Davis Islands residents seek OK for golf carts

Davis Islands, a residental area more than two miles from the nearest links, could become golf-cart friendly under a proposal that would allow the electric-powered vehicles to travel neighborhood streets.

If Tampa City Council members grant the request, Davis Islands will be the first community in Tampa - with or without a golf course - with street-legal golf carts.

The city attorney and Tampa police officials have been asked to address the issue at the council's June 24 meeting.

City Attorney Chip Fletcher said Florida law allows municipalities to designate areas where local roads are open to golf carts, if certain factors are met. City transportation engineers would determine which Davis Islands streets are suitable for golf carts, based on existing speed limits and traffic volume, Fletcher said.

If the council designates specific Davis Islands streets cart-friendly, it also would decide whether permission would be restricted to daylight hours. Travel after sunset, if approved by the city, would require carts be equipped with working headlights, taillights, brake lights, turn signals and windshields.

Preliminary research indicates carts traveling on approved streets would not require a license plate, Fletcher said.

Davis Islands Civic Association President Walter Hill said a member in March asked the organization to inquire about authorizing golf carts on neighborhood's streets.

"I know quite a few people drive golf carts around Davis Islands," said Hill. "I'd say there are at least 100 golf carts, if not more."

Hill does not own a cart, but said a half-dozen of his Suwanee Circle neighbors do.

Many cart owners drive them to downtown Davis Islands restaurants and to Little League baseball and softball games, Hill said.

"I think it's great transportation for somebody who lives on Davis Islands," longtime island resident Karen Friedman said of the golf cart she received as a Mother's Day gift a couple of years ago.

"Anything located on Davis Islands, I drive the golf cart," Friedman said after using the four-seater to shuttle daughter Carly to the 12-year-old's late-afternoon softball game.

"We live five blocks away, so it's kinda crazy to drive a car here," she said of the ballpark. She also drives the cart to tennis lessons and the Marjorie Park Yacht Basin marina.

"It's pretty fun; the kids like it," though she routinely denies her children's requests to drive, she said.

"We have your basic golf cart," she said, but some islanders drive more elaborate ones. Friedman added brake lights and turn signals to her cart, which came outfitted with headlights and a windshield. "I just wanted to be a little safer," she said.

"And I added my leopard seat covers and my [matching] dice" -- with the latter dangling, traditionally, from the rearview mirror.

Since 2006, island resident Brad Culpepper has owned a GEM, or Global Electric Motorcar, billed on its manufacturer's website as "the first multipurpose neighborhood electric vehicle available for sale from a major automaker." Some 40,000 GEM battery-electric vehicles are on the road today, according to the Fargo, N.D., company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Chrysler.

"It's street legal. I go off island with it," Culpepper said of his GEM, which exceeds state requirements for carts using public roadways. In addition to what vehicle laws require, Culpepper's GEM has windshield wipers and seatbelts. It also bears a Florida license plate.

"I'd be a little leery of not having all those things," said Culpepper, a personal-injury attorney and former Tampa Bay Buccaneer.

Only some golf carts in the community are street legal, said Hill, the civic association president.

"There are quite a few on the island that do not have headlights," he said. "Kids drive them to the ballpark at night. I've seen some 12- and 13-year-old kids driving around in golf carts."

If the carts become street legal on the island, Florida law would require drivers be 14 or older.
Hill said if the city council adopts the neighborhood's proposal, police might be more inclined to enforce laws pertaining to all carts - those that now are street legal and those that aren't.