My wife and I have been riding recumbent trikes in The Villages practically every day since we moved here 3 years ago. We ride on the MMP trails, on streets within villages, over the bridges and through the tunnels. We've been far and wide within The Villages and have NO hesitancy about riding anywhere. Even though legal, we do not ride on busy streets such as Morse, Buena Vista, the 466s, etc. Only occasionally do we ride on busy streets which have cart lanes are next to regular traffic lanes, such as Hillsborough Trial.
The warnings above about constant threats from thoughtless cart drivers are overblown and likely from people who don't actually ride trikes on the MMP paths. Yes, there are times when an impatient cart driver passes too close for comfort, but those are extremely rare. Even slowly crawling up a bridge on our non-electric trikes, cart drivers have been courteous and patient. Only once did some lady (probably from NYC) impatiently honk her horn, and it was likely because she was 2 carts behind and didn't know we were there.
Some tips for safety:
- Basic safety: make sure you have a good mirror on your trike and watch it constantly. Your awareness of your surroundings is paramount.
- Basic safety: mount flashing lights on your trike, both front and rear, and use them.
- Basic safety: make you trike more visible with a flag or two. Most trikes are low enough that they need the flag to be more easily seen.
- Basic safety: AVOID blocking your hearing with streaming music, headphones, earbuds or whatever. You need to be able to hear those things around you ... and carts are getting quieter every day.
After all the basics, common COURTESY solves most other problems. You can almost always cooperate with cart drivers, other bicyclists and pedestrians to avoid conflict.
- Courtesy: as always, stay to the right. On the wider MMPs, there's plenty of room for other traffic to pass you. Delays for oncoming traffic are very rare and everyone is safe and happy.
- Courtesy: handle narrower MMP paths on one of 2 ways:
--- on those narrower paths with no curbing, you can often drop one wheel off the path onto the grass and thereby offer a following cart enough room to pass. Do it early (watch that mirror) and the following cart driver will see it as a courtesy. We often hear "Thank You" from those drivers. The long narrower paths through Chitty Chatty are an example of where this works well. We drop one wheel off onto the grass and the cart drivers drop one wheel off on their side as they pass. Everyone is safe and happy.
--- on the narrower paths that have curbs (i.e. short stretches along the Morse and Buena Vista MMP paths) AND are not wide enough for the trike and a cart, move to the middle of the path to avoid tempting a cart driver to pass in too narrow a space. These situations are very rare and we've found cart drivers very courteous because we give them as much room as possible when the path widens. Do NOT hog the path on wider paths or when not justified. That only frustrates the people behind you. Be courteous. This technique also applies to where the paths make a chicane near village entrance gates. Everyone is safe and happy.
- Courtesy, when approaching pedestrians, either call out "on your left" or use a bell. When 7 people are walking side by side, I'd like to use a truck's air horn, but use the bell instead.
Everyone is safe and happy.
- Courtesy: when approaching crossings and intersections EYE CONTACT is your best safety measure. After eye contact, often comes a nod about agreement on right of way. Everyone is safe and happy.
- Courtesy: when you see another cyclist approaching (remember that mirror) wave acknowledgement before they're close enough to announce their presence. Everyone is safe and happy.
Lastly, be aware of what traffic might be like when you go out for a ride. There's a magic hour right before the morning's first tee times where cart drivers are in a hurry. We can't make em get up and get their coffee early enough for a calm ride to the tee, but we can be aware that they'll be coming fast and furious. Late afternoons offer a larger number of cart drivers who have already had their happy hour. WATCH for them. Saturday mornings, especially the Strawberry Festival day can be busier than usual around the squares, and climbing the snakelike curvy and steeper than normal path up the Brownwood bridge isn't good on a festival day.
With nearly a thousand days experience, we really enjoy our trikes in The Villages. Be smart and careful and you will too.