I'm always curious as to how people rationalize trespassing on private land. They know it's against the law, they know they're destroying someone else's property (in the case of the article someone's livelihood) and I can go to almost any forum topic and read of braggarts crowing about eluding LE, land owners and swearing to do it again.

 

I'm not a landowner and I wonder about this too. I would think people would be too scared to try something like that. You might end up with a 307 shell in your tire (or worse, your head).

 

The great NYS dilemma once again comes up. Don't ride on any land illegally, but we're not going to give you any land to ride on either. We're just going to take your registration $$$, and bitch about quads. Thank you NY!!! I guess it is too much to expect a politician to have a logical solution

 

IMO that asks why anyone would buy a quad if they don't have anyplace to legally ride it. Kind of like buying an airplane with no airport.

 

There are places to ride but there aren't alot of them.

The bigger problem is that the state takes $35 a year from us for registration and money that is supposed to be going into a state trail fund. For this we have gotten NOTHING. Not a single mile of trail. It's quite insulting especially since there are thousands of miles of trails open to snowmobiles in this state. ATV riders pay the same registration fees and we get nothing for it. As a matter of fact the legal places that we did have are closing because enviro-whackos run the state.

 

Snowmobiles produce zero trail damage and, when compared to ATVs, a favorable public and environmental image. I'm not agreeing with paying registration fees producing no public benefit, merely playing devil's advocate. A brief look at NY's ATV situation shows the majority of ATVs are not registered, used primarily on private property for utility purposes and on private recreational trails maintained by private clubs. The majority of complaints are understandably coming from ATV owners living in or near metropolitan areas. With a total of 130,000 registered ATVs (2004), even the new $45 registration fee isn't going to provide much money considering the cost of urban property with accompanying regulation.

Again I have to ask why someone living in a metropolitan area would buy an ATV without joining a private club offering riding facilities. Demanding public facilities for a recreation with a reputation similar to that of the Hells Angels seems rather fruitless.

 

Snowmobiles produce zero trail damage and, when compared to ATVs, a favorable public and environmental image. I'm not agreeing with paying registration fees producing no public benefit, merely playing devil's advocate. A brief look at NY's ATV situation shows the majority of ATVs are not registered, used primarily on private property for utility purposes and on private recreational trails maintained by private clubs. The majority of complaints are understandably coming from ATV owners living in or near metropolitan areas. With a total of 130,000 registered ATVs (2004), even the new $45 registration fee isn't going to provide much money considering the cost of urban property with accompanying regulation.

Again I have to ask why someone living in a metropolitan area would buy an ATV without joining a private club offering riding facilities. Demanding public facilities for a recreation with a reputation similar to that of the Hells Angels seems rather fruitless.[/quote]

I'm aware that the snowmobiles produce no damage. I was only mentioning them for comparision's sake.

The majority of ATVs in NY are unregistered because until July 2005, you could easily buy one without registering it. And who is going to register one when you get nothing for it? Now the dealers aren't allowed to even release an ATV without a plate.

The issue of registration/no registration and reputation is almost irrelevant to this particular discussion anyway. This is not an issue of blindly thinking there is an entitlement. The fact of the matter is that NYS is supposed to use part of that registration fee for trail development. That is a simple fact. They have not done it. They have essentially stolen millions of dollars from ATV riders in this state for years now.

It's not as if they would need to buy tons of land near urban areas and develop trails either. A good chunk of NY is rural. There are areas that could be opened up to ATVs tomorrow with no up front development cost to the state. Miles upon miles of old railbeds are hardpack gravel and could be used easily. There are rural counties that have miles of dirt roads. There are miles of woods trails in most of these rural areas that any local teen could show you.

Rural areas in NY (particularly in the western part of the state) have lots of ATV trails and there is a gentleman's agreement among the local landowners, their riding friends, and local police that keeps them open. It's all unofficial at this point because tree huggers in big cities hundreds of miles away don't want it. The people in these rural areas would take it in seconds. I know it because I know a bunch of them and ride with them and their kids, on and around their land, the trails, and the dirt roads.

We have places to ride. We just want others to be able to join us.