Quote:
Originally Posted by Carl in Tampa
Peachtree City, Georgia, (the correct name) sounds like a really nice place. A little too far North for my taste, but it looks like a nice town.
Interesting comparison with The Villages, however.
Peachtree City has 90 miles of golf cart paths for a population of under 35,000 people.
The Villages has around 100 miles of multi-modal paths for a population of around 100,000 people.
Perhaps that demonstrates one rationale for not wanting to add more folks to our paths.
This is particularly in light of the February 2003 Golf Digest Magazine article about the traffic congestion caused by Peachtree City's golf carts in an article entitled "Golf Cart Gridlock".
But, again, what is really relevant is that a person who wants The Villages' lifestyle should buy a home in The Villages.
It's really that simple.
|
Carl, Always good to hear you chirp in on the conversation. Thanks for correcting the Peach Tree vs Peachtree. Yes it looks interesting up there in Georgia. I want to go up there and take a look one of these days. There have been some good points brought out in this thread and then there is always the garbage.
I live in Stonecrest and to set the record straight as I'm pretty tired of people putting words in my mouth. I really don't care if I have Golf Cart access to the Villages. I've been in the area for over 10 years and if I used my fingers and toes to count the number of times I used the gate when it was open I'd still have some left to continue the count. Its far easier to use a car and if I wanted to drive over using a cart I'd get a street legal cart. This comment wasn't for you Carl it was for someone else that keeps trying to tell me how I feel about this whole mess.
The fact of the matter in this discussion is you do not need the gate back open to use the paths in the Villages. All it takes is a street legal vehicle. You can convert a Golf Cart to street legal for around $1500 if you do the work yourself. Insurance runs about $140 per year. Once you do that all the paths to the villages are open for your use. Those people that wanted access have already made such a conversion either by doing the work or buying a new cart. Personally I do not know why they keep bringing up this point with the Village Management as they will never reopen the gate because that means access up at Fruitland Park which is one of the reasons this all started in the first place. Its also far more cost effective to use your car then pay all that money to get a street legal cart.
The additional traffic you may see now is from Spruce Creek as the crossing over 441 is now open. This however in my opinion is going to continue this battle as they now have precedence for crossing 441. I'm sure a point that will be made with the state authorities which are the ultimate authority in granting any crossing because 441 is a state highway. They make the final decision in the end as to yes or no for a crossing. They do petition the local authorities for their comments which has a great deal of influence. A fact I learned when I was helping to get the crossing up at Spruce Creek several years ago. Got frustrated with Tallahassee and gave up . Although it would be nice to be able to cross over at the Hospital via cart. There is a cross walk there I believe and a buss that is supposed to transfer people across on a regular basis. So there is a way to get across to the facilities if you have a doctor there. For the life of me I do not see why you would want to run a very slow vehicle all the way through the villages to the VA Facility. What a long uncomfortable ride. If I could not drive I'd call a cab. I would have to agree with the folks that see more here then what was said.
To those that throw the stones about using private property remember you do that every time you go to Wal-Mart, Aldi's, Lowes, or Cracker Barrel. You use Mr. Browns property to do so on 441. So you are just as guilty as those you accuse. Enough said there.
So I don't know why everyone is making such a fuss. One the gate is never going to be reopened, two the chance of the state allowing a Golf Cart crossing at the Hospital is maybe 50/50, and three if you want to ride around in the villages without living there buy a street legal golf cart or you can rent one at Spanish Springs for the day at a very reasonable price.
There is very little of a positive nature that ever comes up when some one starts one of these threads on Village Outside Access.