{"id":1392,"date":"2007-07-24T09:57:26","date_gmt":"2007-07-24T14:57:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/?p=1392"},"modified":"2008-01-28T07:26:31","modified_gmt":"2008-01-28T15:26:31","slug":"atv-menace-revisited","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/index.php\/2007\/07\/24\/atv-menace-revisited\/","title":{"rendered":"ATV menace, revisited"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A news release about <a href=\"http:\/\/www.peer.org\/campaigns\/publiclands\/orv\/rangers.php\">Rangers for Responsible Recreation<\/a> landed in my in-box yesterday (sometimes they think I&#8217;m an actual journalist or something). The rangers are putting the word out on reckless use of ATVs on public lands. <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"q\"><p>BLM statistics obtained by PEER under the Freedom of Information Act indicate that off-roading is now the predominant demand on law enforcement time, particularly in the West.  For the five- state area of California, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah, BLM numbers for 2004-07 show \u00f1<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>More than 6,600 off-road violations for hit and run, reckless driving, and other crimes;<\/li>\n<li>More than twice the number of DUI incidents involving off-road vehicles than for autos; and<\/li>\n<li>More than 2,300 incidents of illegal off-roading on closed trails or off-limit areas;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Nationally, there were more than 5,400 law enforcement incidents involving off-road vehicles on BLM lands compared to roughly 900 incidents involving drug enforcement \u00f1 the next highest category, during 2005, the latest year for which national numbers are available.<br \/>\n<P><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The irresponsible use of off-road vehicles on our public lands is one of the greatest challenges facing land managers today,&#8221; commented Bob Abbey, the retired BLM -Nevada Director.  &#8220;There appears to be a total disregard by many off-roaders of the impacts from their actions.&#8221;<\/blockquote class=\"q\">\n<p>OK, so this is sure to piss off the owner of <a href=\"http:\/\/throttleblog.com\/\">Throttleblog, <\/a> who just wants people to behave themselves on their ATVs so the cops won&#8217;t come and take away his.  I can see the guy&#8217;s point: if you&#8217;ve got 5 grand tied up in a four-wheeler, you&#8217;d like to get some use out of it. <\/p>\n<p><P>I can also see the point that a four-wheeler with a small four-stroke engine is not going to use up a lot of precious fossil fuels, and it can get you to campsites or fishing spots unavailable to foot travelers. <\/p>\n<p><P>Thing is, one sane guy with a blog speaking to  his small audience of folks who agree with his point of view is not going to a) cause any miscreants to straighten up; or b) discourage rangers, cops and other authorities from punishing everybody for the crimes of a few.<br \/>\n<P>Toddling along on a established ORV trail at a safe speed may be the sane, sensible way to use one&#8217;s ATV, but it&#8217;s not precisely the <em>fun<\/em> way.   <em>Fun<\/em> is blasting through the woods a hair&#8217;s breadth from disaster.<br \/>\n<P>The miscreants seem think they&#8217;ve got  a wilderness Jet Ski, something that&#8217;ll let &#8217;em just go nuts out there, ripping and tearing to their hearts&#8217; delight.  It&#8217;s all great fun till the forest is destroyed.<br \/>\n<P>Awhile back I noticed a mountain bike patrol in the Santa Cruz Mountains, apparently on the lookout for trouble-making bikers.  I&#8217;m beginning to think the ATV riders who want to keep their wheels are going to have to start doing the same.  <\/p>\n<p>After all, The Man doesn&#8217;t care how much money you&#8217;ve got tied up in your ATV. He doesn&#8217;t care whether you have any fun. And he&#8217;s always on the prowl for excuses to pass new laws forcing innocent and guilty alike to toe the line. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A news release about Rangers for Responsible Recreation landed in my in-box yesterday (sometimes they think I&#8217;m an actual journalist or something). The rangers are putting the word out on reckless use of ATVs on public lands. BLM statistics obtained&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link-p\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/index.php\/2007\/07\/24\/atv-menace-revisited\/\">Read the whole thing<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1392"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1392\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}