Planning to drive your golf cart around Newport this summer? Why you should keep it in park

Come July, Newporters may see a few new types of vehicles out on its municipal roads, but while their small, boxy shape and limited speed may resemble golf carts, these low-speed electric vehicles are entirely street legal.

Concerns on social media sparked recently over untrue claims that the City of Newport would allow golf carts to drive on its municipal streets this summer. However, while golf carts, as sold, are not built to be driven on streets and therefore cannot be driven down Newport’s winding roads, low-speed electric vehicles, or LSVEs, are. Unlike golf carts, these compact, four-wheeled micro cars can top out at 25 miles per hour and have to, according to a new law, be outfitted with several key features that make street-legal vehicles safer, including headlights, front and rear turn signal lights and seatbelts. Those safety features are outlined as requirements for these vehicles in the bill.

“The point was made explicitly that these are not golf carts,” Newport Director of Communications Tom Shevlin said. “Golf carts do not fall into this category and that is in the state law, so the DMV will not permit you to register a golf cart as a low-speed electric vehicle unless you’ve tricked it out to the point where it meets those minimum thresholds.”

Although the Rhode Island General Assembly passed House bill, 2023-H 5457A, and its Senate companion 2023-S 0419 passed in 2023, the law does not take effect until July 2024. The bill was sponsored by Rep. Terri Cortvriend (D-Dist. 72, Portsmouth, Middletown) and backed by several Newport County lawmakers, including Reps. Lauren Carson, Michelle McGaw, John Edwards and Alex Finkelman. Sen. Louis DiPalma introduced the Senate version of the bill.

The new law also has some restrictions on the use of LSEVs. The vehicle has to be registered with the state and they are only allowed on streets with speed limits of up to 35 miles per hour. Municipalities are also allowed to prohibit their use on specific roadways if they find the use of LSEVs to pose an unreasonable risk of death or serious injury to the occupants.

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The City of Newport has yet to pass an ordinance regarding these vehicles, despite the city’s past desire to regulate other alternative modes of transportation that appear on its streets, like electric bikes and electric scooters. In fact, a bill (H7321) that would allow the city to pass ordinances regulating the use of these vehicles passed the house this March. The city has had an exception carved out in the Rhode Island General Laws since 2018 that allows for commercial low-speed vehicles to be used as a jitney service on local roads, however.

Despite the law not having gone into effect, there are already proprietors in Rhode Island selling LSEVs in anticipation of the summer. J2 Construct owner Jeff Lipshires opened Classic Coast Motors in 2022 and presented a few at Audrain Motor Week that year.

This article originally appeared on Newport Daily News: Driving golf carts will remain illegal as low-speed vehicle law starts