Be Very Careful at the Gates
 

DANGER AT THE GATES
You need to be extra cautious going through the gates here in The Villages, especially the gate at Miona Recreation Center at Buena Vista and Bailey Trail. I guess I am just not a very attentive and careful driver. Several times I have come up the resident gate, had the crossing arm raise, go through and almost get hit by a car that came through on the visitors’ side. The gate attendant, I would think, would make certain that only one car at a time went through either of the two gates. But many times, I have approached the gate with no other car behind me, had my crossing arm raise up and, voila, I was almost side swiped by a car on my left. The gate attendant raised the gate either simultaneously with my gate or immediately after my gate started opening. Be very, very careful. I just be the only driver to have this happen or, I am sure that the attendants would have been given specific instructions against this possible, dangerous situation.
:boom:

The visitors gate opens by hitting a red button I believe, the attendant does not open them. Many gates have a merge like this plus you can have carts crossing.

The visitors gate does open with the red button, but if the gatehouse is manned by Community Watch, the gate attendant opens the visitors gate when vehicles use the visitor lane.

This may happen if the gate sensor does not detect the previous car passing through.

The gate stays up and the next car triggers it to lower when passing through the gate when up.

Always use the card or button if the gate is up.

And some visitor gates that are unattended are in "construction mode" - they will raise automatically when a vehicle activates the sensor pad with no button push required (Marsh Bend gate behind Magnolia Plaza). Always have to be careful merging at those since the visitor side can get thru quicker than the resident side, even if the resident side vehicle was ahead when arriving at the gate.

The gate attendants don't have a clue and don't time the gates very well.
Yes, you need to be very careful when there are 2 gates.

Some people are in a hurry and don’t care about you. They are old and don’t have much time left on earth. I agree attendants could use a little more caution, they are making a bad decision.

It's called defensive driving. You have to be aware of what is happening around you and prepare to take necessary actions to avoid a collision. You know that there might be traffic on your left side while going through the gate, watch out for it. Don't depend on the gate guard to keep you out of trouble, that's your responsibility.

The attendant at the gates can (and do) open them.

What do you consider old?

Someone that lives North of 466A. :1rotfl:

Anyone age 50 and older. The 40’s were the best!

Finally, the voice of reason. Its easy to blame others and not take responsibility for yourself. No matter if the guard opens the gate or not, I always check and merge properly. TV needs alot of attention by drivers with all the golf carts, bikes and gates around. Pay attention and you wont need a guard to let you know when its safe to pass through

All of us. Some of us just don't realize it yet.

Residents can use either gates. Use the visitor gate if you're having problems with the resident gate. I've lived in The Villages for 14 years now, and I rather go through the manned gate. Most residents don't realize they have that choice. The visitors don't have a choice. The gate keeper is supposed to watch both gates, make sure traffic doesn't back up into the round-a-bouts and if there is time, check the golf cart crossing too. Since it is the resident gate that is most often crashed thru, I think we can see where the problem is.

Wisbad, hopefully you too will someday be old with not much time left.

There are some very rude drivers out there who will travel through the vistor gate, attendant or not, and try to get ahead of the person who was at the gate before they pulled up.

If you have to accelerate quickly to beat the vehicle in the resident lane then you are a jerk.

IF you're in your golf cart, it's you who should be watching and doubly careful crossing by the gates. Cars have the right of way and not the carts, despite all the folks who think otherwise. To try to beat a car could be tempting an accident. I don't feel it's up to the attendant to keep the cars from hitting you. As someone else stated it's called "defensive" driving!

Never assume, you check anywhere and anytime you are merging with traffic. You scare me.

Worse yet is the rude lazy driver who piggybacks the gate as to u go through. They are to lazy to open their window and push the button so they attach their front to your rear and get through the gate with you. Now what happens when you have to stop short for the defenseless rabbit crossing in front of you on the otherwise if the gate? Best us as they are trying to get through on your tail they get annoyed and honk for you to move!.Gates are a waste. One car at a time . That I s what the sign says. Reading the sign? Nope just doing what they want.

