Feature Article September 30, 2004
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Thoughts on ATVs on South Frontenac RoadsI know this is exactly what the world needs - one more opinion about ATVs on public roads.
The issue around ATVs travelling on South Frontenac roads is different than the debates taking place elsewhere in Frontenac County for a couple of reasons. The first is population. Specifically in the southern edge of the township there are many roads that are lined with houses. That means more cars, more pedestrians, and more traffic than exists on less populated back roads. Adding a new class of motorized vehicle, one that is more and more popular and not yet properly regulated can be a dangerous proposition.
Secondly, a lot of the pressure for allowing ATVs on roads is coming from the Frontenac ATV club. The club wants to be able to use Road 38 as a connecting route to established ATV trails to the north, where there are significant and ever increasing recreational ATV trails. As South Frontenac Councilor Jack Barr said this week, ATVs are a new sport, and it is a growing and increasingly lucrative sport. A tremendous example of this lies halfway up Road 38, where Ball Outdoor Sales has been setting ATV sales records for years.
Ball Outdoor Sales is not located in South Frontenac however, and that points to a major problem. Even if South Frontenac allows ATVs on its roads, Central Frontenac would have to do the same to provide access to the northern ATV trails, and the current Central Frontenac Council has demonstrated more of a conservative, cautious attitude towards change than either North or South Frontenac.
For example, take the case of digital mapping. The Frontenac Environmental Partnership approached North, South and Central Frontenac with identical presentations, asking to use digital maps for their member lake associations within each township. North Frontenac gave their approval on the spot, South Frontenac after a one-month delay, and Central Frontenac is still debating the legal issues.
The tough fight ATV advocates are having in South Frontenac may be only preparation for a brick wall in Central Frontenac.
There is good reason for caution. As someone who drives up and down Road 38 on a regular basis, I worry that large numbers of ATVs driving on the road or on the shoulder of such a well travelled highway where cars are travel 100 110 km/h all the time will be excessively dangerous.
But Road 38 is the only way for the ATV enthusiasts in the populated south to reach the northern trails, and hungry businesses to the North are itching for something to come along that will replace the fading snowmobile-based tourism of the past. ATV tourism promises to be strong year round, and a business community that suffers from Labour Day to Canada Day would hate to see their salvation spinning its wheels down at Piccadilly.
Im no ATV enthusiast, but I imagine driving ATVs along the sides of highways cant be as much fun as taking them along, say, an abandoned track bed.
In fact, until last year that was what the Frontenac ATV club was advocating. We all remember the divisive debate over the north-south K&P trail. Fears over liability and the line fences act have pushed that issue to the back burner. Meanwhile there is Road 38, township owned, only a simple vote away from being accessible to ATVs.
However the idea of ATVs battling it out with cars and the odd transport on Highway 38 while there is a parallel trail sitting empty, is absurd.
It is only provincial government policies that are standing in the way of changing this picture. In order to create a safe north-south corridor for ATVs along the K&P trail, the provincial government would first have to change their own outdated laws, and it will take years for the province to make changes, if they ever do. Impatient groups like the Frontenac ATV club are not about to sit around and wait.
The reason that South Frontenac Council is split on this issue is that they are facing two bad options: hinder recreation and economic development or threaten public safety and open up the township to serious liability. Meanwhile there is a good solution in sight, totally unattainable but in sight nonetheless.
On this issue, as well as many others, municipalities are in an untenable position because of the bureaucratic bottleneck that is the Province of Ontario.
