Open this photo in gallery:
Golf carts line Spanish Springs Town Square in the Villages, a retirement community in Sumter County, Fla., June 30, 2019. Some 60,000 carts ply the neighborhoods, which are laid out so the roughly 120,000 residents can meet all their shopping, medical and entertainment needs without a full-size vehicle.EVE EDELHEIT/The New York Times News Service
Where is it legal to drive a golf cart on the road? Having a vehicle like that would make it easier to run some errands and pick up my kids or times when the trip is short and the minivan seems like way too much car. I know there are large e-bikes that can carry kids, but I’m not super keen about that option. – Katherine, Dundas, Ont.
Ontario is taking a swing at letting golf carts on public roads – but only in three small lakeside towns.
As part of a 10-year pilot program that started in 2021, the province allows golf carts on roads with speed limits of 50 kilometres an hour or less on Pelee Island in Lake Erie, in Huron-Kinloss on Lake Huron and in the Lighthouse Cove community in Lakeshore, about 325 kilometres southwest of Toronto.
Everywhere else in Ontario, golf carts are only allowed on private property.
In 2024, there were 186 golf carts in the pilot program, including rental carts for tourists.
They’re only allowed on roads from April 1 to Nov. 30. To drive one, you need a valid driver’s licence – and you’re not allowed to ride with kids under eight years old.
The carts can’t be capable of going faster than 32 kilometres an hour, can only be driven in the right-most lane and must have a slow-moving vehicle sign.
How do I sign up?
So, if you don’t live in a tiny tourist town, what are the chances of your town or city joining the pilot so you can take a golf cart to Costco?
Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation (MTO) said the pilot isn’t open for general applications.
“[We] may review new requests where there is demonstrated municipal interest,” MTO spokeswoman Julia Caslin said in an e-mail.
The province rejected a 2023 request from the town of Amherstburg, about 30 kilometres south of Windsor, to allow golf carts on Bois Blanc Island in the Detroit River.
The city of Hamilton, which includes Dundas, said it’s not considering joining the pilot “at this time.”
“[The pilot] makes sense for those communities who are currently participating since they are relatively self-contained and recreational [or] seasonal-oriented,” Steve Molloy, acting director of transportation planning for the city of Hamilton, said in an e-mail.
The golf cart pilot is separate from a pilot allowing low-speed vehicles (LSVs) – small EVs not capable of going faster than 40 kilometres an hour – on roads with speed limits of 50 kilometres an hour or less. The LSV pilot, which is running in Toronto, Ottawa, Lambton Shores and Haldimand County, doesn’t include golf carts.
At the forefront?
Although MTO is tracking all collisions involving golf carts in the pilot, it’s not releasing the numbers publicly.
Golf carts in the pilot don’t need insurance or licence plates, but drivers have to follow the rules of the road and local bylaws. Golf cart drivers impaired by alcohol or drugs could face charges under the Criminal Code of Canada.
Golf carts are banned from public roads across Canada, although some provinces allow them to cross certain public roads briefly to get from one part of a golf course to another.
But three provinces – Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia – also have pilots allowing golf carts on public roads in some towns.
Unlike in Ontario, they only allow golf carts to be driven on public roads during the day.
In Alberta, golf carts are allowed in 18 rural towns under a five-year pilot that started last fall. Drivers must be 14 or older but don’t need a driver’s licence.
So far, the province hasn’t received any reports of injuries, collisions or complaints, Alberta’s Transportation Ministry said in an e-mail.
Curtis Schoepp, the mayor of Whispering Hills, a lakeside summer village about 165 kilometres north of Edmonton, said last year that residents were already using golf carts before the pilot made them legal on the road.
“All they’re doing is just driving to their neighbour’s 100 feet away or to the beach or whatever, right?” Schoepp told The Canadian Press. “So this just makes it more convenient.”
To drive a golf cart on public roads in the pilots in Saskatchewan and B.C., you need a valid driver’s licence and liability insurance.
In B.C., golf carts are only allowed in the village of Chase, about 60 kilometres northeast of Kamloops. They’ve been allowed on some streets there since 2016, despite some initial pushback from locals.
In the U.S., a number of states including Arizona, Florida and Hawaii, allow golf carts on public roads with lower speed limits.
Open this photo in gallery:
Drivers are reminded to watch for people using “low-speed vehicles” in the Villages, a retirement community in Sumter County, Fla., June 30, 2019.EVE EDELHEIT/The New York Times News Service
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