Urgent: Help Stop HB 425 - Street Legal ATVs

Not only is this a major threat to public safety it is also a backdoor attempt to bring the State of Utah into litigation surrounding rights of way on public lands.

The Utah House of Representatives has passed HB 425, “Street-Legal All-Terrain Vehicles,” which would allow ATVs (4-wheelers) to travel on any and all state highways (excluding SL County.) Current state law allows cities and towns to designate certain roads "open" to ATVs, and certain cities have chosen to do so. But HB 425 forces cities and counties throughout the state to allow ATV's on their city streets. Not only is this a major threat to public safety it is also a backdoor attempt to bring the State of Utah into litigation surrounding rights of way on public lands (see editorial in today’s Salt Lake Tribune: http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/ci_5284809).

The sponsor of the bill hopes that this law will allow ATVs to drive on claimed RS 2477 rights of way traversing public lands that have been closed to these machines by federal agencies (i.e. on seldom used dirt tracks). Utah’s public lands could be harmed by this bill because it seeks to limit the federal government’s ability to close damaging routes across federal lands.