This wins post of the day! :bigbow:

Too many people forget that it's their responsibility when they drive not to get into accidents. Also too many people forget that there's something called your neck and your head and your eyes. Your head is attacked your neck which acts as an operating place to turn and swivel. Your eyes act as a connection to your brain which should tell you when it's safe to go and not to go and if you going to the gate and not looking to your left also and to your right you're not driving correctly. By the way when you go through the gate you don't oil you put your foot on the gas and go not one mile an hour not five but 10 15 and 20 to get the way from the entrance. It's the same thing with the traffic circles it's up to you to decide whether it's safe to merge or not merge or exit. And by the way there's this thing on your hands called fingers, they are there to push your turn signals up or down to tell other people you're going to go to the left or right not too many people remember how to do this after all it's been 50 years for you since you've had drivers ed I think every year you should have a refresher course cuz I always say no one in The villages understands we have all these wonderful electronic lights on our cars telling other people what the hell we're going to do

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No matter what YOU are still the DRIVER of the vehicle. You never give up that responsibility. Residents use their card or push button to open the Resident gate and enter. Gate Attendants lift the visitor's gate. The gate arms are usually in different positions so that the resident side has a shorter length to drive when entering, than the visitor. If all is equal this allows for traffic to be able to merge in an orderly manner. However, if the resident opens the gate and then delays moving &/or the visitor hits the gas, all bets are off. Yes the attendant should be attempting to blend the movement of both lanes but YOU ARE STILL THE DRIVER.:welcome:

I definitely agree with everyone saying defensive driving is a necessity, ALWAYS.

This has happened to me several times at a gate. Not realizing there was a car in the Visitor lane, it’s scary. They drive by with high speed and you can easily be sideswiped. You have to be very aware driving in TV.

It always amazed me that the gate attendants are clueless about this kind of situation. What exactly are they getting paid to do?

If the "other drivers" bother you because they don't follow the rules or drive with consideration then.... get a very large old beat up truck and ignore those "other drivers". You probably won't have any issues with them encroaching on your space. If a crummy big truck isn't your thing then just let the "jerks" go... sooner or later they'll get their due.

I use the Bailey trail entrance by Lake Miona quite often. It seems as though the gate keeper will raise the "visitors" gate as soon as a vehicle appears. This lets the one coming through the visitors gate just keep on coming. I have had your experience several times.

Are you a really slow driver? If so that could be one reason this happens. When the same thing happens to a person over and over its often that person's own behaviors that contribute to the problem. Not that its bad to drive slow, but it does cause issues for other drivers.

I have noticed this at this same gate. Since it has an attendant that is who opens the gate! It is really bad at Morse and 466. They used to stop drivers at the guest line and ask them some questions. It kept people who were not guests from going straight through and slowed things down. It is dangerous now!

The issue isn't the slow drivers. It is the rude drivers with the lead foot.


Sometimes they maybe are being defensive and making sure you are not going to race them out of the gates.

There is nothing wrong proceeding in the visitor lane once the gate opens just do it at a reasonable speed and so that there is time to react if the driver in the other lane who is ahead of you also starts to drive forward.

Amen!

This is by far the worst in the Villages.

The other big problem there is when the attendant spends too much time answering questions and the traffic backs up to 466.

That same thing happened to me last week. I was surprised when I looked over and another vehicle was right next to me! Scary!

At our Hillsboro gate on the Buena Vista entrance the attendance do a great job of gate control during the heavy traffic part of the day when all the contractors are coming in and out of our entrance.

I usually have people tailgate me through the automatic open gates, but yesterday I had someone tailgate me through the gate when I used my gate pass. I didn't think this was possible, but it happened. Gonna be a little more cautious in the future.

They are paid to answer questions visitors might have, not to act like a traffic cop. You are responsible for your own safety.

The streets in TV are public (that means tax payer financed) roadways. TV does not have the legal right to stop and question anyone who wants to drive on those streets.

Really? The guard is expected to stop and question why some one wants to enter the village but isn't supposed to back up traffic? How is the guard supposed to do that??

Gate attendants don't ask people questions, they answer questions from drivers.