Off-road needs to be truly off-road

To the editor:

In reference to the letter to editor by Esther Huddleston on July 30, while I agree motorized off-road sportsters should have a place to enjoy their sport, it should be off-road. By off-road I do not mean inches from existing roads, whether they are paved or not.

The bike paths are often full of rocks here, which present a clear and present danger to bicyclers and runners. I fell down recently, tripping over a large rock on the running path that did not get there by natural causes. Off-road vehicles should not be used as alternative cars for those without driver licenses! If they drive along any pavement, then they should be required to have operator licenses.

While driving inches from pavements, they dislodge rocks and vegetation. This causes erosion of our roads, bike paths and embankments, which costs us a lot of money to constantly repair. Why it is better for them to drive on the bike paths than to destroy them in this way? They should be ticketed, fined and required to spend four weekends repairing bike paths and road embankments.

We should also enact an ordinance requiring motorized off-road vehicles to operate their vehicles off-road, defined to be no closer than 100 meters from any road, embankment or bike path.

Daniel N. Russell

Willow