HOLMES BEACH – Commissioners continue to discuss making the roads safer through Holmes Beach, particularly for drivers of cars, golf carts and low-speed vehicles (LSVs). Though commissioners made one decision, talks are planned to continue at a future work session.
When commissioners met on Oct. 26 for a work session, Mayor Judy Titsworth warned them that there is only so much they’re going to be able to do to regulate the use of LSVs in the city because they are considered vehicles by the state. She advised them instead to focus on the golf cart/LSV moratorium they enacted which involves new rental businesses coming to the city.
Police Chief Bill Tokajer said for safety purposes, the things he’d like to see reinforced through commission action is to have individual seatbelts on vehicles for each passenger, require the vehicles to be operated only by licensed drivers, remind drivers that they’re not allowed to operate golf carts and LSVs in bike lanes or on Manatee Avenue, East Bay Drive, or on the beach and require child restraints for small children. If approved by commissioners, those reminders to drivers will go on a sticker to be placed on rental vehicles as a visual reminder to those operating them in Holmes Beach.
Commissioners also are considering pushing the operation of golf carts and LSVs to roads in the city with a speed limit of 25 mph or less. To do that, commissioners also will need to agree to lower the speed limit in one section of Gulf Drive along the beach from 35 mph to 25 mph.
While commissioners agreed that each passenger needs to have an individual seatbelt, which also will limit the number of riders on the vehicles to the number of seats there are, all other considerations were continued to a future work session for further discussion.
Since commissioners began discussions on the regulation of golf carts, LSVs and rental businesses, some questions have been raised by the community about where the vehicles currently can be operated and whether trying to move the vehicles to more residential roads is a good idea.
Commissioner Carol Soustek said she is in favor of moving the operation of slower-moving vehicles to roads with a 25 mph speed limit to give motor vehicle drivers traveling along Marina and Palm drives some relief and hopefully lessen road rage in the city.
Addressing the issue of LSVs and golf carts not being allowed on state roads, Tokajer said he’s received memos from both the Florida Department of Transportation and the Florida Highway Patrol ruling that the vehicles are not allowed to be operated on state roads, though they can cross them. The state roads in Holmes Beach are Manatee Avenue and East Bay Drive. Because the vehicles are not allowed to be operated on Manatee Avenue, Tokajer added that they should not be driven across the Anna Maria Island Bridge.
Under state law, counties and local municipalities are allowed to prohibit the operation of LSVs within their jurisdiction on roads where the operation of those vehicles is determined to not be safe.
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