Wednesday, February 04, 2009

Watching the sausage get made...

Farmer Frank goes to Indy to lobby for a common sense law.
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4 comments:

On a Wing and a Whim said...

I'm confused: is it not legal to drive atv's on roads in Indiana?

It's frowned on when actually on the road system here in Alaska, which is why we have wide trails next to the highways and major roads once you get outside of Anchorage for transport by snowmachine in winter and atv when the snow cover's bad (like summer). But once you get off the road system, they're all over the place.

Heck, pull into the gas station at the Willow Trading Post to fill tanks as with every possible drop before the long stretch to Fairbanks, and you'll usually be sharing the pumps with at least two sleds.

2:01 PM, February 04, 2009
Frank W. James said...

Nope, you can't drive 'em on a county or state road. Nor can you get a license plate of any type to do same.

There is a legal fiction of 'driving them in the road ditch', but no one wants to answer the question "TO Whom Does the Road Ditch Belong?"

If the easement for the road extends to the road ditch (most all roads in Indiana are based on easements the land owners usually own to the center of the road), then you are still in violation of the law because NO ONE can drive an unlicensed vehicle on a public thoroughfare.

If the road ditch belongs to the land owner, then you are trespassing...unless of course you already have written permission for that stretch of road ditch.

The LEO are right when they say NO ONE can drive an ATV on any road in Indiana. At least now they can't. We hope to change this however.

All The Best,
Frank W. James

4:51 PM, February 04, 2009
Tam said...

I wonder... What if someone put some bicycle turn signals and handlebar mirrors on their ATV? Or are they specifically mentioned by vehicle class in the current law?

5:14 PM, February 04, 2009
Frank W. James said...

All ATV's in Indiana are currently 'titled', but try and physically bring one of those 'titles' into an actual DMV branch?

They will first tell you to take it outside and if you persist, they call security, which for a state agency translates into gendarmes.

I suggested the other day we bring back 'Special Equipment' plates for farmers and was FLAT TOLD "NO!" It seems the DMV is somewhat adamant about such things as well as ATV's. (Too many youngsters have turned themselves into paste and even ABATE doesn't want to dip too deeply into the subject, lest they get something nasty on their political clothes. The executive director of Indiana ABATE and I are the ones who came up with the folding hitch idea the other day.)

It is truly a can of worms, that's why this bill is labeled under the title of "Farm Wagons" in the statehouse.

Make sense? Yeah, it doesn't to me either.

All The Best,
Frank W. James

5:42 PM, February 04, 2009

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