Please don't stop at the gates.

[Talk Host]

This morning at the Calumet gate, the driver ahead of me used his card to lift the gate, then he proceeded forward. I did the same. However, the car ahead of me, smashed on his brakes to wave a golf cart across in front of him. If I had hit him (like I almost did), it would have been my fault.

Nice gesture on his part, but very dangerous. If I had hit him, I would have pushed him into the cart. :redface:

[redwitch]

See this happening all the time. My favorite was when the car stopped, waved the cart to go through and the guy in the cart actually got out of his cart to read the driver the riot act on stupidity. Had my top off so could hear every word. Was even worth turning the radio down for. I loved it!

[Bryant]

Wish I could have heard that. The same thing happened to me at the Piedmont gate. The gate actually came down on the top of my car because the jerk in front of me stopped to let a golf cart pass. Whenever I am a passenger in a car and the driver looks like they are going to stop for a golf cart, I tell them to keep going and relay what happened to me. The response usually is "oh, I never thought of that".

[Taltarzac]

Some stupidity quotes:

Bertrand Russell:
"Most people would die sooner than think; in fact, they do."



Bill Cosby:
"A word to the wise ain't necessary, it's the stupid ones who need the advice."

[cabo35]

Talk Host....you have nailed the biggest safety hazard at Village entrance gates. In Bridgeport Lake Sumter they put golf cart speed bumps at the entrance roadway and a large cartpath sign that says vehicles have the right of way. I know some, but not all, Village entrance gates have similar warnings. Would you believe that vehicle operators still routinely do exactly what you describe. I am confident that the posters in this forum are way too hip to be that careless.

What would it take to get the local radio station to run some short safety briefs on this issue?

Thanks for the post.

[Muncle]

See this happening all the time. My favorite was when the car stopped, waved the cart to go through and the guy in the cart actually got out of his cart to read the driver the riot act on stupidity. Had my top off so could hear every word.

Don't you think that might have been a bit dangerous. You sitting there with your top down ~~ the guys in the golf cart and the cars staring at your pulchritude. :yikes: Somebody's going to cause big delay, if no an accident. :hot: :2excited:

[Russ_Boston]

It took almost a year but someone (Muncle) used a word that i had to look up.

pulchritude - physical beauty

Learn something new everyday!

[MikeH]

Why is it that people move to another state (FL in this case) and don't think to learn traffic laws? Maybe they never learned them, especially, who has the right-of-way. It's one thing to be courteous and something else to be an accident waiting to happen. God help us all!

[tony]

The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.
Albert Einstein

[Sidney Lanier]

The courtesy 'game' doesn't work when people allow it to supersede the rules regarding right-of-way. I see this all the time too. If we are to yield the right-of-way to the person on the right, then we MUST accept the right-of-way when we ARE the person on the right. IMHO, people who think they are being courteous while driving when they are actually creating a potentially dangerous situation are dealing with personal issues unrelated to driving....

[jjdees]

The one that drives me nuts is when people making a right turn give the right of way to people making a left when facing each other at an intersection. Even worse, a lot of people making a left turn onto two lanes think they have the right of way for the left hand lane over those making a right. As was said somewhere along the line, you can't fix stupid.

[tony]

Ignorance is curable. Stupid is terminal.
Tony

[Muncle]

Ignorance is curable. Stupid is terminal.
Tony


"Stupidity cannot be cured with money, or through education, or by legislation. Stupidity is not a sin, the victim can't help being stupid. But stupidity is the only universal capital crime; the sentence is death, there is no appeal and execution is carried out automatically and without pity. "
Excerpt from the notebooks of Lazarus Long,

[jjdees]

Lazarus Long for President!

[tony]

Lazarus for president?? I say Tony for President!!
:o

[rdkent]

jj - there probably aren't that many Heinlein fans out there, but I agree with you. Except Lazarus would probably turn in down.

[Floridagal]

I had the same thing happen to me coming through the Sunset Point Gate.

I also have a problem with the guards letting in cars on the visitor's side when a car is coming through the resident gate. I complained so many times and nothing is being done. I guess they are waiting for an accident to happen.

I also had a golf cart go right in front of me as I was coming through the gate without even stopping at the stop sign.

[redwitch]

If not Lazarus, how about Michael Valentine Smith for President and Podkayne for VP? (Nothing like leaving out part of a name to make even me go HUH?)

