State road agency will consider U.S. 19 golf cart crossings in New Port Richey
Golf cart users on the west side of U.S. 19 in New Port Richey might win permission to cross the highway after all.
After complaining to the New Port Richey City Council about new signs telling them they could not cross the highway with their golf carts, city officials met with representatives of the Florida Department of Transportation, City Manager Debbie Manns said at this week’s council meeting.
The outcome of the meeting was a recommendation that the city assemble information for the state agency to consider in weighing whether to approve designated golf cart crossings at Marine Parkway and Gulf Drive.
The bad news, Manns said, was that the agency representatives were fairly sure that a request for a crossing at Main Street would not be acceptable at this time. The city manager said that if the city can show a history over time of safe operations at the other crossings, adding another at Main Street could be revisited, possibly in a year.
Last month, Skip Geiger of Gulf Harbors complained to the City Council that the new signs saying crossings were not allowed were preventing residents of their community and others west of the highway from accessing downtown.
City officials immediately pointed out that the signs didn’t indicate a new rule. Golf cart crossings on U.S. 19 was always forbidden without the express permission of the Florida Department of Transportation.
The conversation sparked interest by State Rep. Brad Yeager, R-New Port Richey, who reached out to Mayor Rob Marlowe. Marlowe said that might be why Department of Transportation officials took an interest in the conversation.
On his Facebook page, Yeager wrote that the city officials “have agreed to do some very minor work to get this done. I will stay on all parties involved to make sure this is completed in a timely manner.”
Marlowe said that Yeager might even be willing to file a bill with the Legislature to make such crossings happen if the current method doesn’t work. While Marlowe said the city should also get a crossing at Main Street, the progress so far is “a step in the right direction.”
Manns said that the analysis of the crosswalks at those intersections and other traffic data required by the state agency was going to take a few weeks to compile but officials assured her that New Port Richey would get good state cooperation.
