It’s the proliferation of the ATV’s the I find particularly interesting. I don’t know why anyone would invest in something that has so limited an area for LEGAL use. They are not allowed on any county, provincail or municipal road( but you still see them being ridden on these roads often without helmets I note) they are not allowed on most nature trails, multi-use trails, even winter snowmobile trails( but again you see them all over these type of trails) The only places they are allowed is on the owners private property or designated areas for their use, which right now is very limited. So again I find it rather strange. Do the owners of these things actually look into any of this? I suspect that they don’t and just ASSUME, that they can ride them anywhere - afterall it’s an All Terrain Vehicle, so perhaps they are taking the term ATV literally.
I don’t understand the cost issue either with these motorized recreational activities - I mean it has to be a brutally expensive activity. For the amount of time people actually spend doing it, I wonder if they added it up and looked at it rationally if it would make sense to them. But then again, commen sense is uncommon!
I agree, gas prices won’t change anything. People will still buy hummers, jet-skis and ATVs (if they can afford it). And all that nonsense about your personal “freedom” (“this is a free country” I can do whatever I want… yeah, right!)
The problem is enforcement of existing laws and rules, especially since everybody with a good lawyer (money) getting away with everything (sometimes even murder). Add to that the common acceptance that money buys you everything (including your right to destroy the environment) and you get pretty exactly where we are now.
The point is that here in the US there is still so much space and free range that the government does not care about those “minor infractions”. If the national parks get overrun with snowmobiles (like Yellowstone), and even tourists start complaining, things start to change slowly. But it will never come around completely (I fear).
The difference in Europe is that there is no space where you can tolerate people not playing by the rules, because infractions affect many more people who try to enjoy nature compared to around here. Additionally law enforcement (Rangers) are much more interested in prosecuting people who destroy the little nature preserves we have left. Plus you can’t just buy your way out of court for this kind of “misdemeanors”. Some of those actions (like riding your ATV/motocycle in a protected refuge) can actually get you a fellony conviction, cost you your license and may even go on your public record.
That is exactly why we got ride of our quads. About all we were left with was trailering them to head over to the coastal dunes or out to a few patches of the desert where they are legal. It is way too congested in these areas. Sold them all and bought one son a grand piano and the other a nice drum set, and I no longer have to hear my wife say “if you hurt my kids I will divorce you.”
“It’s the proliferation of the ATV’s the I find particularly interesting.”
Here in rural eastern Ontario north of the I.Q. line (hwy 7) it seems that a lot of hunters have them. People in this area view hunting season as some sort of a religious rite of passage and it’s quite a big thing. In the old days they walked in the woods with their rifles when they hunted, now they ride ATV’s to where they sit until deer passes by for them to shoot. They then carry the carcass out of the woods with the ATV. So even hunting has become fat ass. (BTW, have you ever seen a slender woman north of hwy 7.
The snowmobilers are totally pissed at the ATV’ers for wrecking the trails. So am I as a x-country skier, not that I like the snowmobilers much better. The ATV’ers are well aware of the anger and of the damage they are causing but they do it any ways.
