COLUMBIA — South Carolina lawmakers want to make it easier for people who rent beach houses and attend major sporting events to ride in golf carts.
A Senate committee advanced legislation that would give vacationers and sports fans more leeway to travel by golf cart in public. Currently a golf cart may be driven as far as 4 miles from the address it’s registered to.
“If you go to any major sporting event at any of our universities across the state in the fall, you’re gong to see a lot of golf carts,” said Sen. Sean Bennett, R-Dorchester, on Wednesday. “It’s certainly illegal for them to be driving around unless they happen to live within 4 miles of the stadium that they’re at.”
The Senate Transportation Committee approved Bennett’s proposal to allow golf carts within 2 miles of a sporting event or other crowded event for a set window of time, provided drivers get a permit.
“I’m thinking specifically for these large football game types of events,” said Bennett.
Another proposal to allow the 4-mile distance limit to start from a temporary address, such as a vacation rental, was also approved.
“A number of people will go to the beach for vacation and take their golf carts with them and want to operate them in those communities,” Bennett said.
Sen. Ray Cleary, R-Georgetown, agreed: “Sometimes you might be renting a beach house on 14 Waccamaw Dr. The next year you might be renting a beach house on 32 Waccamaw Dr.”
Not everyone saw the necessity of increasing golf cart freedoms.
“Personally I think golf carts belong on golf courses, but I see they issue you’re trying to fix here,” said Sen. Thomas McElveen, D-Sumter.
Night driving nixed
It wasn’t a total win for golf cart devotees.
Thousands of golf cart riders in Beaufort and Jasper counties may have their dreams of trundling along in the moonlight dashed.
Senators struck the long-sought nighttime-driving privileges from golf cart legislation that cleared a committee last week.
“We just think that creates a whole lot of problems, having golf carts driving at night,” said Cleary.
“If you want to drive at night you can do it within your private community, but if you go out on the street, I think it creates other problems.”
About half of the 6,200 golf carts registered in Beaufort and Jasper counties belong to Sun City residents.
Among the proposed changes was another less advantageous to cart lovers: Lawmakers added state penalty of $100 to violations existing golf cart laws.
The original sponsors of the bill, H. 3631, introduced in February of last year, include Bluffton Republicans Reps. Bill Herbkersman and Weston Newton, and Rep. Shannon Erickson, R-Beaufort.