ATV Florida Forum

Lee County City Commissioner RAY JUDAH said Monday that “ ATVs rip up vegetation and leave scarring on the land, and they are generally obnoxious and destructive to wildlife habitats and open space”  Guys we have an Environmental Nazi extremist in our back yard.  It gets worse, commissioner Bob Janes said “ ATVs don’t have seatbelts and if riders get into an accident they are going to be on the bad end”  Where do these people come from ?  Seatbelts on ATVs would make them safer.  WTF is wrong with this commission. My personal opinion on this issue is that we are dealing with uneducated, ignorant county officials. I will be sending these County Officials an e-mail tonight, I hope I don’t tell them what I really think of them.

This is one of the articles. 

http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060926/NEWS01/60926027/1075

bikes dont have seatbelts gess u cant use them eather
what about motorcycles they dont got seat belts eather  oh wait boats dont eather um lets see i can keep going
dum county officials

Everyone should be calling their commissioners. You can call them and ask to reconsider even if they already opted out. I called mine and I think they are at least going to listen but I called and gave them some options like maybe checking with the county attorney and seeing if they could change the law some to only allow licensed drivers and no children and have a must wear helmet. I do not wear my helmet but if I could ride the dirt road and that what was required then I would be willing to put one on. Getting them to go to the state level to find property to ride on. I also mentioned some areas that would make good riding areas. The sheriffs are saying that the atvers will not pull over if the put the blue lights on and if they gave chase then it would put them in danger. I mentioned that they are no different then a streetbike on a street to catch and they are allowed on our roads. The seatbelt on atvs would be stupid, thats like saying you should have a seatbelt on a motorcycle. These commissioners gets more calls from residences saying an atver was on my property tearing it up then they get from us riders trying to help with these problems. CALL YOUR COMMISSIONERS.

Another option is to ask them to consider the law for 6 months to a year and if it becomes a problem then opt out. At least then they have giving it a chance and we can prove to them that we can do this thing.

He's right i agree with yunt,
But seatbelts thing sounds kind of retarded
and they don't read alot about sport quad crashs
and if seatbelts gets cuaght  i know what yunt trying say about that.

The areas that you mentioned were good riding areas, if someone could give Stewards a name to contact perhaps they could help in getting the areas to ride.

I am not for sure if the website will pertain to you - but check the information tab.
http://www.freewebs.com/solora

Good point yunt, very good point.

How do I find out the number to my commissioner?

You can go online to your county's web site.  There you can fine contact numbers and e-mails.

You guys need to move up here to Madison County, our commissioners and sheriffs dept have never even heard of this new law. They looked at me like I had gone crazy when I mentioned riding my atv on the road. They certainly have no plans to opt out.  We have miles of dirt roads here and we will be out riding them all (copy of statute in hand) on Oct 1.

I mentioned to the commissioners that this law will only bring some people into compliance because right now I do ride on the dirt roads illegally. I told them that by opting out of this, that the people they are having trouble with now will still be a problem. If they are breaking the law now and cannot catch them then do they not think that this will keep them from breaking the law after they opt out. People needs to call their commissioners and inform them because if you sit back and do nothing then you will get nothing. I spoke to another commissioner last night on this issue. Come to find out that they only past to draw up an ordinance to bring back to the table to be voted on. Now I will be informed when it gets on the agenda will be at the meeting to speak up for us.

I also mentioned that this would not keep me from riding dirt roads, I will just keep doing it illegally and if I get a ticket I will just pay it. I mentioned that I could afford a ticket if I could afford to drive out of the county now like I am having to do now.

Judah will always be trouble when it comes to the enviornment!!  Where do you think he wants to spend all of our tax dollars?  And this business about ripping up the vegetation.  Hello!!! I didn't know there was vegetation growing in the middle of dirt ROADS. I wasn't suprised they turned this law down.  That's just par for the course.

L.B.