Thread: Sand driving

Given the length of Australias coastline compared to how much is actually driven on, I don't think it is a significant problem.

I'm pretty sure they tried this one on at Stockton a few years ago also. 50% is probably still a plague anyway if a handfull of sand is a whole ecosystem.

Originally Posted by Slunnie

I'm pretty sure they tried this one on at Stockton a few years ago also. 50% is probably still a plague anyway if a handfull of sand is a whole ecosystem.

The impact that 4WDs make to the few beaches where beach driving is actually permitted is minuscule when compared to the damage sand mining has when it is used to make concrete for universities and other large public infrastructure. The whole of the University of NSW is built on a sand hill.

When are they going to ban universities?

Diana

P.S. At least it may slow up a few greenies in the guise of academics.

I was thinking that this sort of information is important in the hands of people who have an impact on it. I'd like to think that outdoorsy 4wdrivers have a bit of awareness and care for the environment that they love to drive in and could use this sort of information in their decision making on the road.

I think extremism in any form is not a good thing. Conservation by excluding the public, I think, will end with a public that doesn't care about the wilds because they don't go there and have no ownership of it. Enough generations of this could lead to an ambivalence about it's importance and a loss of it.

With that in mind, lets walk the middle ground for a bit.

Would it be better to drive on sand already driven on to reduce the total damage?

Is it better to drive on the inter tidal zone or well above the high tide mark?

what is the difference to sand dwelling populations if extremely low tyre pressures are used?

Is any one doing formal studies of off road behaviours to identify minimum damage/maximum pleasure methods?

I've driven over lizards and skinks in the sand before...they seem to run away afterwards or bury down deeper into the sand without any ill effects.

My mate actually ran over a Gerbil once...same thing...it ran off after the coast was clear.

I just love the quote in the article ...something along the lines of there are 50% less life on the trafficable beaches than the untrafficable beaches....easy, the animals, etc have moved to where the vehicles don't go! There not that stupid to stay on the highway zone....

I didn't read the article

- but I will say, at least a Land Rover can co-exist with nature, other cars need several layers of soil removed, a firm base packed and then a bitumen road on top. Plus drains that divert water away so it won't damage the road. No such adverse environmental impacts required when driving a (real) 4WD. Plus spreading the tractive force over two axles instead of one, using larger tyres to reduce force per square inch of ground and the environmental benefits of driving a 4WD just keep compounding.

So what about where we have built roads, towns, cities, farms, mines, harbours, acid rain, pollution.