Did you not fall for it before you bought here? Key word was "illusion".

The purpose of the gates is give the impression of a truly gated community which is used as a marketing tool. A speed bump would do a better job if slowing traffic was the reason AND it would be a lot less expensive.

Well almost... except Lake Denham
 

Lake Denham has a gate at Meggison and 470 but no gate at the closest road to Leesburg.... Chandler Rd (but a great entrance sign invites you to the Villages!). Makes no sense.

Also no cart path crossing at that gate on 470 either. Happens much earlier where they force a cross over to the left side of Meggison before Chandler Rd. No guard house or gate there makes no sense but saved them money. You have access to all of The Villages until just before Sawgrass Grove... no license plate camera the entire trip if you enter on Chandler RD and exit Chandler RD. That includes many Rec centers and hundreds of homes open to anyone who decides to visit them.

At least you have a gate. Newell doesn't. Originally, I thought budget Kutz; but every other Village has one…

Was the gate on Chandler removed? I haven’t gone that ways in months.

Many people visiting or driving thru think this is a gated community. My Dr up north and his wife drove thru and told me he wished they could have driven in some of the neighborhoods but it was gated. That's the assumption. Lots more in this world to be concerned about.

The Chandler entry is different than most because the road from Chadler up to the Enclave is on Leesburg Property, the developer negotiated a limited right-of-way to build the road to the Enclave, but it had to be freely accessible since it was city property. If you enter Chandler from the south there is a gate on the right going into the veranda/cyv community, one at the Enclave, and one just past the turnoff to the Enclave, combined these help to control the access to the community.
What has happened in the last decade or so for manned gates is that there is generally only one manned gate going into a segment of a community and it is normally on the main road feeding the area, this gives an opportunity for receiving directions and information from a live person for visitors and residents alike. Yes, there are exceptions - Marsh Bend trail has manned gates at Warm Springs and 301(2 major feeders), no gate at Linden/MG, no manned gates for St Johns or StC, Hawkins, and CH, and the list goes on. Several years ago it was decided that every gate, manned or unmanned would have cameras for the license plate capture that goes back to Community Watch, and I have not seen a departure from this plan as I drive the community.

Gates
 

They need gates on the Meggison Freeway for sure. It’s fairly difficult to even cross in some areas.

Security hit the button it takes a photo

Not every village has a gate. There are several that don't. However, you do need to enter a gate to get to any village, and if you have done that, then you need not go through a second one to get to the next village. The gates are located where the public areas meet the residential areas.

No speed bumps. Repeat, no speed bumps.

There are some gates, that after hours, need the card, no red button.

Totally agree that this is a very dangerous situation. There has to be a way that the gate attendant can be notified of the carts waiting to cross the traffic behind the gate & pause the car flow for a few seconds.

CW for the most part is staffing the important entries. The public/private makeup of TV makes a gated community concept a moot point...mentioned many times here. CDD site makes that point clear. CW has an observe and report only function... they're not LEO. Do you need gates and cards, not necessarily. But what you do need to maintain a consistent quality of life is deterrents. What's in place, while not perfect, serves that (limited) purpose.

Then use the left lane. I do in those cases. The few places I see this happening regularly are intersections that would create dangerous situations if the traffic were to back up such as the northbound gate at 466 and Morse. I've seen times where even expedited flows of traffic were not enough to keep the intersection there clear of northbound vehicles.