For about a month, Hattiesburg City Council president Jeffrey George and Hunter White – who serves as the City of Hattiesburg’ engineering project manager – have worked on an ordinance that would regulate use of golf carts in the city, particularly on which roads they could be driven.
After presenting the ordinance to council members for review in early August, that document was unanimously passed at last week’s council meeting. The regulations go into effect on September 15.
I’m extremely excited to see the golf cart ordinance officially be passed by the city council, and I’m looking forward to it going into effect,” George said. “From the beginning, our main priority was the safety of our residents and those that are choosing to utilize golf carts to go around our city.
“So I think what people will see is this ordinance puts a heavy focus on making sure that each golf cart has the necessary equipment to be as safe as possible on our roadways.”
The first condition set out by the ordinance is that “golf cart” is defined as a motor vehicle that is designated and manufactured for operation on a golf course, is not capable of exceeding 20 miles per hour, and possess all the necessary safety equipment. “Low-speed vehicle” is defined as any four-wheeled electric or gasoline-powered vehicle that has a top speed of greater than 20 miles per hour but less than 25 miles per hour.
Every golf cart and low-speed vehicle to be operated on a public road or street in the city will be required in the city clerk’s office in Hattiesburg City Hall, at which point the owner will be issued a decal for the cart. The fee for that will go into the city’s general fund.
Any driver or operator of one of the described vehicles must have a valid driver’s license and insurance.
“I know a lot of people have been concerned about that,” George said. “That’s something that’s important to our residents, and with what state law says, we had to make sure that was in there.”
Registered golf carts and low-speed vehicles may be operated on public roads and streets in the city, except those that are Mississippi Department of Transportation highways, or those that have a speed limit of more than 30 miles per hour. Drivers are required to use only the outside lane of multi-lane streets and roads, and crossing is allowed only at an established traffic signal crossing or designated stop sign.
Golf carts and low-speed vehicles will not be allowed within the barricaded confines of any festival, event, or road closure where typical vehicular traffic is prohibited.
“I think one thing for a lot of people to understand is that state law pretty much outlines exactly what they expect from municipalities, when they pass these ordinances,” George said. “So there wasn’t much room for us to make decisions about certain things, but we were able to decide on the registration process and the amount of the registration fee, and then how we want to determine which roads would be off-limits to golf carts.
“Those things, I think, are good processes and reasonable things that everybody will be able to understand.”
