Thrillcraft

Article issues
importance = July 2008
orphan = July 2008
tone = July 2008

Thrillcraft are any motorized vehicle used on land or water primarily for recreation, including jet skis, jet boats, snowmobiles, four wheelers, ATV's, dirt bikes, dune buggies, swamp buggies, and rock crawlers. Thrillcraft use has burgeoned in the past few decades and, with increasing speed and power, are able to access many places that were formerly inaccessible to motorized vehicles. This has caused conflict and controversy, particularly where public lands are concerned, and former U.S. Forest Service Chief Dale Boseworth has called thrillcraft one of the four major threats to the national forests [ [http://www.fs.fed.us/news/2004/speeches/01/idaho-four-threats.shtml] ] .

Environmental Issues

Several negative impacts are common with all thrillcraft whether personal water craft (jet skis), dirt bikes, all-terrain vehicles, snowmobiles or any other motorized vehicles used primarily for off highway travel is that they operate with two-stoke engines. These engines utilize a combination of oil and gas and discharge as much as 30% of the mixture directly into the air, land and water. Containing both cancer causing and toxic chemicals these emissions pollute the air, and are potentially harmful to both plants and animals.

The environmental affects go beyond chemical pollution. The way these vehicles are operated, often with high speeds, and a purposeful assault or “conquering” mentality towards the landscapeFact|date=September 2008 means that wildlife is often disturbed or displaced and habitat is fragmented.

Finally these vehicles are noisy; indeed, for many thrillcraft users, loud noise is part of the attraction of these machines bringing them into conflict over their use in collective common spaces.

afety Issues

With the increasing speed of thrillcraft, accident rates have increased tremendously. Some snowmobiles travel in excess of 100 miles per hour and have no brakes. Thrillcraft are becoming heavier too, with the average ATV weighing 850 pounds. An average of 130,000 people are killed or injured annually riding thrillcraft and up to a third of them are children under 16 years of age. [ [http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-06-24-atv_N.htm] ]

References