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Comment by jjcoffman | Hacker News Reader

Something I’ve thought a lot about is why don’t we have more support around golf cart and golf cart adjacent vehicles? They are fairly cheap compared to a car, can be BEV, drive around on most city streets, fractions of the weight and danger to pedestrians etc.

I know it doesn’t work in a lot of areas due to weather etc, but it seems like an obvious stop-gap solution.

It is also kind of “cool” to drive around in a golf cart

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I agree and love the electrek dude and his Chinese import mini truck, but automobile companies are trying to make money. Selling a plastic molded macho truck for 90k fully loaded is a high ticket item with relatively good margins compared to low cost mini cars. The incentive tends towards gigantic tanks, not a joke, it fulfills fragile human ego and makes a bunch of money.

Here’s the link I refer to above, it’s a great read and shows that the tech and demand is there but the regulatory environment in US and profit motive means it’s a huge uphill battle. https://electrek.co/2023/11/14/two-years-after-buying-a-2000...

It doesn’t have to be big car manufactures though. In fact there are already many golf cart manufactures which can drive on roads with speed limits lower than 40 (or something like that. In CA)

Most cities now have 40+ limit roads though which makes it impractical or impossible to use them. A tweak to that law would make them viable. Also, brand new they are like $10k

There is a delightful little town on an island off SoCal coast, Avalon, where the main mode of motorized transportation is indeed the golf cart. The shaping constraint is geography, the town is on an island by a bay surrounded by steep hills, medium/long distance travel is out of the question. Would be difficult to transition nearby LA megalopolis to such a mode of transportation without enforcing political barriers to travel, which in practice would require a ruthless tyranny.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avalon,_California#Transportat...

"The main method of transportation within the city is by small gasoline or electric powered motorcars referred to locally as "autoettes". These include numerous golf carts and similarly sized vehicles. Vehicles under 55 inches (140 cm) wide, 120 inches (300 cm) long, and less than 1,800 pounds (820 kg) may qualify as an autoette. Any resident may acquire an autoette permit with the restriction of one permit per household. It is very difficult for a private citizen to get a permit to have a full-size vehicle in Avalon."

Well, I think this is letting perfect be the enemy of good. You could definitely improve the support for these types of vehicles and add incentives to purchases and use. As one example in CA you can’t drive on on roads that have a speed limit higher than like 40 or something. So adjusting speed limits in towns or providing exemptions for city streets’ right lanes or something would go along way with adoption.

I’m not saying you would ban cars, just incentivize using more economical modes of transport. My family of 4 would happily use a golf cart if my community had support for them on city streets.

I encountered that once in Hong Kong, more specifically in Discovery Bay on Lantau Island... But that's because regular cars were banned for private ownership.

That was over 20 years ago, and it seems that with the growth of the place and the supply-limits imposed by the local government, the carts have become insanely expensive. [0]

[0] https://www.thenationalnews.com/business/golf-carts-a-must-h...

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