ATV owners will have to continue driving their vehicles outside Bracebridge, Ont.’s urban centre, according to the town council.
In April 2023, Bracebridge resident Mike Owczarek presented council with a petition containing over 200 signatures asking the town to expand the boundaries ATVs are allowed to drive in. Currently, ATVs are allowed to drive on certain municipal roads in rural areas of Bracebridge, but not through the town’s urban core.
Owczarek argued that this boundary prevented residents from accessing amenities, such as groceries and gas stations west of Hwy. 11 while on ATVs, forcing them to use Jerry cans to fill up their off-road vehicles. As part of the petition, he suggested the town expand the ATV boundary to include Taylor Road to the north, Hwy. 11 to the east, Hugh Campbell Drive and Birch Lane to the south, and Muskoka Road 14/37 to the west.
Owczarek also asked council to petition the Ministry of Transportation (MTO) to allow ATVs to drive across the Taylor Road and Fraserburg Road overpasses that bridge Hwy. 11. The MTO considers these overpasses part of Hwy. 11, and under Ontario’s Highway Traffic Act, off-road vehicles are prohibited from driving on highways.
Bracebridge council consulted with the town’s bylaw department, the District Municipality of Muskoka, the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP), and the MTO for feedback on Owczarek’s proposals. While the OPP didn’t feel a change to the boundary would affect its services, the District Municipality of Muskoka were against allowing off-road vehicles into the more densely populated areas of the town.
“Accommodating ATVs in an urban/semi-rural environment was discouraged during initial bylaw development, and our bylaw has looked to allow them only on more rural, lower volume portions of the district road network,” Mark Misko, the director of engineering and transportation for the district said in a statement. “Given the current mix of road corridor users and vehicle types already within our urban environments, serious consideration should be given to safety concerns generated when introducing yet another moving piece on our road network.”
In its response, the MTO held firm that the overpasses were part of Hwy. 11 and, therefore, ATVs are prohibited from using them.
After receiving this feedback in a July 2023 meeting, council sided with the district and MTO deciding not to expand ATV boundaries in Bracebridge. “It was council’s belief that adding another mode of transportation on top of an already busy area that has many different competing interests, including pedestrian traffic, cyclists, and other vehicles was not something that we thought was in the best interest of safety,” says Bracebridge Mayor Rick Maloney.
Maloney pointed out that Bracebridge’s urban core represents only about 20 per cent of the town. The other 80 per cent is open to ATV use. He added that there are other gas stations and grocery stores that can be accessed by ATV users via rural roads. Plus, the Bracebridge hospital board has recently selected one of the proposed expansion areas as the site of its new hospital redevelopment. “That would add another reason not to consider adding ATVs to this particular area,” he said.
For now the ATV boundary will remain the same. But Maloney said that could change in the future. Every few years the town reviews its bylaws and future growth could impact the ATV boundaries—whether that’s expanding or contracting them.
“Bracebridge is a growing community,” Maloney said. “The idea of the urban core expanding is certainly something that could happen in our community. With that growth comes the challenge of ensuring everyone is using our road network safely.”