Georgia caps personal transportation vehicles at 25 mph roads and low-speed vehicles at 35

The definitions do the heavy lifting in Georgia. O.C.G.A. § 40-1-1(43.4), renumbered from paragraph (43.1) by 2022 Ga. Laws Act 814, defines a personal transportation vehicle in two limbs: any three-wheeled or larger motor vehicle of 1,300 pounds or less unladen that cannot exceed 20 miles per hour, where a local authority authorised it on local roads before January 1, 2012, and separately any motor vehicle with at least four wheels, a maximum level ground speed of less than 20 miles per hour, a maximum gross unladen weight of 1,375 pounds, and capacity for not more than eight persons. Mobility aids, all-terrain vehicles and multipurpose off-highway vehicles are excluded. A golf car is a different animal under § 40-1-1(17.3): a vehicle for the exclusive use of conveying people and equipment to play golf on a designated golf course, with an average speed of less than 15 miles per hour. The Department of Public Safety's charging guide tells officers that once such a vehicle is used off the golf course it is regulated as a personal transportation vehicle.

The operating ceilings are absolute and they are written twice over. O.C.G.A. § 40-6-369.1 says personal transportation vehicles shall only be operated on highways where the posted speed limit does not exceed 25 miles per hour, and then repeats the prohibition from the operator's side. O.C.G.A. § 40-6-368 adds a design test for any street opened to joint use: the segment must carry a speed limit of 25 miles per hour or less established by an engineering and traffic survey, and a qualified traffic engineer must have determined it can take carts without adversely impacting traffic safety or the travel needs of commuters. Low-speed vehicles sit one tier up. Under O.C.G.A. § 40-6-362(a), as rewritten by 2024 Ga. Laws Act 241, a low-speed vehicle may be operated only where the posted speed limit does not exceed 35 miles per hour, and § 40-6-360 gives its operator all the rights and duties of the driver of any other vehicle. Section 40-6-361 then bars either class from passing in the same lane as the vehicle being overtaken, riding between lanes of traffic or between adjacent lines or rows of vehicles, or running two or more abreast in one lane.

Authorisation is local, and Georgia gives a local government two routes. Under § 40-6-331(a) a local governing authority may by ordinance designate public streets or PTV paths under its control for combined use with regular traffic, or for carts and no other motor vehicles, and set the conditions of use. Its ordinance may not impose state-style registration, inspection, title or licensing requirements, but § 40-6-331(b) does let it require local registration at least once every five years for a fee not to exceed $15.00, with the licence staying permanently with the cart unless it is sold. The signage duty in § 40-6-331(c) has teeth: the local authority must erect signs of at least 24 by 30 inches on every state-system highway at the point it crosses the city or county line, and an ordinance establishing operating standards is not effective unless those signs are posted. The second route, Part 6 of Article 13 as rewritten by 2014 Ga. Laws Act 629, lets a local authority adopt a PTV plan by ordinance or resolution after submitting it to the law enforcement agency with traffic jurisdiction for comment. A plan must set design criteria for separated PTV lanes, adopt MUTCD-consistent sign specifications, include a permitting process charging no more than $15.00 for a permit lasting at least five years, set minimum safety criteria, and make violating the plan an infraction.

January 1, 2012 is the hinge date throughout. O.C.G.A. § 40-6-331(a) requires every PTV operator to hold a valid driver's licence except where the local authority enacted an ordinance permitting cart use on streets without a licence before that date, and § 40-6-367(a) exempts any county or municipality with a pre-2012 cart ordinance from the PTV plan Part entirely. That is why Georgia's established cart towns run on their own rules while newer adopters must build a plan. Peachtree City is the clearest example. Its motorized cart article, Chapter 78, Article III of the city code, requires an owner to register a cart with the city within ten business days of purchase, issues two numbered decals that must be affixed facing front and rear, and charges $15.00 per year or $45.00 for a three-year registration period plus $20.00 for late registration. Its operating rules run on age rather than licence: 16 and over may drive, a 15 year old needs an instructional permit or a licensed adult of at least 18 in the front seat, a 12 to 14 year old may drive only with a parent, grandparent or legal guardian in the front seat, and nobody under 12 may drive at all.

Registration follows the class rather than the vehicle's look. O.C.G.A. § 40-2-20(b) does not apply to any electric powered personal transportation vehicle, at paragraph (5), or to any golf car, at paragraph (7), which is why the Department of Public Safety tells officers an electric cart needs no state tag while a gasoline powered one does. Senate Bill 384, signed as 2026 Ga. Laws Act 505, renumbers those exemptions to paragraphs (6) and (8), but that Act does not take effect until July 1, 2027, so the current numbering still governs.

The consequences depend on which layer is broken. 1 directly, and operating a low-speed vehicle where the limit exceeds 35 violates § 40-6-362(a). Under § 40-6-365(c)(6) a PTV plan must provide that any person operating a cart in the plan area in violation of the plan is guilty of an infraction punishable by a fine as established by law. 1 and, outside a pre-2012 grandfathered locality, the driver's licence requirement in § 40-6-331(a). A local authority that never posts the 24 by 30 inch boundary signs required by § 40-6-331(c) has an ordinance that is not effective at all, so the state prohibition applies as though no local authorisation existed.

Local ordinances add their own penalties: Peachtree City makes it unlawful for a parent, guardian or other adult with care and custody of a minor under 17 to permit that minor, knowingly or through negligent supervision, to violate the cart article or Title 40.