ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Florida — While there are regulations when it comes to driving golf carts on the roads, some in golf-cart friendly communities believe the rules should be tougher.
"I absolutely love taking the golf cart, every day," Tracey Shaffer said Monday. She drives her golf cart from her home to her job. Both are in the Nocatee neighborhood.
"It's economical," she said. "It's a lot cheaper than gas."
She is one of many who use golf carts in Nocatee. After all, it is a designated golf cart community, complete with golf cart parking at the grocery store.
"A lot of people in Nocatee use golf carts," David Ray said. He is the Community Manager for the Tolomato Community Development District at Nocatee.
Nocatee is one of nine golf cart communities in St. Johns County.
Nocatee has a list of rules which enable people to drive golf carts on the roads, and those rules look just like St. Johns County's golf cart ordinance.
"Our golf cart rules are the county ordinance rules, correct," Ray said.
After some recent crashes involving teenagers, some people wonder if golf cart communities should make stricter rules, such as raise the age to drive above 14 or require golf cart training.
"This is a question I receive a good bit," Ray said, "and the answer to that is we cannot do that here at Nocatee and the county cannot even do that."
He said Nocatee follows the county law, and counties have to follow the state statute.
However, he said Nocatee will host a golf cart safety class with the sheriff's office.
"We cannot make it mandatory or required," he noted.
However, people such as Shaffer, who live in Nocatee, as well as the sheriff's office, which has its own golf cart in the neighborhood, are indeed interested in golf cart safety and in having fewer crashes, especially with teenagers involved.
"It's very sad," Shaffer said. "I hate to see crashes. Again, the parents need to make sure what the kids are doing on the golf carts."