Originally posted by: Tuckahoe
Hope ya'all don't mind,I found this insightful as well...

By JODY NEAL Bluefield Daily Telegraph August 25, 2003 NORTHFORK - West Virginia is one of the few states without any legislation impacting all-terrain vehicles (ATVs)......Members of the Piedmont ATV Association were in McDowell County this past weekend for an ATV trip..........The group's president and vice-president spoke about the proposed legislation in the state.........

"Legislation regulating ATVs is not a bad thing," Brad Lowe, president, said. "But as poor as most people are in this county, I don't see how they could afford to put insurance on them, especially if the insurance costs as much as car insurance."
"ATVs would really help some people around here," Vice-president Bradley Carver said. "ATVs would help them get to work, especially if they didn't have a car.".......

Here are two people; who are supposedly representing our sport.........claiming that "atvs" ought to be in mixed traffic with every other vehicle, including "coal trucks", on some of the most steep, curving and narrowest roads this country has to offer.......BUT NOT HAVE TO ***PAY*** ANY "INSURANCE" FOR THE PRIVILEGE OF DOING IT!!!
Is it any wonder that these atv groups in W.V. won't let their views be known outside of the local papers?

".....Banning ATVs from paved roads is also another matter the two disagree with. "We don't want to have to stop riding on paved roads because sometimes we can't help it.........

"wow".......I guess us Michiganders should have used this same argument when our forest roads got shut down here in the L.P............"we just can't help it".............

"....We only ride from point to point, we don't ride into Welch on U.S. Route 52," Carver said. "We take the back roads and trails as much as possible."

"....Lowe thinks the legislators should be more interested in enforcing riders to wear helmets and other ATV safety concerns. "They need to teach them how to drive on the roads....."

And people wonder why the Hatfield/McCoy Trail System gets absolutely no help from the local West Virginian atv clubs? Does anybody in this country want to approach their state legislator with a "How to ride on the mountain roads" pilot program???

©Bluefield Daily Telegraph 2003
Reader Opinions
Melbourne
Date: Aug, 25 2003

Mr. Carver, I have a question for you.....if I have to carry insurance and pay for registration and taxes on my cars to ride on paved roads, and I also live in "poor" McDowell County, what gives you or any other ATV rider the right to ride on the paved roads without it? Your thinking process is way off. ATV riders in McDowell County do not just ride the paved roads to get where they want to go from point to point, they ride wherever they want, whenever they want, from Anawalt to Welch and everywhere in between! If I recall correctly it also says clearly on every ATV "For offroad use only, do NOT ride on paved highways" and "One rider only" but all of these things are overlooked. Our current government administration does not have enough guts to pass or enforce regulations against ATV riders. Keep ATV's OFF the paved roads!!!