[Closed] Green lanes in Yorkshire Dales National Park - your debt to the trail riders

the only arguement is the one backed by law - I don't trail ride any more but I seriously think that curtailing the rights of the few who still do it legally and sensibly is so narrow minded. Chris, you climb? How would you like it if someone came round and told you you couldn't climb

well there is no right to climb. (that was a full stop)
there may be right of access
the difference between trail riding/4wds ripping up green lanes and climbing is that though there is no right to climb it is not seen by most as a damaging antisocial activity
- there are parking, conservation and excess use problems but none that can't be usually resolved through commonsense agreements and that is because at the end of the day climbing, like riding a bike isn't destructive or very intrusive

(Hand up! yes I did voluntary work on access issues for the BMC, albeit 20yrs ago - actually covering the crags listed)

in the past some of the pro trail rider/off roaders on this forum have suggested that if i object to the noise/erosion/aggression of off roaders [b]on byways[/b] that I stop riding them and choose other routes

My emphasis. They have a perfectly legitimate right to be on byways.

Seeing as 98% of the trail network is closed to 4x4s and trail riders, as someone else on STW has remarked "a blind chimpanzee sticking a pin into a map could pick you a suitable trail where you could avoid such conflicts."

My emphasis. They have a perfectly legitimate right to be on byways

"a blind chimpanzee sticking a pin into a map could pick you a suitable trail where you could avoid such conflicts."

actually after it was (politely) suggested in past post that i go pedal elsewhere i did consider looking at alternatives to some of the byways i regularly ride and found with a couple that the only alternative was tarmac - one exception to this being Stanage Causeway - an interesting compare and contrast - the Causeway and adjacent moorland wrecked by 4wds/offroaders and the Plantation Bridleway well used but even the unflagged section not eroded but extensively used by MTB's

This article - from 2002 - is the kind of thing I mean. It was this kind of behaviour that means off-road 4x4 drivers and motorbike riders get little or no sympathy now when they come mewling about their lack of access.

"Traffic is at its height during the wettest weekends and bank holidays, and not infrequently at night. Vehicles are now using an Iron Age barrow as a ramp."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1390254/4x4-drivers-run-roughshod-over-Ridgeway-code.html

EDIT [deep breath, and relax]: that's not sharing.

Yes, because woe betide a small minority of irresponsible users should spoil it for the rest of them...

http://www.ilkleygazette.co.uk/news/news_local/1037647.Turf_destructive_bikers_off_Ilkley_Moor__say_walkers/

Would be interesting to know what happened with this.

EDIT: with the awesome power of google, seems like the council have taken things in hand, and bikes were never allowed there in the first place, merely tolerated. So somewhat irrelevant to this thread.

Going back to the original post, the Trail Riders Fellowship have put in byway claims on many routes over the years, all over England and Wales. Many of these routes were either recorded as footpaths or not recorded at all. However, if there wasn't sufficient evidence to support a byway claim, these routes ended up as bridleways instead. IMO horse riders and motorcyclists seem the most proactive at submitting definitive map modification orders. Not to mention that since NERC, although many TRF byway claims can't proceed to full byway status, they are still able to be recorded as 'resticted' byways, which are open to ALL non motorised users.

One thing NIMBY types forget is that trail riders aren't just going to give up their hobby and take up knitting or something. They WILL carry on, and nothing short of a jail sentence will stop them. The majority of the general public don't mind trail bikes, live and let live etc, I've *never* had any problems. There are a small minority of hell-bent NIMBYs, but most of these are >50 yr old semi retired townies, who will hopefully pop their clogs in a few more years.
</troll>

The NIMBYs have no proper sensible arguments, just overblown hyperbole and outlandish tales that they then try to influence their parish council/MP with. Pretty much all their arguments can be refuted or discredited, leaving them with no option but to discredit the hard work and successes of organisations such as the TRF.

For an island as overcrowded as Britain, I think that it's pretty remarkable that there are still rights of way open to all users. It would be a really sad day if the NIMBYs get their way. The only people who would ultimately benefit from such a restriction would be landowners, who would no longer have a public road across their land.