Louisiana Golf Carts Need a Designated Road and an Off-Road Decal; Low-Speed Vehicles Get a Plate

The golf cart scheme starts from a ban. R.S. 32:299.4(A) defines a golf cart narrowly as "an electric four-wheeled vehicle originally intended for use off-road on golf courses and other green spaces whose maximum speed is twenty-five miles per hour," so a gasoline cart is outside the definition. Subsection (B) then prohibits operation on the public roads or streets of the state except in the two listed cases, and paragraph (B)(1) is a true local-designation model: the parish or municipality must designate the specific road or street, and on doing so "the responsible governmental entity shall post appropriate signage indicating that such operation is authorized." No designation and no sign means no lawful cart, however quiet the street.

The conditions attached are statutory, not local. R.S. 32:299.4(C) requires a cart on a designated road to carry efficient brakes, reliable steering, safe tires, a rearview mirror, and red reflectorized warning devices front and rear, plus headlamps, front and rear turn signal lamps, tail lamps and brake lamps. Subsection (D) requires registration with the Department of Public Safety and Corrections, office of motor vehicles, as an off-road vehicle, evidenced by an OMV decal. Subsection (E) requires a valid driver's licence, and subsection (F) requires liability insurance at the same minimum limits as R.S. 32:900(B), which are fifteen thousand dollars for bodily injury to one person, thirty thousand for two or more, and twenty-five thousand for property damage. Local governments may go further under (G)(1) by ordinance, must post signage or otherwise inform residents when they do, and may prohibit carts entirely under (G)(3). Paragraph (G)(2) grandfathers any parish or municipal ordinance in effect before January 1, 2015, out of the section's requirements. The section is Acts 2015, No. 308, and subsection (H) directed the department to have implementing rules effective no later than January 15, 2016.

Low-speed vehicles are a broader track. R.S. 32:1(50) folds a low-speed vehicle into the definition of motor vehicle: four-wheeled, electric-powered, a maximum speed of not less than twenty and not more than twenty-five miles per hour, and equipped per 49 C.F.R. 571.500. R.S. 32:300.1(A) then grants road access by posted speed rather than by local designation. A low-speed vehicle may run on any divided highway, highway, roadway or street posted at thirty-five miles per hour or less; it may cross a road posted above thirty-five at an intersection; and it may traverse a road posted at not more than forty-five for a distance not exceeding one quarter mile to connect two thirty-five-mile-per-hour roads. Subsection (C)(1) requires registration with the office of motor vehicles in the same manner as personal-use motor vehicles, with a license plate and a fee collected every two years under R.S. 47:463, and (C)(2) applies the compulsory security provisions of R.S. 32:861 and 862. Subsection (D) bars operation by an unlicensed driver, and subsection (E) subjects low-speed vehicles to the R.S. 32:1301 inspection chapter while exempting them from emissions requirements. Both the Department of Transportation and Development, under (F)(1), and parish or municipal governments, under (F)(2), may prohibit low-speed vehicles on roads under their jurisdiction for the safety of the motoring public.

Several Louisiana golf cart provisions are not statewide at all, and reading them as general law is the common mistake. R.S. 32:297.1, added by Acts 2025, No. 203, defines "governing authority" as the town council of the town of Golden Meadow and lets that council authorize golf carts and low-speed vehicles only on the shoulder of roads posted at thirty miles per hour or less, expressly excluding Louisiana Highway 3235, with a town-issued registration decal and a town registration fee retained in the municipal general fund. R.S. 32:127.1 authorizes golf carts to cross United States Highway 90 and Louisiana Highway 99 within the town limits of Welsh, between sunrise and sunset, on marked or designated crossings approved by the Department of Transportation and Development. Louisiana carries further single-place sections at R.S. 32:127.2 for Palmetto Island State Park, 32:127.3 for Lake Fausse Pointe State Park, 32:127.4 for the city of Westlake, 32:127.5 for Church Point and 32:127.6 for Lake Arthur.

One contradiction is worth naming. R.S. 32:1(50) and 49 C.F.R. 571.500 describe a low-speed vehicle as electric-powered with a maximum speed of not more than twenty-five miles per hour, while the Golden Meadow definition at R.S. 32:297.1(A)(3) says "any four-wheeled electric or gasoline powered vehicle that has a top speed greater than twenty miles per hour but less than twenty five miles per hour." The Golden Meadow version is both broader on fuel and narrower on speed. It governs only within that town, so the statewide definition in R.S. 32:1(50) is the one that controls everywhere else.

S. S. 1 carries a penalty clause, so a violation falls to the Title 32 chapter default in La. S. 32:57(A)(1): not more than one hundred seventy-five dollars or thirty days for a first violation and not more than five hundred dollars or ninety days afterwards, or both. S. S. 32:900(B) insurance limits required by (F). S. S. S. 32:57(E)(6) removes a failure-to-maintain-compulsory-security citation from the promise-to-appear and pay-by-mail procedures. S. S. 1(F) does the same for low-speed vehicles at both state and local level.