Dangerous / Stupidity Goes Hand & Hand
 

Another classic, dangerous & stupid move by a golf cart operator today. My husband and I were in the left lane stopped at the red light leaving Polo Ridge gate this morning. A four passenger red golf cart came up behind us, pulled out into the right lane to go around us and pulled in front of us to turn left onto the golf cart path rather than waiting for our stop light to turn green. I just don't understand how & why some people completely disregard the rules of the road.

Yes, you do see some mighty dumb moves like that. There are some people who would have taken off after that cart and tried to catch them to "teach them a lesson" about golf cart safety. Glad you did not try anything like that.

Just watch out for those snowbirds! Mostly very nice people but very low on golf cart operational skills!!

More likely renters than Snowbirds. Most regular Snowbirds have experience with golf cart. Watch out for new renters!

Not a day goes by without a wacky golf cart story. Yesterday, I came face to face with a golf cart going the wrong way in the round-about at the south end of Sumter Landing.:pray:

Hurry
 

You have to be in a hurry at our age. Need to get everything done, because you might die at any moment. :what:

Especially if you go the wrong way in a roundabout!

Wow!!!!!!! I sometimes wish, that no carts be in the roundabouts!!! All we can do is be defensive and alert.

Think the snowbirds are just fine driving their carts. So many drive back and forth from their other homes,that they still have good driving skills.Plus they might be a little younger. The ones that scare me,are the ones who live here year round.Tend to be a little older and do not have sharp driving skills.Very set in their ways. Next the renters,they do not know their way around. Full time residents for sure No.1

We have thousands of overworked Guardian Angels here in The Villages.
 

We all have our suspicions about WHO and WHAT group and WHERE they come from that are the worst drivers of both golf carts and regular cars. I think the prize goes to all ages and all frequency of inhabitants. We read on here that younger villagers are blaming older villagers or full timers blaming snowbirds, or older villagers blaming younger ones BUT NONE of us really know.

Here is what I do when I see bad driving. I tell my Sweetie about it and I tell him WHO I think it was and he does the same back to me.

Maybe one of these days we will have the demographics of the bad drivers documented. Right now we are relying on Darwins Theory to stay alive around here. So BE careful out there. The more of us there are here at the same time,the more BAD driving habits we see and the more we hear the sirens.

I am trying not to be one of the bad drivers or one of the statistics and I know you are too.....AND for the uninformed or illiterate: STOP signs are a definite rule, NOT a suggestion.

Be safe. I like all of your dear faces.

From my post,I was not blaming anyone of the groups that I mentioned.Just in "my" opinion what "I " thought.

A bunch of cars were backed up on Buena Vista yesterday, and going around a slow vehicle. Turned out to be a driver in a Street Legal golf cart, going about 20 mph, busy talking on his cell phone. Of course on BV, cars are going 35 - 40 mph. Boy, if you're going to putz along at 20 mph, and be on the phone and not paying attention, get on the recreational trails.

I was not the best of golf cart drivers when trying to get to the Sumter County Sheriff's Annex to pick up an Absentee Ballot and then take it home detouring through Southern Trace Shopping Center to pick up Dark Shadows at Publix's Redbox. There seemed to be many opportunities for wrong turns in golf carts around Saddlebrook and Polo Ridge.

I will have a little more compassion now for golf cart drivers not exactly knowing what they are doing considering all the U-turns I had to do yesterday.

Mainly, because I do not golf and am unfamiliar with just where the golf cart crossings are and are not.

And, so many golf cart drivers are in such a hurry out there.

is there a golf cart driving school??? We are closing NOV 16th and I have never driven a cart.. we have been to TV 3-4 times and I still cringe at the roaundabouts and hope I don't get rear ended cause I stop when I shouldn't...

This careless golf cart driver. did they have the footprints of a fulltime resident? Perhaps a snowbird or even a renter? Ahh Watson, no they were the footprints of a gigantic hound..... Sherlock Holmes

We hear this over and over again. Is it time for a "Villages Golf Cart License" and mandatory training in order to receive it?

I recently went to a physician that said to me, "I do not drive a golf cart here in the villages and I do live here. I want to put as much metal between me and the villagers." I guess the driving skills of those that live here is notorious. That wasn't in the DVD either. As I discover issues that were not in that imfamous DVD, I'm going to mention it. Don't want anyone to think I could have possibly fallen for all the hype. Yea, right.

