"Everyone has their own ideas on how to fix this problem," said Assemblyman Reed Gusciora (D., Mercer), who serves as primary sponsor on both bills. "Some feel that registration and fines, the stick, is enough. Others want the parks, the carrot, as well."
The problem, like the proposed solution, is twofold.
Riding on publicly owned land, such as state parks and refuges, is prohibited, and few privately owned tracks cater to off-highway vehicles. Statewide, only a handful of tracks and one park hold occasional ATV races.
"In New Jersey," Farmer said, "it feels like this sport is dying."
Farmer was the president of one of the last legal ATV trails, the New Jersey Off Road Vehicle Park, which operated for 10 years out of Chatsworth until its lease expired in September and was not renewed by the Pinelands Commission.
"When I was little, I used to be able to push my ATV down the drive, make a turn, drive off into the woods, and ride all day," he said. "There's no way you can do that today. Now you have to be able to load it on a trailer and take it somewhere."
Dale Freitas, president of the New Jersey Off Highway Vehicle Association, said the absence of legal tracks forced riders to take their ATVs and motorbikes onto public land.
"The solution has always been to exclude us from using the land and hope we'll go away," he said.
Responsible riders are taking their business to parks in Pennsylvania, Farmer said. But if legal places to ride were available nearby, people would flock to them instead.
"If given a choice, I think [ATV riders] would rather not be run down like criminals," he said.
However, environmentalists such as Emile DeVito, head ecologist for the New Jersey Conservation Foundation, point to the devastation they say ATVs have caused.
