Sudbury ATV enthusiasts aim to expand trail network

Another season of ATVs riding on roads in Greater Sudbury starts this week. That'sthanks to the city's ATV bylaw which, after two years of testing, will be reviewed later this year.

But a new group hoping to expand the sport in the city is more worried about being legally allowed on the trails.

The president of the Greater Sudbury ATV Association said they are hoping to make deals with mining companies and other private land owners to get a network of trails put together, similar to the trail plan for snowmobiles.

"If you're getting from this street to this section of bush right here," said P.J. Parri, as he looked over a map of Sudbury that shows which roads on which ATVers can drive. Once drivers veer off those city roads, however, its "all private property they're going on. The roads aren't. But once you get off that, you're trespassing."

Parri said the goal is to develop Sudbury as a magnet for ATV tourists, but admits the big roadblock is the stereotype of four-wheelers as raucous and reckless.

Bylaw 'works'

When the bylaw was written, some Sudburians were worried about noisy four-wheelers disturbing neighbourhoods and squeezing pedestrians off the shoulders of roads.

"We're here to prove that wrong," Parri said. "[The] city's not stupid. They didn't pass this bylaw for nothing. They passed it, because they know bigger picture it works."

Sudbury Police Constable Andrew Hinds says ATV traffic hasn't gone up in the past two years.

"People were using the roads before the bylaw and the same people are using the roads now," he said.

"It's just now they're doing it legit."

Police and city hall received very few complaints during this test-drive for the ATV bylaw.

City planner Mark Simeoni said a special hotline set up for the past two years received 26 comments four of which were complaints.

"Twenty-six over two years, I would say, is fairly light," Simeoni said.

"That's not to say that people aren't having issues with that, but we can only measure. We don't know what we don't know, right? So, we can only measure what we receive."

The ATV bylaw is set to expire in June.

Simeoni noted Sudbury city council will decide before then if it wants to keep the bylaw on the books.