Wisconsin Golf Carts Need a Local Ordinance, Low-Speed Vehicles Do Not

The dividing line is one sentence in the definitions. Section 340.01 (27h) defines a low-speed vehicle as a motor vehicle conforming to the definition and requirements for low-speed vehicles in the federal motor vehicle safety standards at 49 CFR 571.3 (b) and 49 CFR 571.500, and then adds that a low-speed vehicle does not include a golf cart. Wisconsin never defines a golf cart anywhere in ch. 340, which is exactly why s. 349.18 (1m) (d) allows an ordinance to include its own definition of the term. The practical consequence is that whether your machine counts as a golf cart in Wisconsin can be answered differently in the next village over.

For a low-speed vehicle the statute grants the road directly. Section 346.94 (22) (a) permits operation on any highway with a speed limit of 35 miles per hour or less that is under the jurisdiction, for maintenance purposes, of a municipality or county. Three limits follow. A connecting highway is only open if it is posted at 25 miles per hour or less, or the municipality or county with jurisdiction has adopted a valid ordinance under s. 349.26 (2). An intersection where the local highway crosses a state trunk or connecting highway is only open if that highway is posted at 35 miles per hour or less at the intersection and traffic there is controlled by traffic control signals. And par. (a) never applies where the local highway crosses an expressway, a freeway, or a controlled-access highway designated under s. 83.027 or 84.25. Paragraph (c) closes the set: no person may operate a low-speed vehicle on any highway except as authorised under sub. (22) or s. 349.26 (2). Paragraph (d) caps the machine at 25 miles per hour regardless of the posted limit.

A low-speed vehicle is a registered vehicle. Section 341.25 (1) (b) sets a biennial fee of $23, the same figure charged for a motorcycle or moped under 1,500 pounds, and s. 341.297 (1) puts it on the biennial cycle. Chapter Trans 145, which the Department of Transportation titles Neighborhood Electric Vehicle, states at s. Trans 145.04 that registration is valid only on roadways designated in an ordinance adopted under s. 349.26 and that operation on any highway not so designated is unregistered operation subject to the penalties in s. 341.04. That chapter was created effective 1 May 2009 and has not been amended since, while s. 346.94 (22) and s. 349.26 both carry 2009 Wisconsin Act 311 in their history lines, so ask the local clerk whether an ordinance exists rather than relying on the rule text alone.

Local government can move the line in both directions for low-speed vehicles. Under s. 349.26 (1m) a municipality or county may prohibit them on any highway it maintains, and a county ordinance does not apply inside a municipality that has adopted its own ordinance under sub. (2). Under s. 349.26 (2) a municipality may allow a low-speed vehicle on a roadway posted at 35 miles per hour or less inside its boundaries whether or not it has jurisdiction over that roadway.

Golf carts run on the opposite default. Section 349.18 gives a city, village or town three separate powers, and none of them operates until an ordinance is passed. Paragraph (1) (b) allows a golf cart crossing point, and an ordinance creating one must require the cart to stop and yield the right-of-way to all vehicles approaching on the highway before crossing; the ordinance may require reflective devices, and the municipality must place a sign of a type approved by the department on both sides of the highway. Paragraph (1) (c) allows regulation of golf cart travel to and from a golf course for a distance not exceeding one mile on a highway under the municipality's exclusive jurisdiction, again with department-approved signs. Subsection (1m), the general power, lets a municipality or a county open highways posted at 25 miles per hour or less, but it may never open a state trunk or connecting highway, and a crossing of one is allowed only where the crossed highway is posted at 35 miles per hour or less, the crossing links roads already designated for carts, and the local government funds the signs that the department then erects and maintains.

Operating a cart in accordance with one of those ordinances switches off two whole chapters. Section 341.05 (24) exempts a golf cart operated in accordance with s. 349.18 (1) (b) or (c) or (1m) from registration, so there is no plate and no fee. Section 347.02 (1) (h) means that no equipment provision of ch. 347 applies to such a cart unless the provision expressly includes it, so the state imposes no headlamp, brake, mirror or muffler standard on a lawfully operated golf cart. Whatever equipment a cart must carry comes from the local ordinance, and the only equipment the statute mentions is the reflective devices an ordinance may require at a crossing point.

Two statewide duties survive for both machines. A golf cart and a low-speed vehicle are each self-propelled, so each is a motor vehicle under s. 340.01 (35), and s. 343.05 (3) (a) forbids operating a motor vehicle that is not a commercial motor vehicle on a highway without a valid Wisconsin operator's licence. Section 344.62 (1) separately forbids operating a motor vehicle on a highway unless the owner or operator has a motor vehicle liability policy in effect on it, and s. 344.62 (2) requires proof to be carried and shown on demand.

A low-speed vehicle driven on a road it is not entitled to use, or driven faster than 25 miles per hour, violates s. 94 (22) (c) or (d) and carries a forfeiture of not more than $200 under s. 95 (11). A golf cart on a highway that no ordinance has opened loses both statutory exemptions at once: without the shelter of s. 05 (24) the cart is an unregistered vehicle under s. 04 (1), a forfeiture of not more than $200 for a vehicle rated at 10,000 pounds or less under s.

04 (3) (a), and the court must also order the operator to apply for registration and pay the fee; and without s. 02 (1) (h) the cart is judged against ch. 347 equipment requirements it cannot meet, each carrying $10 to $200 under s. 50 (1). Driving either machine without an operator's licence violates s. 05 (3) (a). Driving either without insurance is a forfeiture of not more than $500 under s. 65 (1) (a), with a further $10 under s. 65 (1) (b) for failing to carry proof, although that second charge falls away if the driver produces proof of coverage that was in force when the citation was issued.

Breaches of the ordinance conditions themselves, such as failing to stop and yield at a designated crossing point, are enforced by the city, village, town or county that wrote them.