Laws regarding snowmobiles in Alberta

[Roy Maxwell]

The explanation I was given by Lac Ste.Anne County is this...

Provincial law prohibits riding the ditches (fence line to fence line) of any 2 or 3 digit numbered highway. These highways are provincially regulated and the county can not over ride this regulation...

They can however speak with the local RCMP & Peace Officers and influence the enforcement of the regulation. The County of Lac.Ste.Anne has requested that recreational vehical operators (ATV's & Sleds) if properly registered and insured be permitted to ride on the far outside of the right of way. They will stop you and ask for Reg & Insurance but even that is rare, most times they will wave or give a thumbs up.

I do tend to ride closer to the driving lanes than I'm sure they would prefer (good drifts off the road) I will drop to the bottom of the ditch when traffic is passing but if I were to get a ticket for operating too close to traffic I would appologize, accept my fine and promise not to do it for the rest of the day... the medians are strictly off limits, hard to argue they are on the "far outside", if you get fined for this, you deserve it...

If we ride with respect and cooperate with the county and RCMP maybe we will not turn into Strathcona county....

We now I have a County Councilor voluntarily sitting on our trail committee.

Time to break new trail to Pembina then through to whitecourt

Bogger you are lucky to live in a County where common sense prevails and the influence of the urban greenie has not yet had an impact. Strathcona County used to be like the other counties around Edmonton where common sense was the rule. Even though it was against the local bylaw to ride within the right of way of a Government Road Allowance and Provincial Laws prohibited riding in primary and secondary highway rights of ways the RCMP seldom stopped anyone and if they did it was only to check insurance and registration or give someone s--t for riding in the median or not crossing the highway correctly. Council at the time asked the RCMP why they were not handing out tons of tickets for riding in ditches and they were told that the RCMP had better things to do than roam the miles of roadway in the county handing out tickets for a rather harmless activity. Strathcona County in their infinite wisdom, rather than acccepting this explanation, took the attitude that if it is illegal we better enforce it and promptly, and of course at the expense of Strathcona County taxpayers, hired two "full time" bylaw officers and purchased an expensive truck, an enclosed Triton trailer, two XP's and two Can-Am quads and set these guy's loose to do things like hand out 12 tickets to Iron Horse Racing and his family at Christmas (pure bulls--t). I do not blame the Bylaw Officers as they have to justify to council that they are paying their way so they cannot afford to only give warnings on a first offence. I do not blame the Province because they are willing to let it slide if the local authority does. This fiasco and the fiasco with the trail linkage between the Ministik and the moraine lakes and the trail system north of the county falls squarely on the shoulders of Strathcona County council. They should hang their heads in shame.

 

[Sledderglen]

bogger you are lucky to live in a county where common sense prevails and the influence of the urban greenie has not yet had an impact. Strathcona county used to be like the other counties around edmonton where common sense was the rule. Even though it was against the local bylaw to ride within the right of way of a government road allowance and provincial laws prohibited riding in primary and secondary highway rights of ways the rcmp seldom stopped anyone and if they did it was only to check insurance and registration or give someone ch!t for riding in the median or not crossing the highway correctly. Council at the time asked the rcmp why they were not handing out tons of tickets for riding in ditches and they were told that the rcmp had better things to do than roam the miles of roadway in the county handing out tickets for a rather harmless activity. Strathcona county in their infinite wisdom, rather than acccepting this explanation, took the attitude that if it is illegal we better enforce it and promptly, and of course at the expense of strathcona county taxpayers, hired two "full time" bylaw officers and purchased an expensive truck, an enclosed triton trailer, two xp's and two can-am quads and set these guy's loose to do things like hand out 12 tickets to iron horse racing and his family at christmas (pure bulls--t). I do not blame the bylaw officers as they have to justify to council that they are paying their way so they cannot afford to only give warnings on a first offence. I do not blame the province because they are willing to let it slide if the local authority does. This fiasco and the fiasco with the trail linkage between the ministik and the moraine lakes and the trail system north of the county falls squarely on the shoulders of strathcona county council. They should hang their heads in shame.

yuuuupppp

 

[duck]

