Watch out for the 4-way stops when you are in a golf cart. On 2 occasions I have been at the one where you leave the shopping center (La Plaza Grande?) to get onto Paige Place and when it was my turn to go, the car opposite me has turned left right in front of me as I was trying to go straight. The last time I had the presence of mind to blow the horn and the lady looked at me and smiled and waved as she cut me off and made her turn. I was waving both arms, but not in a friendly manner.

No use getting angry, I guess. I was happy that she didn't hit me, and she did smile and wave, so she was at least friendly. I've also witnessed the same thing happen to other golf carts at red lights.

Worst drivers
 

One day I saw a car coming out of the tunnel by the Bonnybrook gate!

You have to remember there are quite a few 'seasonal renters' in The Villages.
They are either lost or confused and do not know how to drive in The Villages.

Just be careful and cautious at this time of year.

Just wait until my Sharon gets to TV. She thinks turn signals are just clues to were your going, so she never uses them. She sees more middle fingers than a manicurist.I told her the way she drives i don't need to worry about my cholesterol.Just hope she stays away from the rotaries, and only uses her golf cart, or alot of villagers will get plenty of excitement and adventure.In Lexington , she has her own reserved parking spot at traffic court.Ajack, i think your luck is about to change !!!!!!

Ok......lets see if I can tick off some people.
Most large cities have terrible drivers....New Yawk, Bahstun,Chicago........then they move here and want to drive like they are in the city.
WAKE UP PEOPLE!!!! Slow down and use some sense when driving!!

Yesterday going to the medical complex from the detour on Morse roundabout in our golf cart, we met a lady coming at us in her car. We stopped her before she got into the golf cart section of the roundabout. That would have been a trick getting her out of there. She couldn't back out, she said, so we told her to turn around on the grass while we stopped other golf carts from entering the trail while she got back into the parking lot.

It hasn't been very long since I was that confused or worse trying to find my way around in TV, so I refuse to be angry when others screw up. I just try to help them if possible. At least she didn't hit anyone.

When I think of all the times I have made mistakes while driving, I'm thankful that none of them have caused accidents. I doubt there are many flawless drivers around. What irritates me is that a lot of people make mistakes and act like it is the other guys fault.

Ok then i saw the sweet woman driving through the Mcdonalds drive thru the wrong direction. They took care of her as I watched but was fearful had another caqr driven in at the time:shocked:

I applaud your attitude, Iandwk. Kindness, caution and assistance might help in some situation. Frustration, impatience and road rage cannot. Sure, I've been guilty of impatience and anger when another driver makes a mistake. But it's never done any good. I've also been guilty of making mistakes on the road. I've felt terrible, along with relieved at not causing an accident.

To my knowledge, the finger after the fact never has improve the situation.

Oh but if you are the one that was "wronged" it feels so good to give it just to release the stress thats built up in you ( even though the recipient didnt see you give it)!!!!

Folks it's that time of year. It will all clear up in April. Don't worry be happy!

This Happened Tonight
 

Heading south on Morse in right lane approaching gate at 466 that is already up from cars in front of me. Once thru gate I slow because of traffic light that JUST changed to green when all of a sudden there's a golf cart heading north towards me, the wrong way, in the left south bound lane. It went thru the south bound gate. I said "Look at this crazy s.o.b. He's gonna have a head on collision". It was dark so I couldn't identify the drivers gender or possibly canine breed. My dog Teddy would have driven like this to get to a dog park. Okay maybe not.

We should start taking pictures of these types of incidents and posting them here. Each month we could vote on the best one. Just don't get me in one of the pictures, please.

Better not tell Talk Host your plans, or he'll forward your post to the authorities for setting off rocket launchers.

There are some people from large cities that have never driven a car because of the convenient public transportation. Driving a golf cart safely for beginning drivers is not as easy as it looks......just like Golf.

I found all those rotaries to be harrowing, and the golf cart paths immensely confusing whenever I had to deal with a tunnel. For instance - there's one tunnel, that exits to a sign for Morse. It shows that if you go left, you'll get to Sumter Landing. If you go right, you'll get to Sumter Landing. If you're new, and just a visitor, and not familiar with the maps, or tunnels, or golf carts, you'll probably just sit there and stare at the sign until some kind person comes along and tells you the sign is correct - that EITHER way will get you to Sumter Landing.

It's especially confusing, because it's the only sign that does that. All the other signs will say "Belvedere -----> " indicating that Belvedere Road is that way, but no indication as to what (if anything) is on Belvedere that might inspire me to turn.

And then the whole Morse bridge - oh jeez. We were coming from Spanish Square, on a golf cart, and it was already dark (we were enjoying dinner). We had to get over the bridge, and saw the rotary coming up. We never saw any indication that we were -not- following a path that leads to a seperate golf cart path. So we kept going in the direction of the bridge, and suddenly realized we were on the roundabout, NOT on a golf cart path, and the golf cart path was WAYYYYYYY over to the right, and we had no idea how to get onto it. So we just sucked it up, held our breath, said a little prayer, and kept going onto the bridge. We got to the sign that declares it the Lake Sumter water authority bridge or whatever it says, and saw that the grass seperating the now-parallel cart path had thinned out to just a curb, and we jumped it to get onto the path.

The rules regarding the rotaries only apply to people who actually know where they're trying to go, and how to get there. I drove on the rotary looking for an open house - stayed in the right lane where I came from, because I thought it'd be straight through. Turns out it was a left, and I should've been in the left lane. Woops?

Thing is, this is a HUGE community and there are hundreds of rentals, and seasonals. The vast majority of the civilized world does -not- live in a community with 2-lane rotaries at every 4-way intersection. The vast majority of the civilized world has never seen them, and will experience them for the very first time upon entering the Villages. Permanent residents need to accept this. Fortunately many of you are incredibly kind and understanding and happy to stop and help out a lost rider.

anonchick - So that was YOU in that cart we saw doing that!!! :1rotfl: Just kidding! :)

I remember our first time out on a cart at TV - had a somewhat similar experience though not so harrowing as the roundabout and bridge. We were out buzzing around in a cart and suddenly decided it was time to find a restroom. Found a mail station (or whatever proper terminology would be) that happened to have some sort of maintenance building or whatever adjacent to it. Thinking there could be a "facility" in there, we zoomed around the one-car-wide road behind it.......only to find a car coming the other way! He was, after we figured it all out, totally in the right. But needless to say, we hope he's not a part of the official 'Welcome to TV' greeting committee cuz he launched a succinct, pointed, verbal barrage at us (me!) as we got off on the grass to get out of his way. My bad! (And unfortunately, there were no restrooms there...... :shocked: )

Moral: I think the "oops" types of experiences on carts have happened to a lot of us, hopefully coming out none the worse for wear. We always try to be helpful to others if they've got questions or appear to have the deer-in-the-headlights look going on, as I'm sure most other people try to do as well. And I'm learning not to wait so long to try to time the 'pit-stops'!! :)

Bill