Golf Carts: The answer to the high cost of fuel?? (just might be!)

[tucson]

[b"The Villages Answer To The High Cost Of Transportation"!
We need to all write to both Presidential Candidates and invite them here to The Villages to see how well the GOLF CARTS are the answer to the high cost of driving our cars everywhere. It can be very easily solved by turning all the sidewalks in cities into golf cart/bike paths for those who want an alternative way of saving money and saving our environment at the same time. [/b]Obama & McCain come here and be inspired!!

[Taltarzac]

Maybe, we will start seeing these cars in TV? http://gas2.org/2008/03/12/apteras-26000-electric-car-and-300-mpg-hybrid-coming-soon/

[gfmucci]

[b"The Villages Answer To The High Cost Of Transportation"!
We need to all write to both Presidential Candidates and invite them here to The Villages to see how well the GOLF CARTS are the answer to the high cost of driving our cars everywhere. It can be very easily solved by turning all the sidewalks in cities into golf cart/bike *paths for those who want an alternative way of saving money and saving our environment at the same time. [/b]Obama & McCain come here and be inspired!!

Tucson - this is a great idea.* We also need to realize that there is a great deal of retrofitting of sidewalk infrastructure that would be required in other communities to allow the sidewalks to be golf cart compliant.* There are many state laws on the design of sidewalks, bikepaths, cart paths and Low Speed Vehicle (LSV) areas based on concerns about liability that would either have to be amended or complied with.* Oftentimes additional public right-of-way or easements are required to be able to widen sidewalks (typically only 4' or 5' wide) to the width required for other purposes such as golf carts.*

Nonetheless, this is a program worth pursuing for many communities but it does take a huge commitment in time and resources to accomplish. While this is a "local initiative" item, the feds could provide grants to local governments who meet certain guidelines for retrofitting their transportation systems in this manner.

[tucson]

Tucson - this is a great idea. We also need to realize that there is a great deal of retrofitting of sidewalk infrastructure that would be required in other communities to allow the sidewalks to be golf cart compliant. There are many state laws on the design of sidewalks, bikepaths, cart paths and Low Speed Vehicle (LSV) areas based on concerns about liability that would either have to be amended or complied with. Oftentimes additional public right-of-way or easements are required to be able to widen sidewalks (typically only 4' or 5' wide) to the width required for other purposes such as golf carts.

Nonetheless, this is a program worth pursuing for many communities but it does take a huge commitment in time and resources to accomplish. While this is a "local initiative" item, the feds could provide grants to local governments who meet certain guidelines for retrofitting their transportation systems in this manner.
I say, Amen to that!!! Think of all the millions of $$ that is wasted on other stupid projects that don't benefit people needs! We need to stop looking to the past ways of fueling our transportation needs and look to more practical & simple ways of transportation.

[beady]

Agree wholeheartedly. :agree: :agree:
We have a distinct advantage here in TV with our ability to access services in our carts. I have seen an increase in golf carts usage on the paths since the gas prices have been creeping upward.

[Sidney Lanier]

Definitely worth considering! At the same time, looking at human nature is amazing: I know I'm generalizing, but we have to have our backs to the wall and they're tying the blindfolds on us before we're inclined to do anything. For example, how quickly we forgot the oil crunches--the lines at the pump, the price increases--of the '70s, and when the auto industry began pushing SUVs, vans, and so forth, so many bought into it. Only now with gas at $4/gallon is there rethinking, and now that it's at $4 with people griping but not doing much about it, what's to stop it from going to $5, $6, $7? Where does it end? Boy, if we could turn off television in the country for 72 hours, THEN you'd get people out in the streets! IMHO....

[SteveFromNY]

Great idea for a small, tightly built community like TV where everything is within reach. And certainly a way to save lots of fuel. Not sure how it would work where it's freezing clod, icy, etc. Or where things are far apart. I don't imagine myself using one to go on a 50 mile round trip to pick up the kids at the school in the next town though. Probably has limited applicability for communities like TV. But for those places where it works, a great idea.

[tucson]

Great idea for a small, tightly built community like TV where everything is within reach. And certainly a way to save lots of fuel. Not sure how it would work where it's freezing clod, icy, etc. Or where things are far apart. I don't imagine myself using one to go on a 50 mile round trip to pick up the kids at the school in the next town though. Probably has limited applicability for communities like TV. But for those places where it works, a great idea.
Or we can be like the Europeans and walk or bike to do our grocery stores & other places, and also let our children walk to school like we used to. I walked about 5mi. a day, plus we took buses, & it didn't hurt me at all.

[SteveFromNY]

Or we can be like the Europeans and walk or bike to do our grocery stores & other places, and also let our children walk to school like we used to. I walked about 5mi. a day, plus we took buses, & it didn't hurt me at all.

This country has too many wide open places for ideas like this to catch on easily. In Manhattan, people walk, bike, take cabs, buses, trains to get around. Many don't even own cars (long before gas prices rose garage prices rose enough to make it something only the rich could afford).
Outside the cities, we've built our culture around cars. Many people think nothing of driving an hour to do something. The cost of gas is now causing some folks to rethink automobile travel, but many have no choice. For instance, I still work, and I travel 30 miles each way to work in an area in NJ with no reasonable public transportation, save commuting into Manhattan and reverse-commuting out of Manhattan to Livingston, NJ, where I'd still have many miles to go from the train station to the office. This is a multiple-hour ordeal and I'd have to do it twice a day! Not really viable in my opinion to spend 6 hours a day commuting. 45 min to an hour each way is bad enough.
Tucson, are you from Tucson? How would golf carts or walking work there where things are so spread out? In 110 degree heat?
Again, where these ideas will work (walking, golf carts, whatever), it's great, but the country as a whole isn't equipped to deal with anything but automobiles.