Bicycles and Golf Carts
 

After browsing through the comments regarding sharing the special use paths between golf carts, bicycles and walkers/joggers and the numerous comments about helmet usage I felt inclined (after 12 years here ) to make my first post. I golf, cycle and walk/jog on these paths, as most of us do.

Golf carters: Exercise patience and understand that you don't own the paths any more than bicyclists and walker/joggers do. You are still going to arrive at your destination more quickly than the other two groups. The paths were not designed for rally races. You have the option, at a reasonable cost, to make your cart street legal where you can then risk becoming victimized by much larger and faster vehicles if you so choose. You may even want to take up a crusade to make motorcycle helmets mandatory while driving your cart among the much heavier and faster traffic on the street. Better yet, for safety's sake make it full face helmets so you can get the full effect of how a head bakes in a helmet in 90 degree Fla weather. An alternative might be to leave a little earlier and enjoy the beautiful outdoors with your windshield down and head in the wind...and try using a friendly wave and smile instead of a racing engine and horn on these shared paths like 90% of all Villagers do which makes it more pleasant for all.

Bicyclists: Stay on the paths but stay to the right when being followed by a faster cart in areas where passing is possible. Feel free to wave carts by in areas where you feel it's safe to do so. There's more room on the many open paths than there is when crossing the Sumter bridge for sure. I courtesy wave carts by all they time when I'm cycling and appreciate them doing so for me when I'm in a cart. I like to know when cyclists are comfortable with me passing when there is reasonable yet somewhat limited space. Just keep as much distance as you can. Note: The proof is in the pudding. I've never been hit and have never hit anybody in 12 years. It works! And I've only personally witnessed one such contact accident in my 12 years here, which was minor.

Walkers/joggers: You have safe options to move to the well groomed grass in many areas. Enjoy it. There are very few bugs and chiggars down here like there are up north and it's actually more exercise walking in the grass occasionally. After decades of jogging on two lanes roads with no little or no shoulder up north I feel like I've died and gone to heaven down here. Enjoy the grassy areas occasionally and when appropriate so faster folks on bikes and in carts can more easily get by. Since you don't have a horn, try the wave and smile that most Villagers deploy. Believe it or not, for the few of you who don't use the proven smile and wave technique, it will make your experience more enjoyable too.

Mandatory Bicycle Helmets: How about making that a matter of personal choice for all adults? People have different risk tolerances. Let's respect that. The more we "blanket mandate" individual choices the more unintended consequences and arguments seem to arise. Next we'll have mandatory knee armor, eye-ware or shoulder pads. It rarely ends when we begin mandating as opposed to letting adults make their own choices about outer-ware. Engineered safety enhancements are great but we should be careful of the differences between that and over-reach which extends to mandating outer-ware. There is usually no end to such regulation except the likelihood that we will ultimately end up with 20% happy and 80% upset.

Now you've done it. You wrote something reasonable.