Golf Carts & Low-Speed Vehicles

Alabama has no general statute putting golf carts or low-speed vehicles on public roads. The only statewide scheme, Ala. Code §§ 11-73-1 to 11-73-7, applies by its own terms in Class 2…

Alaska runs two separate tracks. A low-speed vehicle, defined in AS 28.90.990(a)(19) as a four-wheeled machine built to reach at least 20 and no more than 25 miles an hour, is a…

Arizona runs two separate low-speed classes and gives neither one a local street-designation scheme. A neighborhood electric vehicle, the state's version of a federal low-speed…

Arkansas has no statewide golf cart registration and no low-speed vehicle plate. A golf cart may be driven on a city street only if that municipality has adopted an ordinance under…

A low-speed vehicle in California may not be driven on any roadway with a speed limit above 35 miles per hour. Vehicle Code section 21260 permits it to cross a faster road only where…

Colorado runs two separate regimes. A low-speed electric vehicle is a motor vehicle under C.R.S. § 42-1-102 (58)(a), so it is titled, registered, plated and driven on a licence, and…

Connecticut runs golf carts and low-speed vehicles on opposite defaults. A golf cart may only go on a public street where the traffic authority of that city, town or borough has…

Delaware has a full statutory scheme for low-speed vehicles at 21 Del. C. Section 2113A and no scheme at all for golf carts. An LSV is a 4-wheeled motor vehicle, other than a truck…

The District of Columbia has no golf-cart statute, no local-designation scheme, and no permit that would put a cart on a city street. What it does have is a low-speed vehicle rule, 18…

Florida flips the usual assumption: a golf cart is barred from public roads unless a county, a municipality, or a water control district has affirmatively designated that road for cart…

Georgia does not have one cart law, it has three vehicle classes with different ceilings. A personal transportation vehicle, the class Georgia created for neighbourhood carts, may only…

Hawaii recognizes exactly one street-legal low-speed class, the neighborhood electric vehicle, and the words golf cart appear nowhere in HRS chapters 249, 286, 291 or 291C. A…

Idaho has no golf-cart street-legal scheme at all. What it has is a neighborhood electric vehicle regime: Idaho Code section 49-123(2)(j) defines an NEV as an emission-free…

Illinois runs two different regimes and the answer depends entirely on which vehicle you own. A golf cart is a non-highway vehicle under 625 ILCS 5/11-1426.1, and driving one on any…

Indiana bans golf carts from public roads by default and hands the switch to local government. Ind. Code § 9-21-8-57 says a golf cart may not be operated on a highway except in…

Iowa Code section 321.247 gives no statewide right to drive a golf cart on the road. Incorporated areas may, upon approval of their governing body, allow golf carts on city streets…

Kansas lets golf carts on public roads by default outside city limits, then caps that permission hard. K.S.A. 8-15,108 makes it unlawful to operate a golf cart on any interstate…

Kentucky does not open any street to golf carts by state law. KRS 189.286 lets a city, county, urban-county, charter county, consolidated or unified local government, or special…

Louisiana runs golf carts and low-speed vehicles on two separate statutory tracks. La. R.S. 32:299.4(B) prohibits golf carts on public roads outright and then reopens two doors: a…

Maine runs two completely separate tracks. A federally compliant low-speed vehicle can be registered with the Secretary of State for $25 a year under 29-A M.R.S. § 501(11), gets a…

Maryland runs two separate schemes. A golf cart may be driven unregistered, but only on a county or municipal highway the governing body has actually designated for carts, only where…

Massachusetts treats a golf cart and a low-speed vehicle as different machines with different rights. A true golf cart may be driven on a public way only under one narrow carve-out in…

Michigan does not legalise golf carts on public streets statewide, and it does not leave the question to every council either. MCL 257.657a switches street use on only where the local…

Minnesota runs two separate tracks. A motorized golf cart, ATV, utility task vehicle or mini truck may use a public road only where the county, city or town has passed an ordinance…

Mississippi puts golf carts and low-speed vehicles on one short track, Chapter 32 of Title 63, and the chapter's own heading says how far it reaches: operation on municipal public…

