55% of Albertans want more restrictions on ATVs
 

Interesting poll results.

http://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/quads

55% of Albertans want more restrictions on ATVs. I guess some silver-lining for quadders that only 11% of Albertans want quads banned outright.

I would guess this means more PLUZ and designated trails across Alberta and this would be seen as politically popular.

The sample sizes always baffle me on these polls. I know someone out there smarter than me probably determined this was an appropriate sample size, but always seems to be such a small sample of the population to accurately portray the views of an entire province.

^ Exactly.

55% of the 1,400 Albertans polled in a certain survey responded saying they want more OHV restrictions. Would love to see the selection method for call data. When were they called? During work hours? How did they decide which phone numbers to call? Did they leave a call back number or did they move onto the next number if someone did not pick up? What was the exact format of the questioning? Was there preliminary information provided to potentially sway an opinion one way or another?

I'm sure the poll is somewhat indicative of the average Albertan's feelings, but always have to be leery of surveys and polls.

Just the city dwellers.:(

What percentage of those surveyed partook of the activity being surveyed?

That is akin to me wanting more restrictions on sewing machines.

ATV users are not the only ones with a stake in Alberta’s public lands.

As an ATV user, I support dialogue on ATV use in this province. Either one is proactively addressing the situation or one is reacting to a decreed solution.

What is happening in a lot of areas cannot be tolerated nor justified.

The poll results should be a wake up call to ATV users.

Ya we run a poll for this for that then we ban this and ban that...sad situation how the bandwagon gets rode hard and put away broken eh!

In what way? That a lot of people who are disconnected from the activity pretend to care based on biased media reporting?

You can't seriously believe that these results are as accurate as they say they are.

This is a joke.

They polled a small group of people from an area in which they knew people do not use ATV's. So of course you get 55% of people wanting more restrictions.

If you did the same survey on the same number of people, but from Fort McMurray, Cold Lake, Athabasca etc.. You would get a completely flipped result.


Want more gun restrictions? Poll 10,000 people who are not owners who have never lived anywhere but a city. Want less gun restrictions? Poll 10,000 people from rural alberta.

I also don't agree with doing these survery's to determine future laws.

Have a few intelligent individuals from various backgrounds, some for and some against ATVS, then have them come up with fair laws that are agreed upon by all sides.

Then enforce these laws.


Our issues with guns, atv's etc often does not lie within the laws that are formed. The issues arise with the people who do not follow these laws and how these laws are not enforced very well and violaters are not properly punished. Therefore many people think we need stricter laws to help the issues. This is not true, stricter laws do nothing when the current laws are not followed and punished.

The argument for, against, or indifferent whether it's quads, guns, pot, abortion, pit bulls, immigrants or whatever subject always runs into the wall of public opinion, right or wrong does not matter, majority rules. All one can do to support their particular agenda or right to use/own whatever is to educate the public so they support your particular interest. The best way to do this is by education and setting an example that is positive and will be viewed by the majority as a good thing not a bad thing. Unfortunately as it stands right now the tide against unrestricted off road machine use of all types is becoming viewed as negative by more and more people.

Right or wrong the best marketer wins the vote. We see this all the time in politics. Presently the OHV community is not being successful at selling themselves in a positive light, it has become a political issue. We all know where that leads.

55% of Albertan's probably have never rode an ATV.

Prove they are not accurate.

Should they have polled only ATV users?

You either are proactive or reactive and as seen on this forum, most are reactive.

ATV users have to get involved with finding the solution(s) to the tarnished public image they have.

End of my commenting on this thread.

It is hard to compete with a marketer like the government, who has the media on their side.

But I agree. It does come down to marketing.

I don't think you understand how scientific polls work. Make a sample of calls to all areas of Alberta weighted by population, and you get a scientifically accurate breakdown of the whole population. If you live in an echo chamber where everyone you know thinks there are no issues with ATVs on public land, you probably need to get out more, because its not the mainstream view.

Politicians are doing this all the time privately to see what the public thinks of proposed policies.

On average, it means that if they implement more restrictions, it will be more popular than if they don't and shows that the responsible ATV groups need to do a lot more work to isolate the bad apples if they want public support for their support.

And yes, all Albertans do get say in how we manage our public lands.

Why do they want to ban them?

I should have been more specific - the results may be accurate, but the sample group is probably biased - would that cause the results to be inaccurate?

I would like to see more information on who was polled.

Gotta admit, though some polls are fairly reliable I find this one suspect.
Put on by a university class (and the average university student is of the liberal bent), I have a hard time feeling their was not an agenda, that they proved by only placing their phone calls to specific locals.

Exactly, I am happy that the number is only 55%. Given that 80-85 % of our population lives in Edmonton and Calgary, I thought the number would be higher. And the 55% does not want Quads banned, but tighter restrictions. I am a quad owner and user, and there has been several times over the last few years over long weekends, I wish there was better enforcement and harsher penalties for unsafe usage. And have only 11% wanting them banned, is awesome.

ATV groups threw 4x4 owners under the bus years ago. As a 4x4 user that made use of trails that have now been taken over by ATV's and restricted for 4x4 use it doesn't much matter to me if ATV's get restricted now.

Poll says there is a 100% chance that Bighorn River is Kevin VT or one of the other banned ABHA/Y2Y board members. Click on his name and 'find all posts'

Grizzly lover, castle park lover, ATV hater, oil hater, and absolutely nothing about hunting or fishing.

well thanks god we can all agree that all polls are 100% right 100% of the time, like their prediction of Trump and Nenshi's defeat,,,,, oh wait,,,,,,

Like Prime Minister Diefenbaker once said:

“I’ve always been fond of dogs, and they are the one animal that knows the proper treatment to give to poles.’”

Yup, interested in conservation and land use issues so we have good habitat so me and my kids can hunt and fish. :)

Perhaps you should start an Alberta Outdoorsmen Against Conservation club if you are threatened about talking about relevant things here.

Or, lets purge talk of conservation off this board so there's more room for articles about Trump and muslims. Now thats relevant.

Sorry, won't be around for next while as I've got a few days off and want to fill my supplemental WT tag.

Thanks for setting your hunter purity test though.

I find it interesting that our hunting community has drawn a very clear line between poaching and licensed hunting, and speaks out often and loud about the abuses by poachers, calls for stiffer penalties, and really gets upset (rightfully) that they are occasionally called hunters by the uninformed press.

To my knowledge, no such distinction has been drawn between the law-abiding ATV users and those that are trashing our public land. The uninformed public does not see a difference, and the law-abiding ATV users have not actively campaigned to draw a distinction. Therefore, whenever the question of restrictions on ATV users arises, the law-abiding ATV user groups rise in anger, and do not recognize the source of the problem.

We all need to help in addressing the problem of those trashing our public lands. Maybe we need a word like "poacher" to describe them, and a "Report A Poacher"-like hotline for their excesses.

Don't ban them, just make it impossible to use them anywhere but on PRIVATE PROPERTY ! Win Win :)

1 has impacts on wildlife, the environment, and various popular recreational activities that take part in mutual areas.

The other sits in a private room and you wouldn't know it existed if you weren't told.

You can do better bud

I like this actually ,

would be interesting to see how a poll on here would go if we want more restrictive , ATV regulations ..hmmm ... are we maybe defending the ATV radicals that are making a scene and disturbance

I don't think you have to have been on a ATV to recognize the damage they do.

Why not? We defend the bad apple idiot hunters that make it harder to hunt private land every year that passes. No different.

The some will always have an effect on the all.

Can't believe on this forum guys are so out of touch. I am shocked.:sign0176: