Lowering the speed limit on 30A?

[Lake View Too]

There are an enormous amount of reasons why golf carts are a really bad idea on 30-A, but I'll just mention one: emergency vehicles. When your house is burning down, do you really want the fire trucks and ambulances to have to deal with the idiots that are grooving along at fifteen miles an hour...there are enough problems to deal with in a community that has only one east-west highway, and adding another level of confusion is not the answer.

 

[robertsondavies]

Now...DON'T get me wrong...but, 'we've'' been 'Sharing the Road' with Spandex Breakin' Away Folks for years...not to mention BCC road graders, 'mini=pads' , er peds...stop sign runners, Waste Management (can I say that) littering garbage trucks, frogs, turtles, snakes, 'possums, lions and tigers and bears...oh, my...for years...So, how's a few Gulf Snarks gonna bother us.

Huh?...oh, GOLF CARTS...nevvvvverminnnd...

... couldn't agree more... careful, an LSV hating mob is forming, and burning folks out of the area

 

[robertsondavies]

There are an enormous amount of reasons why golf carts are a really bad idea on 30-A, but I'll just mention one: emergency vehicles. When your house is burning down, do you really want the fire trucks and ambulances to have to deal with the idiots that are grooving along at fifteen miles an hour...there are enough problems to deal with in a community that has only one east-west highway, and adding another level of confusion is not the answer.

that's a valid concern, it truly is. But with all due respect, you also would have to consider, by your logic, that 'thing's like the Town of Seaside, with its numerous stops and pedestrian crossings, have to be removed... banished, as well as any other things that might impede Emergnecy Vehicle progress. Also you need to find a way to cut Summer Vacations to the area by half, so that 30a doesn't get congested that really truly slows down emergency vehicles.

Would you consider this bet? What vehicle is more likley to yield to an emergency vehicle, an LSV or an SUV? Nevermind that SUV's probably outnumber SUVs 100 to 1, I'd wager that both usually would yield, but that an LSV would yield at a better rate, say 99.99 percent, vs 97% for some music blaring SUV (getting 11 miles to the gallon) driven by Mrs. Valium Buckhead on her Modica run.

 

[Kurt]

SUVs and carts aren't going to mix well. If LSVs are prevalent in Seaside, WaterColor, Rosemary Beach, etc. and some of them spill on to Scenic 30A, some folks will freak out. That is the reality.

If carts could really travel 35 it might not be such a big issue but in reality they average much slower. The speed limit is not the issue to me, it is the actual speed and the manner in which carts are used.

But right now, the LSVs being pushed are TLSVs - too-low speed vehicles. If keeping the speed limits where they are is going to keep them off the roads then so be it. I believe in a few years we'll see a lot of electric vehicles, both 2 and 4-wheeled on Scenic 30A that are able to easily travel 35mph.

I am all for a Scenic 30A trolley that is efficient, as long as it has the ability to pull fully off the road at stops.

 

[John R]

The result of a match between golf cart and tahoe is predestined. As it stands today, the primary drivers of the golf carts(that i have seen) are grandma's with a cartful of children, children with a cartful of children, of moms with a cartful of chilfren. None of these scenarios ease the mind of whoever is driving behind one. Even though they are rigged with the minimum specs to make the street legal, they are still operated like they are golfcarts on the fairway. When one of the is one it's side with bodies strewn all over, I hope the rescue squad can get there fast enough at 35mph.

Robertsondavies, you paint such a pretty picture of your vision of 30A, albeit quite skewed. Where is the 19yr old, intoxicated springbreaker, driving daddy's full of more intoxicated passengers, hummer in your scenario? Take a deep look, it's not about us(the regular 30A driver), it's about them(those who don't live here and are not familiar).

Nothing good will become of lowering the speed limit to make allowance for golf carts on County Road 30A.

