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SonOfBaldy t1_jdx7ahs wrote

I've experienced a lot of 6/7 run ins with these groups, generally Allens Ave, the park with the pedestrian bridge and weybossett streets. They take over multiple lanes, ride head on to get you to move to the side, run red lights, its so dangerous- and even more so at night. Dirt bikes in the groups ride sidewalks.. I sincerely don't feel bad for any of those operators. I do believe there should be a place for them to ride, but logistically how would it work? They're going to ride via streets to get to it.

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FIFAFanboy2023 t1_jdxco0m wrote

Why do a bunch of city dwellers need special areas for riding dirt bikes? They aren't the dirt bike kids from the sticks riding the powerlines, this is transportation and enjoyment for them. If the city bought a plot of land and turned it into a dirt bike track it would be empty and unused and these people would still be riding around the city doing dumb shit.

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SolidDecent2259 t1_jdxrdit wrote

They are degenerate bums with no jobs or parents

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FourAM t1_jdxteqm wrote

Yes it’s always that simple, isn’t it?

Why don’t you give them a job then?

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SolidDecent2259 t1_jdy2q2r wrote

I would try to but they are too busy riding around on their atvs and dirt bikes illegally

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[deleted] t1_jdyusjn wrote

[deleted]

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FourAM t1_je0w3uw wrote

I’m actually shitting on that opinion, that “lazy people who don’t bother to work are destroying the traditional family dynamic of American society” nonsense but I guess not being from around here the dry sarcasm doesn’t come across as well as I’d have hoped.

And yeah, coming from a position of poverty does cause further crime, but the solution that people should just “suck it up and get a job” ignores the realities that there are unimaginable hurdles for many people to be able to make any meaningful change in that regard (education, transportation, hell it might even be difficult to be presentable - consider the extreme example of homelessness). Upward mobility is only possible if someone somehwere gives you a chance, and as a society we’ve backed off of that significantly, if we were ever good at it at all.

Assistance programs can help, and should be well-funded and not shamed; currently this is possibly the only way out for many.

But it all comes back to systemic issues; even with assistance, everything is designed to keep the “poors” down, as an example to the middle class of what’ll happen to them if they start to question the status quo and how they’re being squeezed. It’s expensive to be poor.

So what happens when you live in a place that kicks you when you’re down, and you don’t even have the ability to get around it?

You stop giving a fuck, and you form stolen ATV gangs for kicks.

Fight for a more equitable society, homies. It’ll be a better world for literally everyone.

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myballsyourbutt t1_je33g14 wrote

Right stealing dirt bikes and riding in the streets all day is a great way to improve their livelihood.

Thanks for the essay of sympathy BS.

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[deleted] t1_jdzzzyv wrote

[deleted]

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FIFAFanboy2023 t1_je05dkt wrote

I'm not going to respond to the racism aspect of your reply, because I firmly believe in equal rights for all and preach nothing but love for all people who try to do the right thing. I will say I that I don't actively root for people like this to be hurt, however I'm not going to act like they haven't brought this upon themselves and don't feel bad for them when they get hurt.

However, as far as building a legal place inside the city of Providence for them to ride, I believe very firmly you are wrong. The people you see out riding the bikes on public streets (and certainly not just in Providence) are not going from point A to point B to relax and chill with their like-minded friends, they are riding completely illegally on city streets with no regard for basic standards of care on the road. They frequently do not wear helmets, have no safety equipment (lights, signals...) on them, and do not pay to register them with the state. They fly through red lights, perform wheelies or other tricks going the wrong way in traffic, ride on sidewalks and bike paths and will even cut through city parks to get to where they want to be. These are not the activities of kids looking for a legal place to ride, as there have been adults seen mixed in with the kids out causing the same mayhem.

The kids I grew up with who rode dirt bikes never rode on public roads to get to the riding spots, other than to cross the roads. Yes, they rode illegally on public/private land often, but the truth is that doing that bothers no one except the property owners. Sometimes they would ride along the roads if it wasn't an easy crossing, but it wasn't for long periods of time. The ones I knew that rode in the legal spots typically needed to transport them there, pay to use those spots and ad to have a full set of safety gear. They also needed to follow the rules of the tracks because there was many people of different skill levels using them.

