There was an article in the St. Paul Pioneer Press earlier this year about a county in Minnesota that passed a law prohibiting ATV's in the country road rights of way. The county engineer said they were causing too much errosion.

The article also showed a photo of a family riding their ATV's. The father said they rode along county roads to get to a public trail nearby. He indicated it wasn't practical to trailer all the machines the short distance to the trail, so he would just be selling them and finding other family activities.

 

The Mayor of Burton was a female I thought.

Who was it that stopped by your store?It was'nt Martin Biancca was it?He's the one that owns Martins Hardware on Atherton rd and is involved in some politics but I did'nt think it was ATVs..

Im the Director for the Mich ATV Safety Association and we could use this person in Lansing to help out our causes for ATVs.

 

His name is Charles Smiley, 4303 south center rd Burton, Mi. 48519
As far as road damage from ATV'S. I talked to the Road Commission Managers from all the County's in Mich, that alowed ORV'S on the shoulder of the roads, they said no big deal, most of them reported, that normal road maintenance took care of the damage from ATV'S.

 

The reason I pointed out the Minnesota law was to give you an idea of what to expect when your law is reviewed in three years. If a lot of people ride the ditches, there is going to be a lot of ruts...right along the road where everyone sees them everywhere they drive on your county roads. There will be a lot of opposition to renewing the law. People will be tired of seeing an ugly rutted mess along the roads.

I think johnnyO had the right idea in his reference to guns--keep them out of sight.

The whole problem with putting ATV ruts in the public's face is that it builds a broad-based animosity to ATV's. Just imagine trying to get an new trail opened and seeing a bunch of people (not just environmentalists) show up and say, "look at all the damage those machines are doing along our county roads. We don't need any more of that!"

I sorry to have to say it, but I think you are facing a situation of one step forward and ten steps backward...unless you could somehow limit access to the ditches to machines with turf-friendly tires. Fat chance of that.

 

Most of the County's in Michigan, that permitORV'S on the road right away. Requir them to use the outer 5 ft of the hard surface, They get cited, for ditch banging. If the orv's are making eye sore ruts in the ditches, then the law inforcement are not doing there job's.

 

There shouldn't be a problem wherever you have five feet of hard surface (shoulder?) on each side of the pavement. You sure can't make ruts there. In a lot of places however, county roads don't have paved shoulders, and some don't have five feet of level space beside the pavement. People would have to ride in the ditches. That's where I was coming from.

We've got to be careful about dismissing ATV damage as a law enforcement problem or the product of a few bad apples. All ATV riders are affected. I've seen ruts along state highways in Wisconsin and along interstates in Alabama. That's gotta be as illegal as heck, but the ruts are there. They are just as much an ATV image problem as they are a law enforcement problem.

I think it is important that you realize going in what can happen, and what has happened in other places. Maybe then, measures can be taken that will ensure that you come out ok when the law is reviewed in three years.

 

All we are looking to get is the Seasonal County roads, ( 2 tracks ) and secondary roads, ( gravel ),and to be able to get to town, to get gas, and supply's, use portains of primary roads, no, to class A roads. That's not a lot to ask for.

 

I think we're on different pages coming from different places. I was misreading you, because in WI there are no gravel or seasonal roads that are "county roads." All county roads are paved. Seasonal and gravel roads are "townshiip roads" and are under the jurisdiction of the town boards. Also, many township roads are blacktop. I live in a rural township where the board has opened the town roads to ATV's and snowmobiles. We don't have to ride in the ditch or on the edge. However, when a town road ends at a county road, you can't ride any further, legally. Luckily, the town roads enable us to reach ATV trails that will get us to town.

Both my township's and the adjoining township's roads have been open to ATV's and snowmobiles for several years. I haven't heard of any accidents or complaints. If you wanted to check further, I'm talking about Madge and Beaverbrook Townships in Washburn County. There are probably other WI townships that have opened their roads.

Hope this puts me back on the right page.

 

Looks like the seasonal, and secondary county roads here are the same as your Township roads. Most of the people that are against this, has pitcures in there mine what it will be like, all they see is little Jonie ripping around on his YZ100.
There is a wealth of miss information out there.

 

How about this one?

When "western" Michigan Representative Hildenbrand recently tried to open up our atv trails to larger vehicles such as the Rhino (expanding their area beyond the "routes" they are currently limited to....your buddy and his club here (hand-in-hand with the DNR and every one of your orv "leaders")..TRIED THEIR VERY BEST TO WRONGLY AND NEGATIVELY PORTRAY REPRESENTATIVE HILDENBRAND'S EFFORTS AS A "WIDENING ISSUE" THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE TRAIL SYSTEM...<u>AND IT WORKED</u>! They out and out LIED about what the bill proposed...then bragged about how the multi-user group MMRC (a secret group you couldn't "google" if you tried) "shut the whole thing down in less than 26 hours."
This is where you have to <u>watch</u> these guys, folks!

Any talk of improving our trail system with modern (at least 60" wide) maintenance equipment or promoting it as a true multi-use system THROUGHOUT.... puts these motorcyclists (the very same people an atv club is begging to partner with and the very same people under investigation for mis-use of funds) <u>right on the same plane</u> with the <u>rest</u> of us atvers!
No more large maintenance grants TO MOTORCYCLISTS MAINTAINING TRAILS <u>BY HAND</u>. No more reason for the DNR to put <u>their</u> needs in front of ours on account of who does this un-needed and antiquated method that barely <u>keeps</u> the system open; yet certainly not safe! (and the DNR looking like they actually properly 'manage' this huge system)...THEY would be ***FORCED*** TO WORK WITH <u>ALL OF US</u> ON A <u>TRUE</u> MULTI-USE SYSTEM THAT USES 21ST CENTURY MODERN TRAIL MAINTENANCE EQUIPMENT!

These guys would hook up with the devil himself if it meant abandoning the overwhelming financial needs of our present 'OLD' system to get a NICE NEW big city slicker riding area out their front doors in southeast Michigan. They lied about Representative Hildenbrand's proposal and they will lie about anything that threatens this long running status quo.

Call Representative Hildenbrand today and ask him if their proposal actually sought to "widen" all the trails in this state, as these guys purposely mis-represented the bill to their constituents....and I think you'll get a pretty good idea of why I've never trusted a one of 'em...and you shouldn't either. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img] (don't lie to me about what a bill proposes....and then try to shove this fact under the table 'afterwards' while bragging about it!).