He gets it
In a column titled “ATVs, ’silent sports’ don’t belong together,” appearing today in the Appleton Post-Crescent, staff writer Bernie Petersen discusses the proposed New London to Seymour rail-trail.
“I favor reserving this trail for silent sports use for a couple of reasons: good planning and public safety, which go hand in hand,” he writes. “Professional planners often use the term ‘highest and best use’ in recommending for or against projects. To me, the highest and best use of this trail would be for silent sports because there would potentially be more users — and they’d be much more environmentally friendly. And they would provide at least as much of an economic boost to communities along the trail as ATV users.”
You can read the entire column here.
A discussion between ATV’ers and myself about who should use the trail can be read here.
Incidentally, Petersen low-balls the miles of ATV trails in Wisconsin. There are some 8,000 miles of legal ATV trails and routes on public property in this state and thousands more on private property where the majority of ATV’ers ride (and should ride, frankly).
– Joel Patenaude