Golf carts allowed on Fort Myers streets? Not so fast says city council

Safety won out over convenience as the Fort Myers City Council last week shied away from allowing golf carts on some of the city's public roads. The door is open to future approval of the golf carts and other, more nimble, transportation alternatives.

City Attorney Grant Alley told the council that there are both legal and policy issues to be considered before the city votes on allowing golf carts to ride on some city roadways, leading to a consensus to have the city staff develop a draft golf cart ordinance.

The issue will return as Fort Myers explores ways to ease transportation in a community where clogged traffic can be a fact of life on some streets. Even without local approval for a golf cart ordinance, some of the golf carts already operate legally.

"You will see a lot of these vehicles traveling on the roadway that look like a golf cart when they are actually qualified as low-speed vehicles, registered with the state of Florida,"  Police Capt. Shawn Yates told the council. "Those vehicles can operate on any street allowing traffic with speeds of 35 miles per hour or less.

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Micro-mobility: Other options

The public discussion about more golf carts on more roads comes as discussion grows about "micro-mobility."

Micro-mobility is defined by the Federal Highway Administration as the use of "small, low-speed, human- or electric-powered transportation devices, including bicycles, scooters, electric-assist bicycles, electric scooters, and other small, lightweight, wheeled conveyances."

A 2021 FHWA report on micro-mobility said it has the potential to  "create a more diverse, convenient, and accessible transportation network, which can provide more transportation options, reduce congestion, and improve quality of life."

"We have seen an onslaught of all types of micro-mobility on sidewalks and streets," Councilman Liston Bochette said. "We are really lacking the rules and regulations of how to use them, but it's coming, it is coming quick — we have parking problems, we have all types of situations that micro-mobility across the U.S., across the state is addressing."

Councilman Fred Burson took the lead in asking for a city ordinance to allow golf carts to be driven on appropriate streets with limited speeds.

Other restrictions could include not extending it to state and county highways within the city and ruling out local streets that would be deemed "inappropriate" to the open vehicles.

Golf cart use has gone beyond the the province of duffers or residents of 55-and-older communities seeking the landing spot of a wayward golf shot or seeing who is up for a game of pickleball.

It means golf carts are being used as transportation for different purposes. So far, a majority of the city council does not appear ready to expand their use on public roads.

While golf carts are the current issue, micro-bility goes beyond to  other modes of travel, most commonly the use of bicycles and scooters.

Council members Johnny Streets Jr., Teresa Watkins-Brown and Terolyn Watson were most reluctant to support the idea of allowing golf carts to join traffic.

"Our streets are congested right now. In the future it may be something that can be done, but right now with the congestion and deaths we have had in accidents on a continuing basis, it would not be for us to allow golf carts right now," said Watkins-Brown.

On-street golf cart dangers

The clamor for golf carts on public roads raises a whole new set of safety issues and risks to young people who may become involved in an accident involving one of the vehicles, which have fewer protections against injuries than automobiles.

Medical studies indicate that injuries from crashes involving golf carts often leave passengers with serious injuries.

A study reported in the Journal of Pediatric Surgery in 2020 concluded there is a serious danger to children riding in golf carts, noting that  "skull fractures afflicted 48% and traumatic brain injury was observed in 35% of children involved in golf cart trauma cases."

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The International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology — for doctors of eye, ear, nose and throat medicine — found  "children are more vulnerable to golf cart related injuries, specifically to the head and neck, than adults."

Responding to Burson's call for broadening the permissible use of golf carts, Streets spoke to his experience while serving on the city police force.

"You have never worked an accident between a truck and a golf cart," Streets said, addressing Burson. "It's a safety issue."

Bikes: Not just for kids

The lure of people to the growing downtown in Fort Myers is seen by some as a reason to make it more available by means other than a car. And parking downtown is becoming more expensive, with many parking fees being doubled.

Ezekiel Robbins, who chairs the city's bike and pedestrian advisory committee, called the redevelopment of Centennial Park in downtown Fort Myers "a wonderful asset that has been granted to residents who live in the community because it is about quality of life and access to the river," which could be made easier for bike riders.

"A lot of addition of sidewalks and bike paths throughout the city is a continual way of being able to get from point-to-point in our neighborhoods and throughout the city,"  Robbins said, addressing the city council. "We have talked about where to park bicycles. It is a continual process of figuring out where to place bikes."

The  movement toward greater use of bicycles goes beyond the Schwinn, Sears' J.C. Higgins or Western Auto Western Flyer brands remembered by generations of  another era.

Electric and other powered bicycles are becoming common. The city police department took possession of two electric bikes this month.

Centennial Park's make-over along the Caloosahatchee River downtown includes  a new public stage and outdoor amphitheater, a renovated indoor events center, a newly landscaped waterfront and a new children's playground with inclusive playground equipment to inspire youngsters of different abilities to play together.

Bochette, who has been active in encouraging alternative travel modes since rejoining the council, said individual streets could be used as a demonstration project for new and reinvented transportation options, including some use of golf carts  to see what might work — and how.

Burson, meanwhile, isn't giving up on making it legal for more golf carts on city streets.

"This is the same conversation that city council had around the early 1900s when we went from horse and buggy to automobiles," he said. "This is happening. I'm trying to add a level of safety."

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Fort Myers golf cart debate: Council puts brakes on decision