Minnesota Golf Carts Need a Local Permit; Electric LSVs Do Not

Section 169.045 is headed "SPECIAL VEHICLE USE ON ROADWAY" and it hands the decision to the local road authority twice over. Subdivision 1 lets the governing body of any county, home rule charter or statutory city, or town authorize these vehicles by ordinance on designated roadways or portions of roadways under its jurisdiction, and then states flatly that authorization to operate is by permit only. So two things must exist before a cart may lawfully leave private property: an ordinance covering that particular stretch of road, and a permit in the operator's hand. Absent the ordinance there is nothing to apply for, which is why the answer differs from one Minnesota town to the next rather than following a statewide rule.

Subdivision 2 fixes what the ordinance must contain and what it may add. It must designate the roadways, prescribe the form of the application, and require evidence of insurance complying with section 65B.48, subdivision 5, which is the motorcycle security provision: liability coverage complying with section 65B.49, subdivision 3, or qualification as a self-insurer. Permits may run for no more than three years and may be renewed, and a permit may be revoked at any time on evidence that the permittee cannot safely operate the vehicle on the designated roadways. The one personal condition the statute names is medical rather than age-based: an ordinance may require the applicant to submit a certificate signed by a physician that the applicant is able to safely operate the vehicle on the roadways designated. Section 169.045 sets no minimum operator age of its own, so any age condition comes from the local ordinance, which subdivision 2 allows so long as it is not inconsistent with the section. Subdivision 8 covers the insurance gap: an operator who cannot obtain liability insurance in the private market may buy automobile insurance, including no-fault coverage, from the Minnesota Automobile Insurance Plan under sections 65B.01 to 65B.12 at a rate determined by the commissioner of commerce.

The operating rules are strict and specific. Under subdivision 3 a motorized golf cart, ATV or utility task vehicle may run on designated roadways only from sunrise to sunset unless it has original equipment headlights, taillights and rear-facing brake lights, and may never be operated in inclement weather except in emergency conditions provided for in the ordinance, when visibility is impaired by weather, smoke or fog, or at any time visibility is insufficient to see persons and vehicles on the roadway at 500 feet. Subdivision 4 requires a golf cart to display the slow-moving vehicle emblem described in section 169.522, the fluorescent or illuminated red-orange triangle with a dark red reflective border that must be visible from at least 600 feet to the rear. Subdivision 5 lets a permitted operator cross any street or highway that intersects a designated roadway, and subdivision 6 gives the operator the rights and duties of any other driver under chapter 169.

The licensing answer surprises people. Subdivision 7 says chapter 171, the driver's license chapter, applies to mini truck operators but does not apply to persons operating motorized golf carts, utility task vehicles or all-terrain vehicles under permit on designated roadways. It also switches off the chapter 169 vehicle-equipment requirements for those three, except section 169.70, the rear view mirror rule. Mini trucks get their own equipment list in subdivision 7a: at least two headlamps, at least two taillamps, front and rear turn-signal lamps, a driver-side exterior mirror plus either a passenger-side exterior mirror or an interior mirror, a windshield, seat belts for the driver and front passenger, and a parking brake. Note also that section 169.045 defines all-terrain vehicle by reference to section 84.92, mini truck by reference to section 169.011, subdivision 40a, and utility task vehicle in its own text as a side-by-side four-wheel-drive off-road vehicle of 1,200 cubic centimeters or less and 1,800 to under 2,600 pounds dry weight, but it never defines "motorized golf cart," and neither does the chapter 169 definitions section.

The low-speed vehicle track is entirely different and needs no local action. Section 169.224, subdivision 2 provides that notwithstanding any other law a neighborhood electric vehicle or a medium-speed electric vehicle may be operated on public streets and highways if it meets all equipment and vehicle safety requirements in 49 C.F.R. § 571.500. Subdivision 3 caps that use at streets and highways with a speed limit of 35 miles per hour or less, except to make a direct crossing of a faster road, and allows a three-wheeled neighborhood electric vehicle to be driven without a motorcycle endorsement by anyone holding a valid driver's license under chapter 171. A neighborhood electric vehicle is defined at section 169.011, subdivision 47 as an electrically powered motor vehicle with three or four wheels able to attain at least 20 but not more than 25 miles per hour in one mile on a paved level surface; a medium-speed electric vehicle, at subdivision 39, is a fully enclosed four-wheeled electric vehicle with a roll cage or crushproof body, at least one door, a wheelbase of 40 inches or more, wheels of ten inches or more, a 35 mile per hour top speed, and compliance with 49 C.F.R. § 571.500 apart from that speed.

Two enforcement paths run in parallel. Operating a golf cart, ATV or utility task vehicle on a public roadway where no ordinance designates it, or without the permit that subdivision 1 makes the only form of authorization, is an act forbidden by chapter 169 and therefore a petty misdemeanor under Minn. 89, subd. 1, punishable by a fine of not more than $300 under subdivision 2 with no jury trial and no jail. The same penalty reaches a permitted operator who runs after sunset without original equipment lighting, drives in inclement weather outside the ordinance's emergency terms, or omits the slow-moving vehicle emblem.

Enhancement to a misdemeanor follows where the violation is committed so as to endanger or be likely to endanger a person or property, or where the driver has two or more petty misdemeanor convictions from the preceding 12 months. 48, subdivision 5, a lapse in coverage is a permit problem as well as an insurance one. 224, subdivision 4 lets any road authority, including the commissioner of transportation by order, prohibit or further restrict their operation on any street or highway under its jurisdiction.