Maine Registers Low-Speed Vehicles for $25, and Golf Carts Only by $4 Permit or on an Island

Start with the definitions, because Maine's two tracks are defined by different tests. Section 101(32-A) defines a low-speed vehicle as a 4-wheeled motor vehicle able to attain a speed of at least 20 miles per hour but not more than 25 miles per hour, less than 3,000 pounds unloaded, that is not an ATV and that was originally manufactured and is maintained in accordance with the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards as a low-speed vehicle under 49 C.F.R. § 571.500. Section 101(25-A) defines a golf cart as a motor vehicle originally designed and manufactured for operation on a golf course for sporting or recreational purposes that is not capable of exceeding speeds of 20 miles per hour. A cart cannot become a low-speed vehicle by being made faster, because the low-speed vehicle definition is tied to how the machine was originally manufactured and certified.

The low-speed vehicle track is a full registration. Section 501(11) sets an annual fee of $25 and requires the applicant to produce a certificate of title under § 651, proof of financial responsibility under § 1601 and evidence of payment of the Title 36 § 1482 excise tax. Maine issues a distinctive plate: the word "low-speed" replaces "Vacationland," and the Secretary of State may issue a facsimile plate for a 60-day period. Section 102(2) is the authorizing provision and dates the whole scheme from September 1, 2003.

Operation is governed by § 2089. A driver must hold a valid Class A, Class B or Class C driver's license under § 1252, so there is no learner or unlicensed route. Under § 2089(2) a low-speed vehicle may be operated only on a road or street posted at 35 miles per hour or less, though it may cross a faster road at an intersection. Two separate authorities can shut a road: MaineDOT may prohibit low-speed vehicle operation on any highway or segment under its jurisdiction in the interest of public safety, and a municipality may prohibit it on any road under its jurisdiction on the same ground. Section 102(2) adds that a municipality may prohibit low-speed vehicle use by ordinance outright. Section 2089(3) makes a violation of the road restrictions a traffic infraction.

Equipment is prescriptive. Section 1925 requires a registered low-speed vehicle to carry brakes for each wheel, headlights meeting § 1904, an odometer, one exterior and one interior rearview mirror, a parking brake, rear reflectors, a safety glass windshield, a speedometer, stop lamps, rear lights meeting § 1905, seat belts and child restraint systems meeting § 2081, turn signal lamps, windshield wipers and a vehicle identification number. Having met that list, the vehicle is then exempt from the annual safety inspection: § 1752(11) exempts a low-speed vehicle registered under § 501(11) provided it is equipped in accordance with § 1925.

The golf cart track is thinner and older. Section 501(8) lets the Secretary of State issue, for a $4 fee, a special registration permit authorizing limited operation on the highway of self-propelled golf carts, lawn mowers, ATVs and other similar vehicles with restrictions and limitations of use that minimize the danger to the operator, meaning the conditions are written onto the permit rather than into the statute. The permit runs until March 1st of the next calendar year. No driver's license is required, vehicles permitted this way are exempt from the motor vehicle inspection laws, and the only fixed operator rule is that a person under the age of 15 may not operate on a public way. ATV use under the permit is confined to agricultural purposes connected with a farm.

The island route in § 501(2-A) is the closest Maine gets to a community golf cart scheme, and it is tightly bounded: it applies only to vehicles operating on islands that have no public ways maintained or supported by the State, which reaches places such as the unbridged year-round island communities and not the mainland. There an automobile, a low-speed vehicle or a golf cart may each be registered for $4 a year, the municipality may collect a further $4 annually to defray the cost of removing abandoned vehicles or golf carts, operation happens only if the governing body of the municipality allows it, the road limit is again 35 mph with an intersection crossing allowance, and the operator needs only a valid driving license in any class rather than the Class A, B or C required on the mainland.

What Maine does not have is worth stating. There is no neighborhood electric vehicle category: a full-text search of the Revised Statutes for that phrase returns nothing. There is no statute letting a town designate and sign specific streets for golf cart use, the way Florida does. Golf carts appear in exactly two places in the entire code, the definition at § 101(25-A) and the fee section § 501, and the operation chapter, ch. 19, runs from § 2051 to § 2093 with no golf cart section in it. Section 102 supplies the background rule that any vehicle may be operated on a public way unless prohibited or restricted by Title 29-A, by special law or municipal ordinance, or by department rule, but a cart still has to clear the registration requirement to be there at all.

§ 104 makes any other Title 29-A breach a traffic infraction unless otherwise provided. Section 103(3) sets the exclusive penalty at a fine of not less than $25 nor more than $500, or suspension of a license, or both, proved by a preponderance of the evidence under § 103(4). Driving a golf cart on a public way with neither a § 501(8) special permit nor an island registration is an unregistered-vehicle problem rather than a golf cart problem, and it is also the point at which the § 501(8) exemption from inspection and from the license requirement stops applying.

Both MaineDOT and the municipality can close roads to low-speed vehicles under § 2089(2), and a municipal ordinance adopted under § 102(2) can prohibit them entirely, so the enforcing authority in any given town may be local rather than state. On an island, operation is lawful only where the governing body of the municipality allows it, so a town vote is the operative permission and the town may also levy the extra $4 abandoned-vehicle fee.