One of the things that attracted us to the Villages is the fact that you can get almost anywhere in the community by golf cart. Shopping, restaurants, medical facilities, and recreation centers are all as accessible as the country clubs and golf courses. The smaller roads are shared by cars, golf carts, bicycles, and pedestrians. Along most of the larger roads, there are dedicated cart/bicycle paths or cart/bicycle lanes. But beyond that, there are recreation trails that golf carts may use as short cuts to get from one place to another.
Many people come to the Villages, get a golf cart, and off they go without knowing the rules and how to use the system. Golf carts are not toys, but they also are not made for road travel. If you don't know what you are doing, you can easily tip them over and get seriously injured. If you don't know the rules, you may find yourself in an altercation with a car, and the car will always win.
The Life Long Learning College offers a 90 minute class called "Get There By Golf Cart," so we signed up for it. This class talks about the rules covering what is legally a golf cart (top speed 20 mph). If you are caught speeding in a golf cart, it means it is not legally a golf cart. You can be charged with driving an unregistered, uninsured vehicle in addition to the speeding ticket.
The other thing the instructor talked about is the roads, paths and trails a golf cart can use around the Villages. These are not shown on any published map, but he has created a web site that shows where all these are. The web site is CartingTheVillages.com. This is a great site, based on Google maps and annotated with all the recreation centers. It clearly shows all the paths, what kind of path each is, where the tunnels are to cross busy roads, and how to get from point A to point B.
I recommend that everyone who is new to the Villages attend this short class. We love the golf carts, but we also love our lives and need to stay safe.
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