Golf: Florida residents appeal against illegal golf cart usage
Residents of Fort Myers have appealed to the authorities to commence a crackdown on illegal use of golf carts on the streets.
According to the state law, golf carts are not allowed on the streets and sidewalks except the course are the designated areas for them. Despite that, the residents of the area frequently use the vehicle to travel around in the vicinity.
A golf cart owner Susan Votow said, “In this neighbourhood, we use it as an alternative vehicle, to go from house to house, to visit neighbours.”
However, on the other side, Fort Myers City Councilman Forrest Banks and several other residents condemned the usage without proper measures.
Banks said, “We've even had near-accidents and we've probably had some accidents we don't even know about with younger kids driving them.”
Fort Myers resident, J. Stephen Ward said that having a golf cart was not the problem but the underage drivers that gained the attention.
Ward explained that children as young as 6 years of age were seen driving the vehicle on the streets of Fort Myers, which could turn out to be dangerous in the future.
The City Council has taken a notice of the issue after the public appeal and will conduct a workshop very soon to address it. However, there is a hint of resistance from several golf cart owners.
Votow is one of the several owners and according to her, there was nothing wrong in driving the golf carts on the streets as long as they were not using them on the highways.
Fort Myers Police Chief, Doug Baker said that there had been only one case in which a resident violated the rule and brought the cart on the street.
The issue of golf carts being driven on the streets is a critical matter and what makes it even more serious is the fact that children are driving them. Even the state law prohibits children from indulging in such activities. Let’s see how do the state authorities
cope up with the situation.
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