If the communities got together and agreed to build a dirt bike park, do you actually see the person leaning back on 2 wheels on a quad with no helmet loading up their equipment into the back of a trailer and transporting it to the facility, then paying a use fee and being fully in compliance with the rules asked of them? Black, white, Indian, Asian, Hispanic, gay, straight, or any other type of way a person can be identified, you don't need to see the future to understand that a dirt bike facility would never be utilized by the people we are talking about now. At the end of the day, ATV's have very little practical use anywhere, let alone a city. There is no need to cater to city dwelling ORV riders in a fucking city.

I'm pretty sure you're just using race as a way to bait people.

And as for them being stolen or not... c'mon man, do you really think dozens of teenagers and young adults are riding around on legally bought $1000 pieces of equipment? Be honest with yourself.

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FourAM t1_je0x7ed wrote

Quads are like $7k average.

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FIFAFanboy2023 t1_je0xi1v wrote

Wow, I had no idea they were that expensive. I just looked up the price of used dirt bikes and the average seemed be about 1k.

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FourAM t1_je1tzvi wrote

Oh, I didn’t look at used. It’s possible then, but looking at some stats about used pricing most recent models (2017 and up) are still starting around $3k. Definitely more accessible. How old are the ones they’re using?

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FourAM t1_je0wlfx wrote

There was a lot of reporting early on when this started happening during the early pandemic that the ATVs were being stolen. If that is no longer the case then it’s no longer the case, but that was reported.

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siesta_gal t1_je18rbe wrote

Wrong.

If these sub-moronic ATV riders were, in fact, exclusively Anglo...that would make me want to beat their collective asses even more for acting so shitty and making the rest of us Anglos look so bad.

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Forward-Contract9315 t1_jdxeled wrote

they're getting these kinds of bikes specifically to fuck with you, why would we section off a little sanctuary for them?

ask the Providence subreddit though and I'm pretty sure they'll tell you these guys are just local flavor and definitely not problematic at all.

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azknight t1_jdxl7zg wrote

Correct. They aren’t just on the streets because there’s not an off-road track available. They’re hoping to start shit with people.

https://www.wpri.com/news/local-news/providence/police-woman-dragged-from-vehicle-beaten-by-atv-riders-in-providence/amp/

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Designer_Dot_1492 t1_je0faxi wrote

Yup, how many of them ever go to the track in Richmond to pay for a day of off road riding?? None I bet.

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TimeSlipperWHOOPS t1_jdxmd4i wrote

No, the pvd subreddit also dislikes them

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Forward-Contract9315 t1_je27vwo wrote

I saw that thread too. Try saying it to them a different way, isolated from an informational article, like, "is it problematic that there are gangs of children in ATVs menacing the citizens of PVD?"

and you will find a fat % of them denying it's the case, or saying WELL I heard about that stuff but I've never seen it, another fat % telling you your comment has unwholesomely racial overtones regardless of its content, a substantial % asking you whether you just need PVD to be more similar to the suburbs, and then yeah maybe a small group who do perceive the behavior as a problem requiring a solution. None of them realizing for an instant that the victim blaming and "well I haven't experienced it so it must not exist" attitudes are exactly what progressive liberalism has been intending to combat for the last couple of decades. Then you might ask if the cops and simple enforcement are an appropriate solution and see how that goes--and I say this as an ACAB guy.

I can absolutely guarantee you, having posted in that forum on this exact topic before, albeit with a different account, that the bulk of the users there are more concerned with how you've identified this as a problem and how that might make YOU problematic, than with it being a problem in the first place.

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Thac0 t1_jdxl9pb wrote

During the pandemic when nobody was bustling around and there were fireworks 24-7 it was fun and novel but it had its time and now it’s definitely a big problem

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pmk0286 t1_jdxn8ks wrote

Nah not a problem at all, need the state to spend more money to make them a dirt bike park.

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PJfanRI t1_jdxokmv wrote

Why reward their awful behavior? Give them a park and they'd still be assholes.

Throw the book at them.

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pmk0286 t1_jdy116m wrote

/s, whoops! Honestly to me it’s laughable that this is a continuing issue in the city.

Maybe we could get the lifted diesel truck enthusiasts to meet the unregistered motor cycle enthusiasts..and let nature take its course

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BingBong022 t1_jdxgkzv wrote

I've almost hit one of them on multiple occasions because like you said they drive against traffic

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