 

[Matt J]

So you doubt the environmental impact of LSV's vs. SUV's?? If the inconvenience of allowing a couple more miles of 30a to be traversed by bonafide, qualified LSV's trumps your need for speed, then great. You're that intolerant of other iews, that those who disagree need to move to Sandestin??? This is the most intolerant thing I've ever seen you post. Basically, get out if you don't like my SUV spewing views.
SWGB, do you also proposing reversing LSV laws as they currently stand? Should we also have an additional by law to keep cyclists the hell off the "major 30 -A thoroughfare"? Perhaps Florida's Legislature could Re-Designate 30A as a major industrialized thoroughfare... those who disagree need not apply. Kicking out LSV's completely can speed up travel times to the new Wal - Mart by 35 seconds or more on occasion.

Quite the rant. I respect other peoples iews, whatever that is. Regardless of whether someone is driving an SUV or a sub compact, it burns more fuel at slower speeds stuck behind a LSV than it would at a cruising speed of 35-45 mph. You can put on your rose colored glasses and putter around all day long, but you're not saving the environment when there's 5-6 regular vehicles practically idling behind you.

As to being intolerant of vehicles that are designed for in community driving or resort driving being allowed on a major connector road, yes I'm intolerant. People seem to forget that 30A connects many smaller communities together. The LSV's are designed for those smaller communities and not all of 30A.

You can act like these LSV's are some sort of green miracle all you want, but the fact is that they either run on gas or they get plugged in which simply transfers the pollution to another community. The majority of our power comes from coal powered electric plants. In addition many of the chargers used are transformers, which means if left plugged in when not charging your faux green machine they are wasting electricity. Basically these things are like making sure you cut up your six pack ring before throwing it in the gulf.

Finally, LSV's wouldn't be able to go to Wal-Mart anyway as 98, by law and common sense, is not suitable for LSV's.

 

[robertsondavies]

Kurt, I do agree with your point about too slow e vehicles. If its a crappy golf cart "modified" to comply but can't go at least as fast as the numerous bicycles that travel on the road (with stax of idling cars behind them) then I can see some need for a decent minimum speed capability of say 25 MPH. If that can't be accomplished then you'll have my agreement that opening all of 30a to lowspeed golf carts with a couple reflectors is a bad idea. At the same time it would certainly call for a discussion of banning cyclists, although more responsible than most, they hold traffic up with aplomb rarely seen.

 

[robertsondavies]

Look LSV's are no panacea...I never said they were...SWGB makes a handful of good simple elegant points on LSV's not being a green miracle...and yet slightly outweighed by 'green' evidence to the contrary. The simple counterpoints on lsv's remind me of the anti-global warming arguments, which are appealing and contain veracity, mixing anecdote well.
If Al Gore reviewed the arguments for and against lsv's, he'd be on my side here. Despite the suggestion I look at sandestin, due to my supportive lsv position, I'll be staying on 30a, thanks. I'm still convinced 30a is the best and more open minded place.

 

[Lynnie]

I admit, I was pulled over by the popo while driving my electric golf cart (doing my part to conserve on emissions, etc.). Deputy was really sweet and attempted to help fix my flat tire, which I didn't even know I had.........

Then, he told me it's not road worthy (and, I agree it isn't); so, I didn't drive it very far after that.

 

[Smiling JOe]

I hate speed bumps anywhere as, as far as I concerned they not only insult my and other people's intelligence, they are hard on vehicles.

Some people like to honk their horn every time they go over a speed bump. I'm not sure if it works getting them removed, but I imagine if everyone did it, we wouldn't have speed bumps any more.

I see both sides to the LSV in communities. For our community, it may help reduce the space needed for parking at beach accesses. However, it may also encourage more people to be lazy, as long as they are being green, and they may use the LSV to get their crap and themselves to the beach, when they might have otherwise walked. One thing missing from this conversation is that Seaside was designed with the idea of being a walkable community. It is only a five minute slow walk from the outer edges, to the center. It is also designed to be a community where you don't have to leave to enjoy everything. Other communities such as WaterColor and WaterSound are a bit more spread out, and don't fit that design, but I don't see people in WaterColor wanting to get on their LSV to go down to Rosemary Beach to eat dinner or shop. I don't see that changing with time. I believe that stretch near WaterSound is the location of the 45mph speed limit, and it is very fitting to the actual road, if you look at DOT guidelines.

I'm all for less emmissions, but is it really less if the alternative mode of transport is bicycle or foot?