Golf cart traffic could be more costly than gasoline
Originally published: July 23. 2008 3:01AMLast modified: July 23. 2008 12:13AM
Those electric/battery powered vehicles are arriving here a lot quicker than anyone thought, considering the expected engineering, design and development time.
The unimaginable is happening: Some cities are permitting the use of golf carts on public streets.
A number of mostly smaller cities are permitting their use, but some cities have refused.
While it helps reduce the problem of higher gasoline prices, it creates other, mostly safety factors. Convenience is another factor in favor of the golf carts. They are so easy to get into.
USA Today reported that Danforth, Illinois; Pulaski, Virginia; Conover, North Carolina; Osseo, Minnesota, Loveland, Colorado; Winchester and Summitville, Indiana, and Sandusky, Ohio, are among dozens of communities who have either passed or debated ordinances to allow golf carts on local streets.
Bloomfield, Indiana, and Salina, Kansas, are among those who decided to keep the ban on golf carts.
Even Gas City, Indiana, has switched to golf carts for police to patrol parks and for the utility department to use when reading meters.
The Fairfield County, Ohio, Sheriff's Office is using two golf carts to conduct patrols in some of the county's villages where there is not a lot of geographic area to cover.
It is reported that laws in 26 states either allow low-speed electric vehicles to use some local streets or give communities the power to make that decision.
Federal law is of no concern because the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration does not recognize golf carts as on-road vehicles, so they don't have to meet the same federal safety standards as automobiles.
Even the low speed electric golf carts off the roads aren't the safest vehicles around. One study found that about 1,000 people in the U.S. require emergency room treatment each month from golf cart injuries. Most occur on golf courses, but about 20 percent are from incidents at home or on public roads.
It doesn't require much imagination to foresee what will happen if their use is allowed in heavier traffic.
Then when states realize they are getting cheated out of license tag fees, and law enforcement people start trying to establish ownership when registration is not required, we are likely to incur added tax costs that exceed the price of gasoline.
It might be a good opportunity for Flintstone cartoon character Barney to get his mysteriously powered, stone-wheeled golf cart out of retirement and give all of us a lift!