Golf Carts on sidewalks?

Recently the Herald Tribune newspaper covered a story about residents of Manatee County, FL showing their support of a new policy, which will call for an application to be submitted regarding federal or state rights of way to the Florida DOT regarding the use of golf carts on sidewalks. That’s right, according to the article many seniors have surrendered their drivers license and now wish to change federal laws regarding sidewalks (since they are federally funded) so they can drive their golf carts on them to get to and from the store. I think this will cause major problems if it passes.

Now don’t misunderstand me I think that seniors should be able to use golf carts to get around but I think they belong on the road and should be street legal. If we start allowing golf carts to share the sidewalks there would be no way of maintaining that they are kept to a standard that would ensure that they are safe. We need to keep carts or LSV (low speed vehicles) on the road and subject them to the same standards that we do all vehicles and pass them through an inspection process like many counties are currently doing.

If we allow golf carts to share our sidewalks it will end in tragedy. If a golf cart runs into a car you may have some scraped paint or even a total cart but if a golf cart hits a pedestrian such as a small child… well that is something that can be avoided by not allowing golf carts to share sidewalks and instead keeping motorized vehicles where they belong on the road.

As always we would love to hear your thoughts and opinions so please feel free to leave a comment or send us a note via e-mail to steve@extremekartz.com