ELLENTON — Like many others who live in Colony Cove and neighboring manufactured-home communities, Lynn Mercer frequently drove her golf cart to supermarkets, drug stores and other nearby businesses along U.S. 301.
Now, she takes her car and leaves the golf cart at home — because she does not want to be ticketed for driving it on the sidewalk.
“It’s a $166 fine and three points on your (driver) license,” Mercer said Monday. “That’s a lot.”
That’s a penalty that she and other residents say they didn’t know they could face until July, when the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office notified them that driving golf carts on public sidewalks is illegal under state law.
Since then, deputies have issued several warnings but have not written any tickets, sheriff’s spokesman David Bristow said.
“It’s an educational campaign, and we wanted to let everyone know before we started writing tickets,” he said. “It’s state law. We’re just following state law.”
The crackdown has had a chilling effect, said Mercer, president of the Homeowners Association of Colony Cove.
She said most Colony Cove residents have stopped driving their carts on the U.S. 301 sidewalks, including one who now parks her cart at a fire station and walks up to a mile to reach a store.
“There are a few that are still doing it, but most aren’t because they’re afraid they’ll get a ticket,” Mercer said. “It is a major issue in Colony Cove.”
Now residents are hoping to change the law so they can legally drive their golf carts on the 8-foot-wide sidewalks that line both sides of U.S. 301.
They already have approached several state legislators and the Florida Department of Transportation, and plan to ask Manatee County commissioners for their support today.
Residents contend it’s a safety issue, especially in an area where a large percentage of residents are 55 or older.
“Some of our residents are no longer able to use their cars so it’s much safer for them to be on the sidewalk in a golf cart,” Mercer said.
Under state law, golf carts can legally be driven on streets within Colony Cove, Terra Siesta and other private mobile- and manufactured-home communities. They also are allowed on county roads so designated by the county; in Manatee, there are more than 100, mostly within golf-course communities.
Golf carts are illegal on state roads, with a few exceptions: To go across a state road that crosses a county road where they are allowed, or bisects a single mobile-home or manufactured-home community or a golf course. The golf cart crossing at U.S. 301 and Colony Club North/Coquina Drive, for example, is legal.
Another manufactured community in Parrish is hoping to get one at its main entrance, but is being told it will not get it.
The Florida Department of Transportation has turned down The Gardens’ request for a crossing at U.S. 301 and Chin Road/Palm Boulevard, saying it doesn’t meet any of the three exemptions.
Gardens residents said that will make it even more dangerous for them to cross U.S. 301 to reach a nearby Publix-anchored shopping center, even after a traffic signal is installed when the highway is widened to four lanes.
“It will be a hardship,” said Frank Look, a member of the community’s homeowners association board. “All they have to do is allow us to push the (crosswalk) button, the light changes, and go across. I don’t see what the problem is.”
The association, which successfully lobbied FDOT to install a traffic signal at the intersection, might join other communities’ efforts to amend state law regarding golf carts, its president said.
“Something needs to be done,” Isaac Yates said. “The law should be changed.”
Duane Marsteller, transportation/growth and development reporter, can be reached at 745-7080, ext. 2630.
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