Misplaced concerns over Quantyaparx, an off-road electric dirt bike park in rural England
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-14333-Green-Transportation-Examiner~y2010m8d5-Misplaced-concerns-over-Quantyaparx-an-offroad-...
Quantya UK has a plan to build QuantyaparX - which would be dirt bike tracks featuring only electric dirt bikes. Of course it would be one brand, Quantya, rather than offering multiple brands (Zero, etc). Still it's an interesting idea.
Unfortunately they ran into opposition from locals who didn't understand that electric=quiet. They must have heard "dirt bike track" and with memories of a motocross race last year spewing noise pollution for miles around, they rose up en masse and shouted NO. Sorta.
See also: http://www.quantyabikes.co.uk/2010/08/kinver-quantyaparx-need-your-support/
Ah, the NIMN's wishes are all that ever matter, right? (Not In My Neighborhood.) We have an airport in my city, built before nearly all of the houses here. And yet various individuals will buy houses near it and paint profanities on their roof because now that they're here, they want it gone. Not that the planes are loud, they fly right over my house on a straight in approach or straight out departure and it doesn't bother me. When they built a courthouse with a fenced in circle in the parking lot to assure that a helicopter could land in an emergency, people went to work trying to block it because no emergency is ever big enough that they should have to hear a helicopter from a half mile away. (If something happened and their kid had to be medivac'ed, where to you think they'd go?)
But such are the times we live in. So many people act like they're entitled to their way ONLY. When a judge in a certain recent case here in California displays open bias in favor of the plantiff, who didn't even make a case, then ceaselessly badgers the defense in a manner that was indefensable, as far as he's concerned he gets to do that and will be affronted when judicial misconduct is cited in overturning his decision. Of course the plantiff's will be outraged at losing their "Win," but if they'd done the right thing and objected so the judge could be disqualified, well, that's asking them to be FAIR, isn't it? Someone wants healthcare for free, then that means the rest of us are obligated to pay for it.
One other fact of life will be in the favor of Quantyaparx. There's going to be fees the government collets when this is built. There's going to be jobs. I can't imagine any real government opposition rising up. I'd expect the park would be built.
When I was a kid we had the Nimibike Park here, a small set of trails surrounded by a dam, an oil field, and a very large diy landscaping supply business. Noone to complain about the "Noisy" minibikes. Now the business and the oil fields have been redeveloped into homes, but I believe the park itself is still intact. I have a 650 watt dirtbike, another of my projects which went smoothly. How neat to reopen it as electric only. . . .
By the way, you're aware that there's people out there demanding that electrics me made with artificial sound generators so they can hear them coming?
WHo dares, WINS!!!!