fact their use, legally is very limited. So limited, one wonders why anyone would spend any money on them.
Inquired about what sort of confusing message she was sending to her kids by allowing the activity when clearly illegal and then the environmental lesson for the kids too. I mean, this is wear kids get the nutty idea that this sort of thing is OK
Most of this went right over her head. However, she was more polite than the ATV riders I encounter at my cottage, who when confronted, riding illegally on private property, essentially tell you to “&^%$off and get lost”! Nice.
The issue you touch on here is that laws / rules don’t apply to certain people, or so they think. I see it all the time with dogs off leashes. There is always an excuse why the rule doesn’t apply to that person.
That is all so common these days. I went to a local school with my daughter so she could ride her bike (not great on it, so the car free school is safe). Three dogs without leashes chasing everyone. Then a couple young teenagers show up drinking and cussing and swearing. Some of the kids were riding on the grass. None of the children except my daughter had a helmet (CA state law if you are under 18).
We decided to leave and go run at the HS track instead. Could have said something…but I didn’t.
Being a parent of three, I can’t understand what kind of parents buy their kids ATVs and dirt bikes, and then just let them irde anywhere, anytime. I constantly see these kids (someitmes not even in their teens) around my neighborhood, riding on the streets (of course no DL, street lighting, or helmet), across private property (including on a golf course), exceeding the speed limits, and generally causing noise and dust pollution as well as erosion.
The few times I tried to do something about it either (1) the cops told me they couldn’t do anything unless they caught them, and/or (2) parents threatened to sue me.
If I wasn’t a small government kind of guy, I’d be for restricting some people’s right to breed.
I am on both sides of this issue having owned quads. The main reason we got rid of them is that there is a diminshing area to ride them here in CA. Everything is protected. There is no balance. There are thousands of square miles of absolute shit, worthless land in this state where people should be able to go ride their quads/dirtbikes but it is all restricted. On the flipside, there is a large % of the quad/dirt bike owner population that are idiots and don’t understand the concept of private property rights, dust, noise, damage and general annoyance associcated with their sport. With most everything else in life, they ruin it for the reasonable folks.
I figure the cop (lady’s husband) knew there was little chance they would be prosecuted for riding ATV’s on that land. Why else would a cop tell someone to break the law? Really amazing.
Pretty irresponsible for any parent to allow that. You should or reminded her of what happend to 3 guys riding ATV’s on Signal Mountain several years back.
A millionaire got tired of ATV’s riding on his private property, so he went out shot and murdered all three of the riders and dumped their bodies and ATV’s off his property in a county dump. It was clearly cold blooded murder. You never know how people are going to react. I think that mother you encountered should be smarter than to allow her children to knowingly break a law.
Funny thing is, on my trail run this weekend, there are signs everywhere saying no mountain bikes allowed. Yet, I couldn’t help but notice MTB tire tracks on the trail. I also couldn’t really understand why they were dis-allowed.
I attribute this to a slow gradual decline in our social decorum and common courtesy to others over the last several decades. It seems that years ago people looked out for others more or thought more about the direct or indirect impact of their actions would be on others BEFOR acting. Now it’s act first, or screw everyone else completely. I’ll do whatever I want to do, how I want to do it and when I want to do it. It’s all about me!
I have a cottage up north of Toronto - I use it as a bit of a common sense barometer. On our stretch of the river that I am on we have had six deaths associated with jet-skis - mostly due to shere stupity. Common sense would think that, that fact alone would somehow curtail their use or the stupid acts that people do with them, but no - useage is still on the rise and the stupid non-sensical stuff continues.
Here’s another cottage anectdote: Years ago when I would be out running in the rain. People would slow down in their cars, roll down the window and ask if I needed a lift. Or if I was out for a bike ride and flatted, if they saw me on the side of the road changing the flat slow down and ask if I needed some help. Now they just barrel on by in their huge trucks/SUVs/cars never stopping or slowing down at all.
I would have called the police and demanded that tickets be given. If they try to give a warning call the News and tell them that a local cops family are “above the law”. I am not at all some law and order nazi, nor am I a tree hugger going to worry that an ATV will damamge a trail any more than a MTN bike…but motor vehicles are not allowed there for a very good reason…and should not be there.
Next time someone tells that that so and so is a cop - tell them that your “brothers, wifes, uncles, neighbors, college room mates, sister sat on a plane next to a woman who was married to an astronaut…are you impressed?”
