Whitehorse, once known for its old west way of life, is becoming urbanized, Mayor Bev Buckway says.
While at one time a loud snow machine was given little notice, residents of Whitehorse, population about 26,700, are now saying they have had enough.
Toronto has its noisy cars and motorcycles menacing the streets and highways, but Whitehorse it seems is plagued with loud snow machines that race around the city at breakneck speeds with little regard for the environment or safety.
“Our lifestyle up here has been one of people having snow machines and having ATVs … then of course as we become more urbanized people are becoming are becoming more annoyed with the noise that some of these machines are making,” Buckway told the Toronto Star Thursday.
She guessed that there are hundreds of snowmobiles within the city limits.
Some residents are demanding they even be banned from the city limit, but the mayor said that’s a whole lot easier to say than actually do given that Whitehorse covers 416 square kilometres, much of it relative wilderness spread out along the Alaska Highway and Yukon River.
Buckway and her council are currently wrestling with what exactly to do about the growing problem, knowing full well that an updated snowmobile bylaw imposing all kinds of restrictions on this winter mode of transportation would be all but unenforceable.
With more than 60 centimetres of snow on the ground in Whitehorse, the conditions are perfect for snowmobiling. But one thing residents can’t do is drive their machines on the downtown streets. That’s where the mayor and city draws the line.
“We have a few individuals who don’t act very responsibly when they are driving their machines … it’s annoying to people … we certainly don’t want riding through the downtown area,” she said.
Buckway said rather than trying to ban the machines from the city limits, she is urging operators to use the so-called “out and away” trails that provide easier access to less built up areas without them having to drive through residential areas.
The updated bylaw that city council is considering would, among other things, establish a city-wide maximum speed limit of 50 kilometres per hour and requires that operators be at least 16 years of age and wear a helmet.
