ANNA MARIA ISLAND – As more visitors come to Anna Maria Island, many are realizing that renting a golf cart-style low-speed vehicle can be a fun and effective way to get around. For residents and visitors alike, it’s important to remember that the same rules apply whether driving a car or an LSV.
When operating an LSV, the driver is required to be licensed, just like in a car or truck, and all passengers must wear a seatbelt. Young children also are required to be secured in an appropriate child seat for their age and size.
“We are enforcing seatbelt laws, monitoring the usage of the golf carts to make sure the driver is authorized to drive and we’re monitoring capacity,” Holmes Beach Police Chief Bill Tokajer said. “Children are supposed to be in car seats and all passengers need to be seatbelted. The same rules apply that would apply in a car.”
One of the biggest frustrations for Tokajer and other law enforcement officials on the Island is that some users may not realize the danger of not taking the proper safety precautions when driving or riding in one of the smaller vehicles. An LSV weighs significantly less than a motor vehicle, is much smaller and does not have the same safety equipment, including air bags, doors and windows.
“We’ve really tried to educate rather than just write tickets,” Bradenton Beach Police Lt. Lenard Diaz said. “We try to tell people that if you look in the rearview mirror and see you’re backing up traffic, pull over to the side safely and let traffic pass. The issue we’re having, though, is that people are not pulling over and stopping, but rather pulling into the bike lane and waving people around them. This is not only illegal, it’s dangerous for anyone using the bike lane.”
Diaz says pulling over and letting traffic pass if you can’t go a reasonable speed is not only the courteous thing to do but it’s also the law.
LSV drivers can be cited for impeding the flow of traffic if their vehicle doesn’t go at least close to the posted speed limit. On Anna Maria Island, all of the city of Anna Maria has a 25-mph posted speed limit. In Holmes Beach, the speed limit is also 25 mph with the exceptions of Manatee Avenue and East Bay Drive where the speed limit is 35 mph. In Bradenton Beach, many city streets have a speed limit of 25 mph, though sections of Gulf Drive have a 35-mph speed limit.
Typically, low-speed vehicles travel at a top speed of 25 mph, though that speed can be affected by a number of circumstances including the size and type of the vehicle and the number of passengers. In Holmes Beach, golf carts – the unlicensed type that are built primarily for use on golf courses – are permitted to be driven on city streets by residents only. Any rental vehicle on the Island, despite looking like a golf cart, is required to be an LSV, which has a license plate and is registered with the Florida Department of Motor Vehicles.
LSVs are not permitted to be driven across the Anna Maria Island Bridge on Manatee Avenue and down through the Palma Sola Causeway Beach area to the mainland due to an increase in the speed limit to 45 mph. Whether or not the vehicles are legally permitted to cross the Cortez Bridge leading from Bradenton Beach to the village of Cortez is still up for debate.
Diaz said his department does not patrol the bridge, so Bradenton Beach police will not stop an LSV from crossing in either direction. A representative from the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office, which patrols unincorporated Manatee County where Cortez is located, was unable to cite a local ordinance or state statute specifically stating whether or not the vehicles are allowed to cross that bridge.
“It’s important to remember though, that many of these rental agencies that rent out the carts have their own rules about where they can go,” Diaz said. “I think some of them don’t permit the carts to leave the Island. While the rental companies should make sure every renter is well-versed on all of the rules regarding the carts, in the end, as far as our department is concerned, the driver is responsible for their decisions and their knowledge of the laws and rules. They’ll get the ticket, not the rental company.”
Almost all the rental vehicles on the Island have GPS transmitters on them, so anyone violating the rules could suffer consequences such as having their rental contract terminated. Also, both Diaz and Tokajer agree that driving an LSV across the Cortez Bridge is dangerous because there is no shoulder and a collision could be deadly.
There have been multiple accidents involving LSVs on the Island, ranging from a near-fatal accident last year in Holmes Beach to more than one collision in Bradenton Beach in the past six months.
“Remember, when you come here, just live on island time. Take it easy, enjoy your surroundings and don’t rush,” Diaz said. “Do that, and you’ll get where you’re going safely.”