I hear you brother. There is a huge off rode area at the north end of my town. Every weekend the flatlanders come up here by the thousands. Most of them don’t have the brains of an ice cube. As a fireman I get called on to go out their and save their butts which is what I’m paid to do, but so much of it is unnecessary. They ride around drunk, in the dark, try things that are way beyond their ability, don’t scout the area, etc. On top of all that they call 911 for trivial B.S. that they should take care of themselves. They think this is the O.C. and there is a fire staion on every corner. All of this takes resources out of town for extended periods. Then to top things off they leave all there trash around and head home. Rant over.
jet skiers are where idiot dirt bikers go for summer kicks. 75 MPH across the water. no brakes, no training. plentiful alcohol. darting in front of your ski boat, ruining your smooth water or following behind 50 feet behind a skier jumping the wake. Boy howdy!
Used to waterski a lot on the CA delta and yes a lot of them are out of control - like the Rev said - don’t even get me started… One guy was taunting a fisherman and would not stop - sprayed him a few times so the story goes. I do not advocate this, but the fisherman finally got fed up and ran the jet skier over and killed him. Bass boats are really fast and I guess the jetski guy did not realize that.
A police officer who I met in a bar last year and started talking to said that the most common call they get these days, is not someone breaking the law, it’s these breaches of common sense and courtesy that are what they are called on more often. The “offender” has technically not done anything wrong, they have just been a complete jerk and totally stupid with absolutly no feeling what so ever that what they are doing as impacted anyone else!
Strange, because I keep hearing reports that we are becoming a more intelligent and kinder society!
Jet skiies…fucking aqueous chain saws. And the two stroke ones pollute like hell. What bastard invented those things anway…? We can only hope they will keep crashing into each other while riding drunk and thin the hurd.
The what’s supposed to eventually become the trans Canada trail goes right thru our little village and what do we have on it - fat asses on their ATV’s, snowmobiles, motorcycles. They outnumber the runners, mountain bike riders and x-country skiers by a ratio of ten to one. I won’t even x-country ski there on weekends because the snowmobile traffic is too heavy.
Sad thing is, one winter weekday I was x-country skiing on the trail and came across a local farmer working on his fence. I stopped to chat a bit and he told me back in the 70’s/80’s there were a lot more x-country skiers and hardly any snowmobiles on the trail. Now skiers are a rarity and snowmobiles are everywhere. Very sad.
There is another nature trail near us were there are no motorized vehicles allowed. A big sign at the start of the trail even says so. Guess what I saw there several times this winter while x-country skiing - you guessed it, ATV tracks.
It’s always the same people it seems - big gas guzzlin’ 4x4’s pulling either a snowmobile, ATV or jet ski on a trailer.
It’s funny. There is all this talk about the Kyoto accord, global warming, the limited amount of fossil fuels, environmental problems, disappearing wetlands, species extinction. Somehow the message is not getting through to these folks. I hate to stererotype, but you are right, it’s often the same people, who are drving the honking big truck, who are roaring around on the snowmobiles in the winter and the jetskis and/or the ATV’s in the summer. I say double the price of gas and then see where these people are at. You don’t see any of this nonesense in Europe.
In the area of my cottage we actually have some strange bedfellows as it is the snowmobilers and the environmental types banding together against the ATV’ers. Reason: The continued illegal use of the snowmobile trails by the ATV’ers is threatening the insurance policys and land access deals that the snowmobile clubs and associations have been developed over the years. I am sure there is some cross-over, so it is ironically some of the same constituency that is screwing it up - for everyone. How smart is that?
As I mentioned, it’s the attitude of these folks when confronted, even politly and diplomatically even on your own land that I find most extraordinary. What they are doing is illegal, yet it’s me that’s told to “#$%^-off and get lost”.
"I say double the price of gas and then see where these people are at. "
Reality is that it’s going to happen. Cheap gas in North America isn’t going to last forever. It going to be very hard for some people in our part of the world to accept but it will come eventually and we’ll have to change our ways.
Thing that always amazes me is how do a lot of these people get the money for their big trucks with ATV/snowmobile/jet ski and pay for the gas/insurance to run them. The people I know who have these things are usually blue collar/tradesman types who make OK livings but aren’t rolling in the dough. Obviously different priorities from us.
