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.