Randy Pasalaqua owns two all-terrain vehicles, but even after 20 years of riding, he still isn't sure where he can legally ride and where he cannot.
It is so confusing, the Madison Village, OH, resident said, that sometimes it is easier to travel to Pennsylvania or West Virginia and pay an entrance fee to one of the state's enormous public trail systems there.
"There's such a gray area of what you can and cannot do," Pasalaqua said of Ohio's ATV laws. It's a sentiment shared by many ATV riders in Lake County and around the state and it is not simply because cities and villages often pass their own ordinances governing ATV use on top of state laws. Even the state laws in the Ohio Revised Code aren't clear.
Ohio has one-tenth of neighboring West Virginia's public ATV trail miles, according to the Ohio Motorized Trails Association. And more than three-fourths of those miles are at Wayne National Forest in southern Ohio.
A half-dozen ATV riders who responded to a News-Herald request for comment said northeast Ohio lacks designated ATV trails and leaves owners to ride on streets and private property.
Pasalaqua said he has never been cited for an ATV violation, but he has been issued warnings twice by different law enforcement agencies in Painesville Township and Madison Village.
A lot of confusion centers on whether ATVs are allowed to be driven on township and county roads.
Randy Swan, a Mentor resident, said he was once cited by Ohio Highway Patrol in the village of Roaming Shores in Ashtabula County because he rode his ATV on a street he thought was permitted for ATV use.
"You never know when you're in the right or wrong," Swan said, adding that over the past 45 years of riding, he has been warned nearly a dozen times by police of different ATV violations.
A person caught riding on an unpermitted road could end up with a minor misdemeanor citation. In the past five years, citations in the jurisdiction of Painesville Municipal Court for anything ATV-related have varied between three in 2008 and 15 in 2010, records show.
The court has jurisdiction over Concord Township, Fairport Harbor Village, Grand River Village, Leroy Township, Madison Township, Madison Village, North Perry Village, Painesville, Painesville Township, Perry Township and Perry Village.
As far as main roads, the Ohio Revised Code only allows ATVs to cross state routes and bans them entirely from "limited-access highways" such as Route 2, Route 44 and Interstate 90. According to one section in the law, 4519.41, the ORC allows "local authorities" in counties or townships to permit usage on their local roads.
Sgt. Andrew Janu of the Ohio Highway Patrol Chardon Post said his office has not been notified of any roads in Lake or Geauga Counties designated for off-road or ATV use.
Geauga County Sheriff Dan McClelland said none of its township or county roads permit ATV use.
The Lake County Sheriff's Office, which patrols mostly Perry, Painesville, Leroy and Concord townships, hasn't taken a side on that section of the law, Capt. Carl Dondorfer said. That means an officer from the Lake County Sheriff's Office can permit it, as long as the driver and vehicle are licensed with the state of Ohio, similar to a motorcycle.
"It's not black and white, it has to be addressed on a case-by-case basis," Dondorfer said.
He said circumstances such as another person reporting a nuisance play into whether a person could be cited.
Madison Township, the only Lake County township that has its own police department, bans ATV use.
"Typically, we give a person a warning but it depends on the situation, too," Police Chief Leonard Del Calzo said.
Pete Wayman, trustee chairman for Madison Township, said trustees passed a resolution banning ATVs on its roads nearly a decade ago, and since then, no one has sought to reverse that decision.
"They weren't invented to be ridden on the roads," said Wayman, who added he doesn't own an ATV himself.
Trustee Max Anderson is an ATV rider and Madison Township police officer and said he isn't committed to either side of the issue. He said he usually hauls his ATV to designated trails like Wayne National Forest, three hours and 40 minutes south in Marietta.
"You've just got to be safe and abide by the laws," Anderson said. "If you do ride on them, you have to be respectful of people's property."
Almost all ATV riders reached for this story said they avoid driving on roads anyhow, because the pavement will wear out the vehicles' tires.
"The tires are not designed to grip a flat surface," said Dennis Wylie, president of Lake County Off-Road Conservation. His 67-member group, which advocates for safe Jeep, motorcycle and ATV riding in northeast Ohio, urges ATV riders to drive along the berm or shoulder of a street if it has one.
Berms reduce wear and tear on the tires, Wylie said, and, on condition that the vehicle doesn't reach onto private property, it is permitted under the Ohio Revised Code.