Next up: DNA testing!!! :1rotfl:

:jester:

Bill :wave:

Driving a cart is easy. The hard part is learning to navigate all of the trails. Don't fret, just drive cautiously and when you get lost(and you will) there will always be someone stop to help redirect you. I

golf cart safety
 

[QUOTE=Jaggy;576143]is there a golf cart driving school??? QUOTE]

Here is an online golf cart safety brochure
http://www.districtgov.org/community...rtBrochure.pdf

Golf cart safety clinic
 

Golf Cart Safety Clinic : Presented by The Villages Homeowners Association on the third Wednesday of each month at The Savannah Regional Recreation Center. For information, call Joy at 352-750-5368

Interactive map of The Villages golf cart trails
 

Interactive satellite map of the golf cart trails by Paul and Arlene Emberger

CTV-Home

I've been commenting how happy I'll be to get away from the crazy traffic in Houston and HUGE trucks that seem to out number cars 2 to 1. From the comments on this thread sounds like things won't necessarily be any better - just different. I'll just pray for the best!

Sorry to say,golf cart training school will not help these drivers.Please no more talk of a golf cart drivers license. Just drive defensive and you will be allright.

Not yet a Villager.
Not trying to be a wise guy - but what do you need a golf cart safety clinic for?
Is not common sense enough? :confused:

Common sense is a rare commodity today, when it used to be a given.

Answer is easy. Some people are stupid even though it may no be polite to say so.

There are a lot of TV-specific things that people need to know when driving a golf cart around here. And they need to get that knowledge somewhere. One could have “common sense” and still not necessarily know how to safely navigate the roads and paths. There were plenty of things I didn't know about driving the cart when I first got here. As the guest of someone who had lived here for awhile, I was driven around and schooled on what I should and should not do, otherwise I might have made some potentially dangerous mistakes and I don't consider myself stupid or lacking in common sense.

Excellent answer in my opinion. I have driven golf carts for years and owned one in our golf community in Cincinnati, but that experience has nothing to do with driving one here and different than driving a car too.

Gracie, Do you miss your Ohio Cart?
Attachment 6279

Ah...memories.

I fully understand whether it be renters, snowbirds or yr round residents getting lost or being unsure which tunnel they should take to get to where they want to go. Each uf us are VERY familiar with our own village & surrounding area but sometimes we venture into new territory & that can be confusing. That being said, does not explain the careless, dangerous, foolish, "I am above the law" drivers that we all seem to encounter every day. I just so wish that golf cart operators would operate their cart as they would their auto. Stop means stop, use blinkers as well as hand signal, when needing to stop for texting or phoning, get off the path... the list goes on. Bottom line is FOLLOW THE RULES OF THE ROAD... YOUR GOLF CART SHOULD BE OPERATED AS IF YOU WERE IN YOUR CAR

For Newbies, the tricky part can be finding golf cart tunnels. You cannot cross a CR in a golf cart unless it is licensed. You must take a tunnel under the CR. If you don't know where the tunnel is, pull over and stop. Watch where other drivers are going.

Oh, and don't drive your car on multi-modal trails!

The cable guy
 

Because as Larry the Cable Guy said: "You can't fix stupid":rant-rave:

The answer to your question is: No-- as you will find out when you get here and start driving a golf cart on a regular basis. Taking the VHA golf-cart-safety class is definitely advisable. Recent POA Bulletins contain stories of horrendous golf-cart accidents, almost all of which were avoidable by the golf-cart driver.

The answer to your question is: No-- as you will find out when you get here and start driving a golf cart on a regular basis. Taking the VHA golf-cart-safety class is definitely advisable. Recent POA Bulletins contain stories of horrendous golf-cart accidents, almost all of which were avoidable by the golf-cart driver.

Great posts.. thanks to all.. I still may put a Student Driver sign on my cart ( If George will allow it.. hubby says I am crazy ( Heck I knew that !!! ) .

Okay - I am sure you are correct and when I come up there I will look intothe course. :wave:

From reading the POA paper re: accidents it generally seems "distraction and not paying attention" is what causes them to occur. The latest publication was a driver hit a curb and caused it to begin weaving resulting in the passenger to fall out caused the accident to happen, later the rider shared she was eating popcorn, so couldn't stay i the cart. Another was someone was driving at night and missed their turn and ended up hitting a gate arm and it's housing. When the cart jumped over the curb the driver fell out and was transport. I see carts that seem to be exceeding a safe speed as well so that also can contribute to any of the above. People just stop and use your thinkers. IF you have medical conditions that prohibit you from driving a car...wouldn't you think that you also shouldn't be driving a golf cart??