Citizen complaint of the day: Wheelie-popping dirt bikes on I-93

At least some of those annoying bikes fall in the cracks in the law somewhere in that 50cc language we were discussing the other day. Not required to be registered/insured/etc..., so if they bust someone, it's really tough to back up without things like points and insurance surcharges.

I'd rather those kids be riding dirt bikes through the city than shooting each other. Those dirt bikes bring kids and young men together who would otherwise want to hurt each other. Boston has always been an uptight town anyways. If you're out past 230am you stick out like a sore thumb. In any other big city 230am is the beginning of party time. People in the Bean need to get that bone out of their behinds. Is it any wonder why the Olympics don't want to come here? From a city like Rio de Janeiro to Boston....talk about a let down.

They're ripping down Washington st in Roxbury at least once a day... right past the police station. Guessing the police don't give chase because it's a public safety hazard... but enough is enough.

Last week I was within 5 feet of being hit while walking my dog ON THE SIDEWALK by a kid that looked no older than 14 on a dirtbike without a helmet. Just yesterday I almost had to drive off the road to avoid hitting some idiot splitting my lane while doing a wheelie.

These dirtbikes and ATVs aren't even street legal, period. They lack the general safety equipment (head/tail lights) that the low CC city scooters have.

I was driving down blue hill avenue around 5pm yesterday and a group of dirt bikes blew right threw a red light I was stopped at. If a car hits one of these morons are they at fault?

A they built skateboard park, golf course time to build a park for them time for people to open their eyes dirt biking not going anywhere but the kids on those bikes a gang, street whatever members and if riding a bike on the streets going to stop a young man or woman from becoming a memory or spot in my neighborhood where people are leaving candles and liquor bottles because they been shot and killed so if that's keeping bullets from flying they need to keep it up I'm not in a rush to get anywhere that's going to keep at less two murder from happening the city's gang prevention model is just save one so yesterday dirt bike ride saved more l prevention model is just save one so yesterday dirt bike ride saved let them ride it's only on Saturday or Sunday not bothering Boston businesses just saving lives young lives

Well, 'groups of youngsters who are jerks about driving their vehicles,' but you know. I realize he could have meant 'gang' as a gathering of people, but it's a completely unnecessarily loaded word. The kids who live across my yard are really into dirt bikes and I'm astonished by how many of my friends have assumed they were up to No Good. I'm 99.995% certain that they just like tinkering with and riding inexpensive motorized vehicles.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2011/06/30/littl...

I saw a group doing about 60 through Rozzie Square a few weeks ago just as school was getting out going 50 the wrong way up Washington street. Something NEEDS to be done.

Even if a dedicated dirt bike park were created, where would it go and who would want to live next to it? Secondly, these motocross/ATV "gangs" don't necessarily ride the streets because they have nowhere else to go. Many of them do it to be loud and be seen - strutting their stuff for whatever reason.

When I was driving around the Haitian-American Unity Parade the other week, I ran into a pack of about thirty ATVs and bikes riding around the cemetery off Harvard St. (a few blocks from Blue Hill Ave). I stopped to let them pass (and they were taking up lanes in both directions, might I add), and a few of them went out of their way to drive up on the sidewalk and around my truck as if to surround me, instead of the entire open lane to my other side. That's intimidating behavior if you ask me. On the highway, you'll absolutely run into motorcycle gangs that do the same thing (except at significantly higher speeds). It's not just about riding together, it's about domination.

A lot of those riders are absolutely aware that they're riding around in unregistered, off-road vehicles and that the police can't do much to stop them. In other cities where this practice is known, often times the dirt bikes and ATVs are stolen property (not necessarily the case all the time and I have no idea about those statistics for Boston, but it definitely goes along with the show-off/domination mentality).

By the way, I would absolutely support an in-town off-road park. I drive a built-up offroader every day and head out of town to get muddy as often as I can on legal trails and private property maintained by well-known offroad clubs. I'd love to own a quad and have a place to play with it without having to drive an hour or more. I absolutely think that a lot of our urban bikers would be drawn to such a place and get them away from their dangerous activities. But motorcyclists have tracks to play on and plenty of laws governing them, and there are gangs roving the highways that engage in this same sort of high-risk behavior, so such a park wouldn't necessarily solve the problem.

I guess looking at an ATV/bike group as a positive way for young men (and women) to get together to socialize isn't such a bad perspective, but what happens when these roving groups run into each other?

Finally, here is a relevant article about a similar group in Baltimore:
http://www.vice.com/read/the-wheelying-dirt-bike-gangs-of-baltimore-twel...

We were traveling on i95 north on Sunday when a group of approx 20 bikes, some traveling over 100 miles an hour were all around us. Several were screwing with a guy in the left lane, popping wheelies, stopping, etc. we called the police, they never showed, and this group were still jerking around when we approached The Randolph exit ramp, which they had closed by stopping at the entrance.

Pretty freaky, very Mad Max, it feels like the police are not planning to help maintain safety as they are charged to do.

Somewhere recently, I can't remember specifically, I heard Comm Evans say that while they don't chase the mini-bikers, they are looking to confiscate them if found illegally parked, etc.