GUEST COMMENTARY: Keep the the Katy Trail peaceful, without ATVs | Columbia Missourian

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Have you walked or bicycled on the Katy Trail?

Metallic blue indigo buntings and yellow finches dart in front of you. The tunnel of trees shades you from the hot sun. The river flows nearby, and little streams gurgle happily. It is peaceful and happy, until you hear a loud motor.

The sound gets louder, and before you've figured out where it's coming from, an ATV zooms past you, hogging the trail and raising a cloud of dust and fumes. You lose your balance and land in the ditch.

Oh, has that never happened to you? That's because ATVs are not allowed on the Katy Trail State Park, a 240-mile rail-to-trail conversion stretching across Missouri — still the nation’s longest rail-trail.

HB 2047, introduced by Missouri State Rep. Jay Houghton of Martinsburg, would allow ATVs and golf carts on the Katy Trail on the first and third Monday and Wednesday of each month for people 55 and older and people with disabilities.

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GUEST COMMENTARY: Keep the the Katy Trail peaceful, without ATVs | Columbia Missourian