[Michael 61]

Originally Posted by SIRE1

You are correct about the narrow MMP north of 466. But before we say "WHY DID THEY MAKE THEM SO NARROW", we have to look at a little history first. When we started visiting friends in The Villages in 2000 none of the carts had headlights and all carts had to be home before sundown. And there wasn't a Lake Sumter Landing or anything south of 466. There was just a rumor that something might be going in "down south" but it was just farm land.

So there was only minimal cart traffic on Morse Blvd from the few neighborhoods near 466 and the cart path was adequate. And there was minimal auto traffic going out that gate so crossing Morse Blvd in a cart was no big deal. Then Lake Sumter Landing and all of the development to south happened and all the traffic increased to what it is today. But, what is there was great at the time it was built.

As far as the bridge over Lake Sumter Landing, our friends told me that the narrow cart path was the result of an incident around Tampa (at least I think it was Tampa) where a walker was hit by a car crossing the bridge. So after The Villages started building the bridge, the government changed the regulations and required sidewalks to be installed on all newly built bridges. Even though the bridge was designed with a Multi Modal Path, which includes people walking, they had to put in a sidewalk. That meant the space originally defined as a MMP had to be reduced to the width it is today. And you go from a nice wide MMP on land to a VERY narrow MMP on the bridge.

But if you still want to explore the northern end of The Villages someday, try going up Buena Vista instead. All the paths leading up to that area are nice and wide and the landscaping is really nice. The Buena Vista area was built around 2001 -2003 when The Villages kept improving from what they had learned from the neighborhoods built when they jumped 441 and built Spanish Springs. And if you haven't seen it yet, there is even a POLO Field up there. And you can get into Spanish Springs and the historic section by taking El Camino Real from Buena Vista. So it might be worth another trip to the north country. Just a thought.

Thanks - still learning the geography north of 466 - I think I will try out the MMP on Buena Vista - I still need to check out First Responder’s Rec Center - so maybe that will be a golf cart ride there in my near future.