As Forest would say, "Stupid is as stupid does."

[JRietz]

Nice gesture on his part, but very dangerous.
Had the person entering the Wales Place gate (North of the bridge on 441) made this gesture last year when my Mother was in the intersection, she would not have been thrown out of her cart when it was hit.

Everyone needs to pay attention...

Jim

[Talk Host]

Had the person entering the Wales Place gate (North of the bridge on 441) made this gesture last year when my Mother was in the intersection, she would not have been thrown out of her cart when it was hit.

Everyone needs to pay attention...

Jim


By law, all golf carts are to stop and yield to vehicular traffic. I'm curious, what was different in your mother in law's case?

[JRietz]

By law, all golf carts are to stop and yield to vehicular traffic. I'm curious, what was different in your mother in law's case?


It was my Mother, not in law... Anyway, the gate at Wales Place is very close to Paradise - like 30 feet. My Mother was more than half way through the intersection (she did stop before entering the intersection) when the gate went up and the person charged forward. This is a resident only gate, so I can only assume this person was a resident and well aware of golf carts traveling on roadways.

Jim

[zcaveman]

When I am traveling south on the cart trail from Springdale, I get to the Bellaire crossover. If the way is clear, I cross into the median (between the gates) and wait for the traffic to clear. Too many times people in cars stop and wave me across. I really am waiting for them to go. They have the right of way. It is the same when I am entering Springdale. I get to the median (between the gates) and they wave me across. Personally, if I am in the car and I see the cart stop, I keep going.


Some people do not understand the median concept. I was raised in Florida and that is the way it is done. You got a clear shot on one side and you moved to the median. When the traffic clears you cross overt the next set of lanes. through traffic goes first.

[Ooper]

One would think that when one buys a cart, there should be a list of laws and regulations given to them at the same time. Age limits, speed limits, rights of ways, permissable roads, etc... does not need to be real fancy, just a page or two. :read: This should be issued from every dealer, new or used carts. Also... are these rules gone over at the New Comers meetings.

[DDoug]

There are rules when you buy a golf cart.You answered them when you took your drivers test. I agree with all the above,don't try to change the traffic laws it confuses everyone

[Indy-Guy]

Our guest need to know the rules.

I always tell my guest what the program is so they won't do what they might think is the nice thing to do.

[swrinfla]

Ooper:

:agree:

So easy to do, so sensible to do, so much easier on everyone to do!

When I bought mt cart almost 3 years ago, I didn't get anything more than, "Here's your key, and here's how to make it go forward, and here's how to make it go backward!" I kind of suspected that "The Rules of the Road" would apply, but there were a number of times in the first couple of months when I didn't apply them properly!

I do not recall a word having been said at any Newcomers meeting of any sort!

SWR

[DENNIS G]

If you are going to give a cart the right away to cross at the gates, don't open the gate until they cross then proceed. That would be the most safe thing to do. Just use good common sense and follow rules of the road, they are not that much different from state to state.

If you are in your cart in the cart lane and going to make a left turn merge into the traffic lane to make your turn. I see so many people making left turns from the cart lane. I know of one person that did this and caused and accident. He got the ticket, not yielding right of way, $189.00 plus towing of his cart, damage to it and the other person's vehicle.

[rdmills]

Just think, in a couple of months the visitors, renters, and snowbirds will be heading north. Then all the chatter concerning traffic will die down until next year.

Have a great day in The Villages.

[pqrstar]

The Villages Homeowners Association hosts a "Golf Cart Safety Clinic" the 3rd Wed. of each month at 10:00 at Savannah Center.

There are always people there to answer your questions.
It is a very informative program.

[Talk Host]

Just think, in a couple of months the visitors, renters, and snowbirds will be heading north. Then all the chatter concerning traffic will die down until next year.

Have a great day in The Villages.


I'm not so sure about that. Traffic concerns in the Villages are pretty much a year 'round thing. Very few peopl ever stop for stop signs and the speed limit signs a just suggestions.

[Barefoot]

One would think that when one buys a cart, there should be a list of laws and regulations given to them at the same time. Age limits, speed limits, rights of ways, permissable roads, etc... does not need to be real fancy, just a page or two. :read: This should be issued from every dealer, new or used carts. Also... are these rules gone over at the New Comers meetings.


:agree: :agree: Couldn't hurt .. might help.