Missouri answers this question twice, in two statutes that do not overlap. A golf cart may be driven on a public street only where the municipality has adopted a resolution or…

A golf cart may not be driven on any Montana public street or highway unless the county, city or town that controls that road has specifically authorised it by ordinance or regulation…

Nebraska runs golf carts and low-speed vehicles on two separate statutory tracks and the difference is large. A golf car vehicle may only be driven on a public street where the city…

Nevada runs two separate schemes. A golf cart can get a DMV operating permit only "in a county whose population is 700,000 or more," which under the 2020 census reaches Clark County…

The phrase "golf cart" does not appear anywhere in the New Hampshire motor vehicle laws, and there is no provision letting a town designate streets for cart use. The only cart-sized…

New Jersey has a full low-speed vehicle regime and no golf cart regime at all. An LSV must be titled, registered, insured and plated with the Motor Vehicle Commission, and it may be…

New York draws a hard line between a golf cart and a low-speed vehicle. A low-speed vehicle is defined by Vehicle and Traffic Law § 121-f as a limited use automobile with a maximum…

North Carolina runs two entirely separate regimes, and which one you are in is decided by five miles per hour. A golf cart is defined as a vehicle not capable of exceeding 20 mph, and…

North Dakota registers low-speed vehicles under chapter 39-29.1 of the Century Code and lets them use only highways posted at thirty-five miles per hour or less, with direct crossings…

Ohio calls a golf cart an under-speed vehicle and, unlike states that simply refuse to register one, treats it as a titleable and registrable vehicle: R.C. 4501.01(XX) defines it by…

Oklahoma bans golf carts from the streets and highways of the state and then lists five exceptions, four of which depend on a local government acting first. 47 O.S. Section 11-1116(C)…

Oregon has one of the narrowest golf cart schemes in the country, and it is not a general neighbourhood-cart law. Under ORS 810.070 a road authority may permit golf carts on its own…

Pennsylvania draws a hard line between a golf cart and a neighborhood electric vehicle. Chapter 77A of the Vehicle Code makes it unlawful to operate a golf cart on any highway at all…

Since chapter 19.6 of title 31 took effect on July 1, 2024, a registered low-speed vehicle has an affirmative statutory right to use any Rhode Island public highway posted at…

To drive a golf cart on a South Carolina public highway the owner must obtain a permit decal and registration certificate from the Department of Motor Vehicles, showing proof of…

South Dakota runs two separate schemes. A golf cart, defined by SDCL 32-14-13 as a four wheeled vehicle originally and specifically designed to carry people and golf clubs on a golf…

Tennessee rebuilt this area in 2025. Public Chapter 255 repealed Tenn. Code Ann. § 55-8-191, the old low speed and medium speed vehicle section, effective April 24, 2025, and folded…

Texas lets golf carts onto public roads in four defined situations rather than by general permission: inside a platted master planned community, on a beach open to vehicular traffic…

In Utah a golf cart may not be driven on any highway unless the municipality whose jurisdiction that highway sits in has passed an ordinance allowing it. Utah Code 41-6a-1510(1)(b)…

Vermont never wrote a golf cart statute. The word "golf" appears exactly once in the whole of Title 23, and it appears in 23 V.S.A. § 4(18)(A) only to say that a golf cart is not a…

Virginia runs two separate schemes. A golf cart or utility vehicle is barred from every public highway in the Commonwealth unless the county, city, or town has designated that road by…

Washington splits small street-legal vehicles into three statutory classes by top speed, and the rules for each are different. A golf cart tops out at 20 mph and may use public streets…

A golf cart cannot be made street legal in West Virginia. W. Va. Code § 17A-3-2(c) tells the Division of Motor Vehicles to title and register a low-speed vehicle only where the…

Wisconsin splits these two machines apart in the definitions and then treats them completely differently. A low-speed vehicle has a statewide right of the road: under Wis. Stat. s…

Wyoming never adopted the federal low-speed vehicle or neighborhood electric vehicle category, and the phrase appears nowhere in Title 31. Instead the state runs two definitions…