Covington City Commission is considering amending its ordinance to allow golf carts on all city streets or, at least, expanding the current number of city roads on which residents could drive carts and other slow-moving vehicles.
Commissioner Tim Acri proposed the ordinance change at the commission meeting Tuesday night. Although the commission eventually allowed the ordinance amendment to go onto next week’s agenda for a first reading, there were concerns among the other commissioners about whether the change was a good idea, and it’s possible the ordinance will be amended before votes are cast.
“Right now [the ordinance] allows golf carts to be operated – I’m sorry, low speed vehicles – to be operated between the Ohio River, 12th Street, the Licking River and Philadelphia [Street], and I would like to amend that to include all non-state routes,” Acri said.
The current ordinance doesn’t mention golf carts specifically, instead generally referring to “low-speed vehicles.” The amendment as presented on Tuesday would add language referring to golf carts explicitly and would allow them to be driven on any city-owned road.
They would not be allowed on state roads, and owners would need to carry insurance for the vehicles, have proper safety equipment installed on the carts, such as mirrors, turn signals and horns, and be fully licensed. The broadening of the ordinance would also extend to other “low-speed vehicles,” such as electric and gas-powered scooters.
“What’s the recourse if, say, a person in a golf cart is pulled over, and they don’t have that insurance?” asked Commissioner Tim Downing.
“They would be cited by a police officer,” said City Attorney Frank Schultz, adding that he believed such an offense would be a misdemeanor “just like a normal traffic stop.”
Downing was concerned about being overly permissive with allowing carts around the city for fear that cart traffic could spill over onto state routes, which the city doesn’t control. There are several state thoroughfares running through Covington.
“When we allow residents to do this unilaterally across the whole city without having kind of a focused area, we’re going to end up having people that are naturally going to start exploring the state routes using these vehicles, regardless of whether or not it’s legal,” Downing said.
The commissioners did not know off-hand what parts of the city contained higher numbers of cart owners. At any rate, Downing recommended narrowing the allowable regions of the city to areas that could manage cart traffic, rather than enabling residents to drive them on any city road.
“In the various areas that I’ve talked to, no one’s ever brought this up, but it may just be that I’m not talking to the right people,” Downing said.
The commission will engage in more discussion on the ordinance, possibly make official amendments and perform a first reading at their meeting next week. They will then perform a second reading and cast a final vote on the ordinance at the legislative meeting on April 22.