Street Legal in Georgia

[paintdude96]

well i heard that chatham county is going to rezone for golf carts . but anyways my town of port wentworth ga 31407 allows carts on the roads as long as you follow the law and ride with ur lights on and ride on the right side of the road . we get a group of us and go riding with our kids dogs and our coolers but make sure u put ur drink in a solo cup . we ride around with the major of our town and the police that are off duty .

[HiTechRedNeck]

Ga. Law..

Golf carts are legal on roads with posted speed limit 35 and under.

No registration needed.
You do need:
lights
Reflectors
hip restraints
horn

I probably missed something... please double check.

This is state law and applies when there is no local ordinances.(please double check)

Your HOA might just require registering with them to prevent just any cart from entering (gated community?)

LSV's (golf carts or anything that goes faster than 20mph and less than ??) need tag, insurance, 4 wheel brakes, seatbelts and lots of other stuff...

Your HOA needs an attitude adjustment



.

[Lakebit]

Originally Posted by HiTechRedNeck

Ga. Law..

Golf carts are legal on roads with posted speed limit 35 and under.

No registration needed.
You do need:
lights
Reflectors
hip restraints
horn

I probably missed something... please double check.

This is state law and applies when there is no local ordinances.(please double check)

Your HOA might just require registering with them to prevent just any cart from entering (gated community?)

LSV's (golf carts or anything that goes faster than 20mph and less than ??) need tag, insurance, 4 wheel brakes, seatbelts and lots of other stuff...

Your HOA needs an attitude adjustment



.

HiTechRedNeck - I tend to agree with your comments but as this is a private gated community, the POA board is afraid if a cart is involved in an accident they will get sued

Just wait until the EPA finds out that the POA is forcing us to drive fossil fuel vehicles instead of battery operated

I had not read of the four wheel brake requirement for golf carts, which I do not have, but my cart will do 22 mph on flat ground in south Ga. not around here up hill, and that is where the POA is concerned because our paid security force is not controlling the vehicle traffic exceeding the 35 mph posted speed limit Why deal with the real issue when you can put the blame on others and perhaps make some extra revenue

[HiTechRedNeck]

Don't see how they could be sued as Ga. State law ALLOWS golf carts WITHOUT registration/tag on streets with speed limit under 35mph.

This is not an issue that involves them.( Would they be sued if car with expired tag hits someone on their property?)

I am in Gwinnett co.

[jjance]

Here is an excerpt from an article concerning Low Speed Vehicles used on Signal Mtn GA.

The council also recognized that low speed vehicles that resemble golf carts fall under the category as regular automobiles and are allowed to travel anywhere that an automobile may travel and can be driven by a licensed driver at any hour of the day.

They left out the part about roads less than 35MPH

Again Golf carts and LSV's are two different vehicles.

[Lakebit]

According to the Georgia Department of Public Safety Georgia Code for Low Speed Vehicles.

Georgia%20Code_%20Low%20Speed%20Vehicles%20_%20Geo rgia%20Department%20of%20Public%20Safety.html

The Low speed Vehicles code covers All-Terrain Vehicles 40-1-1(3),Low speed Vehicles 40-1-1(25.1) electric four wheel vehicle whose top speed is > 20 mph - < 25 mph, Bicycles / Electric Assisted Bicycles, Mopeds and Motor Scooters, Motorcycles, Electric Personal Assistive Mobility Devices, Golf Carts 40-1-1(17.2) any motorized vehicle designed for the purpose and exclusive use of conveying one or more persons and equipment to play golf. It's average speed shall be less than 15 mph, and Personal Transportation Vehicles 40-1-1(43.1).

This indicates to me that once a golf cart exceeds 15 mph and driven on anything other than a golf course, it is classified as a Low Speed Vehicle.

If you go to the above web page, it has links for each of these vehicles codes and legal rights. Let me know if you understand the code any different than I

If I move out of this gated community, the law did give me rights to operate my cart, if it complied with the state regulations

However Gov. Deal signed a law removing the states responsible for enforcement and implementation and gave to local authorities

Just need to fine the right community

[kernal]

Originally Posted by Lakebit

According to the Georgia Department of Public Safety Georgia Code for Low Speed Vehicles.

Georgia%20Code_%20Low%20Speed%20Vehicles%20_%20Geo rgia%20Department%20of%20Public%20Safety.html

The Low speed Vehicles code covers All-Terrain Vehicles 40-1-1(3),Low speed Vehicles 40-1-1(25.1) electric four wheel vehicle whose top speed is > 20 mph - < 25 mph, Bicycles / Electric Assisted Bicycles, Mopeds and Motor Scooters, Motorcycles, Electric Personal Assistive Mobility Devices, Golf Carts 40-1-1(17.2) any motorized vehicle designed for the purpose and exclusive use of conveying one or more persons and equipment to play golf. It's average speed shall be less than 15 mph, and Personal Transportation Vehicles 40-1-1(43.1).

This indicates to me that once a golf cart exceeds 15 mph and driven on anything other than a golf course, it is classified as a Low Speed Vehicle.

If you go to the above web page, it has links for each of these vehicles codes and legal rights. Let me know if you understand the code any different than I

If I move out of this gated community, the law did give me rights to operate my cart, if it complied with the state regulations

However Gov. Deal signed a law removing the states responsible for enforcement and implementation and gave to local authorities

Just need to fine the right community

If you will look at the top of that page in your link, you will see that it references Peachtree City and it links to the PTC multiuse path rules for golf carts. You are correct that the state gov't basically left it up to individual municipalities and they referenced PTC as a model as to how to do it because we have been operating this way for many years. The state makes some rules and definitions and requires some signage. Manufactures have to be mindful of Federal regulations also.

The state defined what a golf cart is and coined a term (personal transportation vehicle) for golf carts and anything else that goes up to 20mph. But we users and the dealers still call them golf carts. In fact, there are hundreds of golf carts here that are configured for both and used as both at the same time and everybody considers them golf carts and most all of them are faster than 15mph.

LSV/NEV are vehicles that operate in the (up to) 25mph range. Most (not all) of these are essentially golf carts or golf cart derivatives. The EZGO 2five is an example. It's based on the EZGO RXV. It also meets FED requirements. In GA, this means you have to have a license to drive it, insurance and a tag just like a car. Also some equipment not typically found on golf carts. These are rare in PTC because you can't drive it anyplace where you can't use a regular golf cart.

To the best of my knowledge, there is no such thing as a "street legal" golf cart in GA. You can equip a golf cart to be street legal but you can't register it as such because it doesn't have a 17 digit vin number and there is no way to get one unlike some other states. Florida comes to mind.

I don't think the recently passed $200 fee for electric vehicles applies to LSV's. They weren't included in the tax incentives either but I'm not 100% on this.

I hope I didn't add to the confusion. I'm confused most of the time myself.

[Lakebit]

To the best of my knowledge, there is no such thing as a "street legal" golf cart in GA. You can equip a golf cart to be street legal but you can't register it as such because it doesn't have a 17 digit vin number and there is no way to get one unlike some other states. Florida comes to mind.

kernal this is my understanding also

Heard another report about the $200 tax on electric cars again this morning, report was not in depth but it sounded like it is for vehicles that do not purchase any fuel and use all public roads.

[kernal]

Golf carts are not included in this EV fee. The question is will LSV owners have to pay this fee. To date, I can't find any documentation that says they will. These vehicles are registered and titled as "low speed vehicles" so I don't think they will. The law is not in effect yet and no body has received a bill so we'll see.