ESCANABA, Mich. (WZMQ) – This spring and summer, Escanaba will allow golfers to drive their carts on designated City roads.
On Thursday, the City Council approved a resolution permitting golf carts on certain streets within the city limits. High-traffic roadways—including Ludington Street, Lincoln Road, Stephenson Avenue, and Sheridan Avenue—are still off limits to golf carts.
Prior to the Council’s decisions, golf carts were not legally permitted on roadways. However, golfers often operate their carts on local streets, particularly near the Escanaba Country Club.
“We’ve always had golf carts driving around the city,” said City Manager Jim McNeil. “We get a lot of calls about people driving them, sometimes in a way that’s safe, sometimes in a way that’s not safe. What this really does is it says, ‘Okay, you’re allowed to drive a golf cart, just on specific streets with quite a few requirements.”
Escanaba Public Safety Director Darren Smith spoke in support of the ordinance.
“It will take the burden off of us,” Smith said. “Currently, if anybody sees a golf cart on the street, they usually call and say, ‘Hey, can you come and check on this person? They have a golf cart on the road.’ … We do have to tie up an officer to go and check that out and educate that person that you can’t have the golf cart on the roadway.”
Smith says the resolution is not a “free-for-all.” In addition to being limited to certain streets, golf carts are not permitted to drive above 15 miles per hour. Drivers must be at least 16 years old and possess a license. Golf carts cannot be operated half an hour before sunset or half an hour after sunrise.
The City Council’s vote in favor of the resolution was unanimous. Mayor Pro Tem Tyler Dubord likened it to another City resolution involving side-by-sides.
“There was a lot of discretionary on that, a lot of pros and cons, hearing from both parties, and we thought we’d give it a shot,” DuBord said. “It’s been a few years already, and the feedback we’ve received so far is not problematic. Like this, too, it’s kind of a trial-and-error aspect that we’re trying this out. If we find from feedback from Public Safety that there’s concern, we can add more restrictions, definitely, to the ordinance, or we could rescind it again. It’s a trial thing, but I do feel that it does help the golfers be more at ease, too.”
McNeil stated that a similar discussion about e-bikes will be coming up in the near future.
