Golf carts are fun, but are they street-legal in Winter Park?

Here’s what to know to about legal low-speed vehicles and how to avoid fines up to $500

July 17, 2024

By Charles Maxwell

Once only used along Central Florida’s fairways and greens, golf carts are now commonplace on Winter Park’s brick roads. 

Residents like Jason Bristol find them a quick and easy way to travel to Park Avenue or even to Park Maitland School. 

“I bought my first one back in 2005, and I’ve owned a total of five,” said Bristol, who lives in Baldwin Park. “I’ve been using it so long, I know all the backroads and take it everywhere- I’ve even valeted it downtown (in Orlando).”

But not everyone is as educated as Bristol when it comes to using the street legal version of golf carts known as low-speed vehicles. 

That left city officials on a years-long campaign to make people aware of the difference and, more recently, for Mayor Sheila DeCiccio to ask the city attorney for a report on potential liability related to golf cart accidents. 

Winter Park police chief Tim Volkerson and the department are actively working to remove golf carts from Winter Park roads.

“We went through a period of time where there was an influx of [illegal] golf carts being operated on the roadway,” Volkerson said. “While I do not have specific numbers, the agency did conduct an enforcement/education period, which was successful in reducing those operating golf carts on the roadway.”

The city posted a guide for residents to help them understand the differences between the legal and the illegal versions. Drivers can face up to $500 fines for operating an illegal cart on the roadway.

The street-legal kind must have a Vehicle Identification Number and features such as a seat belt for each seat, brake lights, turn signals, side mirrors and a windshield. Owners are required to have insurance and register the vehicles and operators must have a driver’s license. 

They are permitted on city streets with a speed limit of 35 mph or less. 

Standard golf carts don’t have all of those features, can be driven by anyone 14 and older and in most cities like Winter Park, can only be used on golf courses. (Some places, like the Villages, allow golf carts on roads.)

Volkerson says there have been no cases of severe injury or death involving a golf cart in Winter Park. But DeCiccio has monitored the situation closely and heard complaints from some residents about golf carts and LSVs. 

In an article DeCiccio published last fall, she noted “the most common observation is the reckless driving and age of the drivers and occupants,” with residents claiming to have seen minors operating LSVs, with as many as six people per cart.

Bristol, who owns a street-legal cart and has five kids, said his family now much prefers taking their six-passenger LSV around town over their car. 

And he’s noticed plenty of other people seem to have the same idea. Once one of only a few residents with an LSV in his neighborhood, he’s noticed their use on the rise: “Literally everyone has them now.”

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