Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

~ Sacramento Report ~ • ~ C'J ..c ~ res use I ega y r c e • an By Bob Ham describe briefly a conversation I had about a year ago with one of the government perpetrators of a street legal restriction on a popular recreational dirt road. It is not important to know which agency or what area was involved. it is the process by which the agencies come up with the decision to enforce these regulations which is the lesson here. OK. the conversation went something like this: trails and roads upon which vehicuI notice you are n ow posting street lar travel by the public is permitted." legal only signs on ---------- road. If this still leaves yo u confused as to Ranger: Yes that's right. we have wh ether you are in violation when found it to be a very effective way to you ride your dirt bike in th e forest. " contro l" vehicle useon this particudon't feel like the Lone Ranger. The lar stretch of road. In the past we have Forest Servi ce. BLM. and even Sta te experienced many serious accidents Parks hav e enforced it differently a t in this area between autos and ORVs. various times. Us uall y it involved an ORV which is Yet another a mend men t to th e Vetraveling too fast. or making sudden hicle Code (section 592) wa s added turns. wh ich furth er exem p ts veh icles from Just so that I understand. you are tell th e stree t legal req u ire me nt o n feding me that I would not be allowed era l public lands wh ere th e cos t o f to operate. say a 90cc dirt bike on this ma intaining roadways is part iall y dirt road if it was registered with a co nt ri bu ted to by an y users. Green Stickie? The Off-Highway Veh icle Advisory Tha t's rig ht. Co m m ittee passed a resolution last . Well suppose I happened to be riding year informing th e BLM a nd Forest 500XL which was licensed for street Service th at th ey would be reluctant use . this would be all right? to ap prove any fi.mher grants to these Yes. of co u rse. as long as it h as a agencies wh ere th ey were enf orcing licen se plate an d not a Green Stick ie, veh icle code registra tio n req ui rements yo u are p erfectl y free to ope ra te it o n o n service a nd access roads. T his any o f th ese tra ils. appea rs to be a n entirely reasonabl e Oh, then getting back to you r origiresol ut io n in light of the pr evious ly nal problem - do you find that ridmention ed sectio n 592. ers of the 500cc bikes are more likely The OH V Co m mi ttee is simply to ride considerably slower than the mak in g a state me nt tha t if th ey are fella on that 90cc dirt bike? go ing to provide a gra nt for develWell . no . It' s rea lly a matter that op me nt o r main ten an ce in a n area , th a t th ey expect thi s sectio n of th e _ th ere a re onl y a few users here wh o have hi ghway regi strations on th eir law to app ly. Otherw ise. why spe nd di rt bikes. Green Stickie m on ey, on ly to ha ve So th at' s it , th ey reall y wan t to Gr een Stickie vehicles severely resclose th ese roads to OR V u se but tricted? The Fores t Service tak es a n lacking other a u thority to do so , they interes ti ng posit ion on this questi on. inve nt thi s stree t legal requ irement In a n interna l memo dat ed Oct. 6, a n d effectively curtai l the use o f most 1981. th e Regi ona l Forester sta tes ORVs. th at " the Sectio n 592 exe m p tions But let 's ta ke a look at th e p ro blem o n ly a p p ly on cost /sha re roads wi th fro m anothe r angle. If indeed th ere is respect to veh icle use other than OR V a problem wi th OR V o pe rator sa fety, use." (E m p hasis is ours...Ed itor. ) it shou ld be addressed. Wh at options T he re is th e rub - we co nt ribu te to do es a ma nager have besid es resortth e Green Stickie Fund. th e Fund is ing to th e de-Iacto cl os ur e in he rent in ' used to prov ide ma intena nce, th en th e stree t legal restricti on ? Earli er I we sho u ld be a llo wed to have so me ment ioned an Off-H ighway Veh icle access on th e ro ads. Certainl y we Code. let 's look atsome o f its provico me under th e definition o f " an y sions ...and th e op tions it mi ght pro- . u ser s." Wh y do th e land managin g age nvide for a crea tive land m an ager. Seccies feel a n eed to worr y about wh at tion 38280 a llows any federal . state or kind of registra tio n is on a veh icl e in local a u tho ri ty to pl ace traffi c co n th ese areas in th e first place? Th e trol devi ces to warn or guide OR V answer is they don't ...not really at traffic. Section 38305 esta blishes a least. They hav e simpl y discovered bas ic speed law. sect ion 38314 prothis-as-a "manage mennool." Let me hibits sud den' turns unless' the ~"'can ' For the past year or so, a controversy has been steadily brewing between off-road motorcyclists and government