People living in Pittsburgh neighborhood getting fed up with dirt bikes, ATVs

PITTSBURGH — Matthew Gatto has lived in the Marshall-Shadeland neighborhood for four years and said the noise from dirt bikes is all too common.

“We’ve just had tons of people riding ATVs, dirt bikes all up and down the streets through the whole neighborhood,” Gatto said. “We had issues and people blow stop signs. Small kids riding with no helmets.”

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Other neighbors in the area said the bikes are loud, but it only lasts a short time.

“Go find somebody out there doing real crime,” one person told Channel 11 Ryan’s Houston.

Houston and his videographer were recording video at a nearby school when a man and two kids came riding by on dirt bikes. He eventually turned around and agreed to talk.

“It’s a pandemic. We ain’t hurting nobody and its better than going out here and killing somebody,” he said. “All we’re trying to do is have fun and the kids ride with us. We take our own kids out. We can’t ride in the parking lots. We can’t ride in the grass. They don’t want us in the street. So where are we going to ride?”

The Mayor’s Office sent over a statement reading, in part, that “the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police and it’s law enforcement partners will utilize any available technology to stop these unauthorized vehicles from driving on city streets.”

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