Bogger you are lucky to live in a County where common sense prevails and the influence of the urban greenie has not yet had an impact. Strathcona County used to be like the other counties around Edmonton where common sense was the rule. Even though it was against the local bylaw to ride within the right of way of a Government Road Allowance and Provincial Laws prohibited riding in primary and secondary highway rights of ways the RCMP seldom stopped anyone and if they did it was only to check insurance and registration or give someone s--t for riding in the median or not crossing the highway correctly. Council at the time asked the RCMP why they were not handing out tons of tickets for riding in ditches and they were told that the RCMP had better things to do than roam the miles of roadway in the county handing out tickets for a rather harmless activity. Strathcona County in their infinite wisdom, rather than acccepting this explanation, took the attitude that if it is illegal we better enforce it and promptly, and of course at the expense of Strathcona County taxpayers, hired two "full time" bylaw officers and purchased an expensive truck, an enclosed Triton trailer, two XP's and two Can-Am quads and set these guy's loose to do things like hand out 12 tickets to Iron Horse Racing and his family at Christmas (pure bulls--t). I do not blame the Bylaw Officers as they have to justify to council that they are paying their way so they cannot afford to only give warnings on a first offence. I do not blame the Province because they are willing to let it slide if the local authority does. This fiasco and the fiasco with the trail linkage between the Ministik and the moraine lakes and the trail system north of the county falls squarely on the shoulders of Strathcona County council. They should hang their heads in shame.

I would imagine there are alot of tree hugger types on that council....

 

[ScottK]

Would love to ride the ditch between South Cooking Lake and Ministik lake trails but was warned by the staff at Ministik service to watch out for the cops

 

[drew562]

lol....we have huge, wide ditches along our highways willy. not the 6' wide trenches along the highways in BC that you are used to. you've never nailed an approach in 3 feet of snow at 60 mph? it's quite fun

You said it. I ride tons in the winter. After a few trips to the mountains I have a need for speed. It's easily fixed by a 180 km day of ditches. And yes. Approaches that have plowed snow tossed Onto them are the best to hit fast. Clear the whole road and flat land in the deep snow on the other side

 

[WhiteDragon]

Bogger you are lucky to live in a County where common sense prevails and the influence of the urban greenie has not yet had an impact. Strathcona County used to be like the other counties around Edmonton where common sense was the rule. Even though it was against the local bylaw to ride within the right of way of a Government Road Allowance and Provincial Laws prohibited riding in primary and secondary highway rights of ways the RCMP seldom stopped anyone and if they did it was only to check insurance and registration or give someone s--t for riding in the median or not crossing the highway correctly. Council at the time asked the RCMP why they were not handing out tons of tickets for riding in ditches and they were told that the RCMP had better things to do than roam the miles of roadway in the county handing out tickets for a rather harmless activity. Strathcona County in their infinite wisdom, rather than acccepting this explanation, took the attitude that if it is illegal we better enforce it and promptly, and of course at the expense of Strathcona County taxpayers, hired two "full time" bylaw officers and purchased an expensive truck, an enclosed Triton trailer, two XP's and two Can-Am quads and set these guy's loose to do things like hand out 12 tickets to Iron Horse Racing and his family at Christmas (pure bulls--t). I do not blame the Bylaw Officers as they have to justify to council that they are paying their way so they cannot afford to only give warnings on a first offence. I do not blame the Province because they are willing to let it slide if the local authority does. This fiasco and the fiasco with the trail linkage between the Ministik and the moraine lakes and the trail system north of the county falls squarely on the shoulders of Strathcona County council. They should hang their heads in shame.

Maybe at the next election, we can vote these tree huggers out of office. Fortunately, I live in Lamont county-where common sense prevails.

 

[takethebounce]

Well its been two years since someone had posted in this thread that you found today... Did you manage to vote them out in that time >?December 23rd, 2012, 11:30 PM

 

[GasCan]

I checked recently and Alberta Provincial Law is NO riding any off road vehicle and any highway or road which is actually fence post to fence post including all ditches. I then checked with local RCMP in the Foothills MD and they said they usually turn a blind eye unless they get complaints from locals or you're riding like a dick. They went on to say that much of the local MD's have their own bylaws which can supersede Provincial law to some degree where they allow sleds in small towns and turn a blind eye to it, while others have noise laws banning the use of ATV's and Sleds to Zero Tolerance in the county or MD. Foothills is one of these are the areas are enforced by the local Bylaw Billies who love to issue tickets to anyone found riding ditches in the MD.

I believe the first one for getting caught riding is $115, but if you don't have insurance, registration or your drivers license with you, compounds that offering where they can throw their ticket book at you for hundreds and hundreds more. Guess it depends on how much you mouth off and we all know the MD county bylaw boys love to perk their chests up and act like their wannabe super cops! Most RC and Sheriff's will look the other way, while the bylaw guys can get a woody chasing you down the ditch.

 

[GasCan]

Well its been two years since someone had posted in this thread that you found today... Did you manage to vote them out in that time >?December 23rd, 2012, 11:30 PM

I'm thinking it's now been resurrected now. lol

 

[HILCLMR]

I just finished reading this thread and couldn't help but wonder if any council members have ever read the opinions of the people?
I myself live in Leduc county where it's still common sense to ride, I do feel for the constituents of Strathcona County, so worried about tax base. Members of that council really do need to look past the plants and listen to the people that voted them in.