recreation managers. The controversy involves the recently tightened restrictions on where a vehicle may be driven if it is licensed with a California Green Stickie versus a street legal regis- ,, 20, tration. Th e outcome of th is controvers y may have serious im p lica tions for the future o f the state's entire Green St icki e off-road veh i cl e program. Over th e past cou p le of years severa l national forests and some BLM areas have begun en forcin g a " street legal " requirem ent on certain dirt roads wh ich had pr eviously been used extensively by off-ro ad recreation al vehicles. Although the stated rea son s for th ese restrict ions are for safe ty purposes. a closer exa m ina tio n of th e fac ts seems to indica te th a t the real p ur pose is to fu rther li mi t th e use of OR Vs in th ese areas. Wh at is part icularly frighteni ng to OR V ent h us iasts is a recent move by the Dep artm en t of Parks a nd Recreat ion to impose th e very sa me street lega l req u irem en t on a stre tch o f Pi sm o Beach . Man y o f the O R V organ izations and th e Ad viso ry Co m mi ttee to th e DPR h av e reco m men de d th a t n o fu rther grants be giv en to federal agencies wh o en force this regul ati on in apparent vio la tion of state law. I say a p parent vio la tio n. beca use lik e so man y areas o f law , this one appear s to be some wha t vague and possibl y con flicting. T he Ca lifornia Veh icle Co de defin es " hig hway" very broadl y in sectio n 360 as follow s: " ... h ighway is a way or pl ace o f wha tever nature. p ubl icly maintained and ope n to the use of the public for purp oses o f veh icu lar tra vel. " T h is particular definition ha s been on th e book s for years. an d because of th e potential conf usion as to whe re a veh icle li cen sed u n der th e Green Stickie progra m co u ld tra vel. a new sectio n was added to th e veh icle cod e at the time an Off-H igh wa y Veh icl e Cod e was crea ted . T his new section would defin e wh a t a hi gh wa y was not for purposes of using a Green Sti ck ie veh icle. Thus Section 3800 I was en ac ted thusl y: " T h e term h ighwa y does n ot incl ude fir e.trails. logging roads; or other roug h ly graded - > be made safely, section 38316 deals with reckless driving. and finally 38380 allows managing agencies to require additional safety equipment in certain areas. There are many other parts of this code. but by just resorting to some of those q u oted . BLM. the Forest Ser vice. or Parks can impose special speed limits; and otherwise control the flow of traffic in some of these areas without denying Green Stickie bikes that all important access . I mentioned at the outset of this article that the inability to resolve this ticklish problem could have some fairly serious implications for th e future of th e Green Stickie program. I am concerned about what might eventually happen if the trend towards using th is " overkill " management tool continues. Regular visitors to Pismo Beach have already talked of converting their bikes to "street legal. " I have seen a stree t regi stered ATCI85 a lready. It is su rprisi ngly sim p le to acco m p lish - in fa ct th e ind ividual who co nverte d hi s three-whee ler to ld me th at he intended to m arket th e eq ui p me n t. Th e cos t of co n versio n wo uld be a mod est $35 or so, a nd an in vest me nt o f o ne or two hours' time. No w since th e OHV p ro gram is dependent o n th e Green Sticki e vehicles for funds, it is clear th at th e very age nc ies wh o are now co mi ng to rel y o n grants from this progra m, ma y be ca us ing th e beginning of th e end o f th e progra m . Certainl y if a ll o f th e p opular areas become rest ricted to stree t legal vehicles, th e OR V ent h usi ast w ill sto p bu yin g th e Green Sticki e an d op t for a stree t li cen se. It is ea sy to see how th is co u ld actuall y exacer ba te th e ori gina l problem o f safety in areas whe re th ere is so me travel by con ventio na l veh icles. I for o ne would not like to see an influx o f AT Vs zi p p i ng d own th e p av ed hi ghways, Wh ere we go from here is now quite uncerta in. BLM h as sta ted a willingn ess to co nt in ue a dial og on th e m a tter. Th e Forest Servi ce has ge ne ra lly " stonewall ed " CORVA's Donna Carnegie. wh o has p rett y mu ch been lead ing th e way o n th is issue. Wi th in th e month , we sho u ld have th e remaining posit ions fille d o n th e n ew O ff-H ig h way Veh icle Comm ission . It certa in lv look s like th e Co m m issio n will inherit a very kn o tty p roblem to ta ck le early on . I wi sh th em lots of lu ck in so lving it. A lot rests o n their and th e land m anaging agencies' willingness to find a com.--man g ro und! ' 1, . • • - -

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