State and Local Update

Michigan

The University of Michigan is a partner in a first-of-its-kind corridor for connected and autonomous vehicles.

The first phase of the project is a two-year feasibility assessment to test technology and explore the viability of a 40-mile driverless vehicle corridor between Downtown Detroit and Ann Arbor.

Initial project partners include Ford Motor Co.; U-M, home to the Mcity Test Facility, the U-M Transportation Research Institute, the Center for Connected and Automated Transportation and facilities along the proposed corridor; and the American Center for Mobility.

Minnesota

The state Department of Natural Resources, the consulting firm Up! Outside and District 23/Amateur Riders Motorcycle Association are creating a master plan for off-highway motorcycle use throughout Minnesota.

The plan will study current use and trends, rider desires and nonrider viewpoints in determining current and future opportunities for expanding motorcycle use.

Up! Outside will use surveys and conference calls as initial scoping and information gathering tools.

The DNR and ARMCA work together to manage OHM trails on state lands and within the grant-in-aid program. The master plan will focus on recreational trail use.

New Hampshire

A Lempster couple was sued by town officials for installing a gate across a road the town plans to open to ATVs and snowmobiles.

Bean Mountain Road, which Lempster wants to let ATVs use, is classified as a Class VI road, which means it is owned by a town but is no longer maintained.

The couple, Kevin and Debra Onella, bought more than 100 acres in the 1980s, but learned they could not build on the land because of the abandoned public road.

The couple appealed and won the right to build. But town officials say the agreement reached included a provision for the Onellas to maintain the road and reserved for the town the right to designate the road for use as a trail.

“Landowners buy both ends of the road and they think they own the road,” Steve Wilkie of the New Hampshire Off Highway Vehicle Association told the New Hampshire Union Leader.

Also in New Hampshire, a new entry point to the Coos County ATV trail system near Gorham is expected to reduce traffic along state Route 2 by 80 percent or more and address complaints from nearby residents who objected to the heavy use of Route 2 past their homes.

Residents filed a lawsuit in 2018, objecting to noise and dust they say were generated by ATV riders.

Chris Gamache, chief of the New Hampshire Bureau of Trails, said the new entry point resulted from two years of negotiations among state officials, the town of Gorham, members of the Presidential OHRV Club and two private land owners.

West Virginia

The city of Buckhannon is considering a citizen proposal to allow ATV on streets.

The state passed legislation this year that grants authority to local jurisdictions to permit ATV riders to use public roadways.

City resident Larry Carter proposed that street-legal ATVs be permitted on the streets. He said street-legal ATVs would be equipped with horns, headlights, taillights, mufflers, speedometers, turn signals and parking brakes. They also would have to be insured, licensed, registered and inspected, just like a car or motorcycle.