An open email to Don Amador, Western Representative, Blue Ribbon Coalition. 7/11/07
Hello Don~
Your memo addressed a critical point in the proposed SB 742 that I am very concerned with, I quote;
“The key provisions that we have already been successful on include: #5 No license plate on
motorcycles and ATVs “. The fact is, there are existing conditions for ATV's and some motorcycles that
do not allowed them to be licensed or to traverse the publicly maintained roadways legally, and it is
already stated in the Calif. Vehicle Code. I don't think that we need to repeat this fact once again with a
Senate Bill SB 742 that could complicate matters at a later time when a big push is made to legally
license ATV's to travel legally on some rural minor collector roads.
I have been poring over some rules and regulations by the USFS and there are several references to
the Calif. Vehicle Code (CVC) that are made in their internal correspondences and policy notes, in
particular a letter from the USFS to the CHP with asked and answered questions in the typical
bureaucratic fashion to end up with no real answers. The way I see it... the USFS is posturing itself to be
in a position of plausible deniability for liability purposes if Mixed Use is allowed on some of their "roads"
and the CHP is also covering its posterior by requesting EXTREME details on any and all proposed
Mixed Use Roads that is presented to the CHP for their necessary (according to the CVC) required
review and approvals... This is, as you know, the ultimate Catch 22.
All of this WASTE of time, effort and huge amounts of MONEY (paid by ATV Green Sticker Money!!) by
the USFS could be eliminated...IF the State of Calif. would pull their collective heads from their posterior
and make OHV/ATVs road legal on anything up to a two lane RURAL COLLECTOR ROADWAY, tax this
licensing requirement, (a huge revenue source) and spend just a little quality time to set up
legitimate/reasonable/enforceable guidelines. All of this gobblegook language about the legality/illegality
of when or how ATVs can/cannot use the public maintained roads that is addressed in the CVC is being
used as an excuse by the USFS to close access to level 3,4&5 roads in our National Forests in Calif.
The USFS is deferring to the individual States Vehicle Codes to set up their Mixed Use roadway
considerations; the USFS doesn't go through this level of focus on ATVs in several other Western States
because they allow legally licensed access by ATVs on most of their roadways but not Freeways...
MUCH unnecessary.... BS is being generated in this Calif. process and could be eliminated if we had the
same ATV license privileges as several other Western States!
I don't know how a reasonable USFS person that was not on some hate ATVs agenda can legitimately
argue the rational of banning ATV access on ALL Asphalt Paved and "Smooth Graded" roads (Level 3,4
& 5) that they are now planning to shut down no mater what the Average Daily Traffic, Roadway
Width/Grades or other reasonable engineered design criteria for safety factors and still be able to look
you in the face and allow bicycles to traverse with no questions asked???
Don with your connections and contacts through the BRC what would it take to get a sponsor for an
AB/SB from one of our Northern Calif. elected officials to License ATVs to make them as roadway legal
as any lowly Honda 90 cc motorcycle?? This would help to stop this crap because as of now, with one
year to go in the process, I don't see any logical approach by the USFS that is hell bent on closing as
much access as they can get away with and using the CVC as their weapon.
Our State Representatives need to be approached in mass by the BRC and others to try and project the
light of day and make them aware of the capabilities of the modern day ATV and its unquestionable
ability to safely traverse down Mixed Use Roads. They are at least as safe or in most cases safer than a
250# pound man and his 200# wife riding double on a Honda 90cc dirt bike on 2 inch wide tires on the
same roads that I on an ATV am banned from riding... but they are doing it legally.
Hell on Hwy 70 in the Feather River Canyon there are several DARK Tunnels with signs that say look out
for bicycles/pedestrians on the roadway when you approach the tunnel...what is up with that?? Bicycles
have no LICENSE; they don't pay any Gas Tax, registration requirements or have Insurance, yet they
can legally ride on the highways? There is no SAFETY CONSIDERATION in that decision! It would not be
fun driving a truck or pulling a trailer and going from the bright sun light into that narrow dark tunnel and
come up behind a bicycle rider and not expect to have him as a hood ornament on my truck. But he is
legal to ride.
My ATV is a 2007 Suzuki King Quad fuel injected 700 cc with independent suspension on all four corners
with 6 ply radial tires and is capable of 75 MPH. Now what part of that type of sophisticated piece of ATV
equipment is so unsafe that a "reasonable" Legislative Law Maker type person can't understand? WHY
is it not safe on a Mixed Use rural National Forrest road ??? Heck it is safer then any pickup or jeep for
the conditions, plus I wear a helmet...do they??
I know that I am probably screaming in the dark on this out of extreme frustration...But I will not idly sit by
while some programmed pouge of a government bureaucrat sets policy that is OUTRAGEOUS in my
opinion and is taking away something that I have fought and paid an inordinate amount of taxes for.
Don... let's beat these bureaucrats into submission on the unreasonable tactics that are being used
against us and beat them at their own game by making ATVs street legal,...after that happens, the USFS
is neutered !! OFF my soap box now. 8>)
Jerry Antonetti