HOLMES BEACH – Commissioners met Oct. 12 for a work session about potential golf cart and low-speed vehicle regulations, focusing on how to have those vehicles travel safely through the city.
A vehicle defined as a golf cart in Holmes Beach does not require a license plate. A low-speed vehicle can look like a golf cart, one of the mini-cars rented on the Island or other street-legal, non-traditional vehicles. These have license plates and can be driven in all three Island cities, except that they cannot be legally driven on state roads, including Manatee Avenue and East Bay Drive in Holmes Beach, although the vehicles can cross these streets. Because they are not supposed to be driven on Manatee Avenue, they should not be driven across the Anna Maria Island Bridge.
Holmes Beach Police Chief Bill Tokajer said his concerns about golf carts and low-speed vehicles primarily include safety and speed. The slower-moving vehicles on main roads, such as Marina Drive, which has a 35 mph speed limit in some places, can cause issues for car and truck drivers because the lower-speed vehicle slows traffic down. It also creates a safety hazard, he said, because some LSV and golf cart drivers will pull into bicycle lanes to allow cars to pass or cars will pass slower-moving vehicles on the right through the bicycle lane. Both maneuvers are illegal and could seriously injure a bicyclist traveling in the bicycle lane if a driver pulls over without seeing them or stops ahead of the cyclist. Due to traffic congestion, sometimes cyclists move faster than the vehicles, Tokajer said.
His suggestion is to change the speed limit on a section of Gulf Drive along the beach from 35 mph to 25 mph to match the speed limit on the rest of the road. Doing this would give drivers of LSVs and golf carts a way to travel through Holmes Beach while driving only on roads with a speed limit of 25 mph or less.
To direct drivers to the correct path, he said stencils on the street can be used instead of signs and stickers placed on LSV rentals to alert drivers of the requirement to drive only on streets with a 25 mph or less speed limit, along with other regulations.
Tokajer also suggested mandating that all passengers on golf carts and LSVs be required to have their own individual seat belts. For children, a proper child restraint device is required.
The discussion is expected to continue at a future work session.
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