For those interested in the facts and statistics regarding ATV riding, this article should certainly appeal to you.
Of all of the 50 states, Pennsylvania rates second place in annual sales of ATVs. This is a close second to California, which has a population of somewhere around 35 million, whereas Pennsylvania has a population of less than twelve and a half million. In Pennsylvania, in total, the department of conservation and natural resources gives an approximate estimate of 485,000 ATVs. The Allegheny national forest has only 108 miles worth of trail. With such a small amount of trail, those same 485,000 ATVs would not have room to be parked on the length of off-road provided.
Pennsylvania charges a tax of 43.7 cents on each gallon of gasoline purchased. Of that 43.7 cents, 18.2 cents of that goes directly to our Federal government. On average, a Pennsylvania ATV rider will use approximately 50 gallons a year of fuel in his or her ATV. annually, this is the equivalent of approximately $12.75 per year for an ATV rider to pay in fuel tax, none of which goes back into the land to for creating trails for ATV riders.
Approximately 1.4 million acres of land in Pennsylvania is owned by the Pennsylvania game commission. None of this land is available for use as ATV trail land. the Pennsylvania game commission alleges the land to be "private property", and Pennsylvania game commission authorities have made it very clear that they will never allow ATV riding on game lands. In Pennsylvania, approximately 1 million people are hunters. At least 40% of these hunters own ATVs.
There are 220,000 ATVs which have titles in Pennsylvania. 130,000 of these titled ATVs are registered. In Pennsylvania state forests, 188 miles of ATV trails are available. Combined with others, a total of 296 miles of ATV trails are available in Pennsylvania. With the average ATV been approximately 5ft. long, end to end there are 460 miles worth of ATVs in Pennsylvania.
Hopefully, armed with this information, Pennsylvania ATV riders can band together to make a difference.
