The golf cart: New Albany’s vehicle of the future? | New Albany Gazette | djournal.com

2023-02-03 00:37:16 By : Mr. Jack Wu

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Whether this is a good idea for New Albany remains to be seen, but it is worth taking a look at. Big Golf Car

The golf cart: New Albany’s vehicle of the future? | New Albany Gazette | djournal.com

I have recently learned there is a thriving golf cart community in Pontotoc.

People are using golf carts to run errands around town, to participate in special events and some even use them to drive down the Tanglefoot Trail to Algoma to enjoy a fish dinner.

They are able to do this because of a bill passed by the legislature a year or two ago, allowing golf carts on city streets.

The stated purpose of the Pontotoc ordinance was to facilitate access to the Tanglefoot Trail, but people obviously use the carts for all manner of reasons.

There are restrictions. They can’t go faster than 30 miles per hour. They must have a parking brake, head lamps, tail lamps and rear-view mirror. They must be inspected and licensed by the police department, having slow-moving-vehicle reflector on the back. In addition to having a city registration sticker with an annual cost of $20, they need an additional sticker to operate on the Tanglefoot Trail. The cart must be electric, not gasoline-powered, to be on the trail.

The operator must have a valid driver’s license and liability insurance.

The carts are restricted to certain streets and times but can cross major streets within limits.

For safety reasons, using a golf cart to take kids to school is prohibited.

Despite the restrictions, I was told that the use of golf carts around town is fairly widespread.

They are quick and easy, environmentally friendly and inexpensive to operate.

I don’t know whether they park in marked spaces, but a golf cart obviously takes up only about half the space, or less, of a regular automobile.

In New Albany, we have marked bicycle lanes, but only to a limited degree. I have seen a few people use the bike lanes, but many out-of-towners seem to prefer to push their bikes along the sidewalks rather than get out in the street.

I don’t know whether the golf carts use regular traffic lanes, but it seems like they do, but only on lower-traffic streets.

New Albany does have a parking problem and this could help, depending on how the program was administered.

Also, we are trying to be more attractive as a retirement community but have taken little positive action targeting retirees. Embracing the use of golf carts should be ideal for attracting retirees. It would also increase social interaction.

Golf carts are not inexpensive, of course.

However, people seem to find money for items like this. There apparently are folks with 200-square-foot yards that have $2,500 zero-turn mowers and it seems almost every family in the county has an ATV or side-by-side or other recreational vehicle costing $10,000 or more.

Would golf cart use be good for New Albany? We might study the idea a bit but I, for one, could probably do 90 percent of my running around in a golf cart and it would help my parking problem.

Whether there is interest remains to be seen.

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The golf cart: New Albany’s vehicle of the future? | New Albany Gazette | djournal.com

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