Get carts on your community roads

Tell your local lead­ers: It’s time for carts!

Indi­ana allows golf carts on pub­lic roads – with some lim­i­ta­tions – as long as the dri­ver is licensed and the cart is ​“street legal.” But it leaves it up to each local­i­ty to give permission.

More and more Indi­ana towns and cities are pass­ing laws to allow golf carts on their streets. But many haven’t yet done so. If you live in one of these com­mu­ni­ties, speak up! Tell your elect­ed offi­cials about all the ben­e­fits that golf carts can bring:

• Carts encour­age old-fash­ioned social inter­ac­tion. Unlike an auto­mo­bile, which iso­lates its occu­pants, carts are open to the air, so you can wave at neigh­bors as you pass by. Want to stop and chat? Easy, just pull over – carts take up far less space than a car, and they’re easy to park.

• They’re way more afford­able. Buy an elec­tric-pow­ered car for as lit­tle as $4,500 used or $8,000 new. And that’s a com­pelling rea­son to pur­chase a cart for short trips and leave the truck in the driveway.

• They’re per­fect for seniors, peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ties, and oth­ers who don’t or can’t dri­ve reg­u­lar vehi­cles. High­ly maneu­ver­able and easy to oper­ate, golf carts can help peo­ple main­tain their inde­pen­dence and mobility.

• They’re bet­ter for the envi­ron­ment. Elec­tric carts are ​“zero emis­sions” vehi­cles and can replace cars for stop-and-go trips to near­by con­ve­niences. These short trips are the ones that cre­ate the high­est amount of pol­lu­tion from cars.

• Carts can reduce traf­fic con­ges­tion, elim­i­nate the need for larg­er park­ing lots, reduce speeds in your down­town areas and cut down traf­fic noise.

• They’re safer to dri­ve than cars. And that makes the streets safer – an impor­tant con­sid­er­a­tion when inex­pe­ri­enced or elder­ly dri­vers are on the road.

• Cart-friend­ly com­mu­ni­ties offer prospec­tive res­i­dents anoth­er great rea­son to move to town. And that’s a big plus.

• Carts can help fos­ter a bet­ter qual­i­ty of life. Carts slow the pace of liv­ing, are fun to dri­ve and make peo­ple hap­py. And when peo­ple are hap­py, their neigh­bor­hoods are friend­lier and more close­ly knit. And great neigh­bor­hoods make your town a bet­ter place to live.

So, let’s get your com­mu­ni­ty on the road to an enhanced, cart-friend­ly future. Con­tact your local offi­cials today.