I would like to have an opinion from anyone that reads this Opinion piece.
The question is: are golf cart tunnels without a sidewalk safe and intended for walkers to use? I have a case in point. Has anyone with a walking golf cart wanted to golf at Sandhill Executive Golf Course, about 3/4 mile or so (maybe a bit more) north of SR 466A on Buena Vista? Sandhill does not have any parking for vehicles and the closest is the parking lot at Turtle Mound Executive course, east of Sand Hill across Buena Vista and a round-about there.
So, if you park at Turtle Mound, you will then have to walk a golf cart path up to and then through the golf cart tunnel and then to Sand Hill, all of about 1.5-2 walking blocks I’m guessing. But the problem is, there is NO sidewalk that is part of the tunnel there so it becomes risky to walk through it from either Turtle Mound or from the Sand Hill side. And if to add “salt to this ‘wound'”, when entering the tunnel from the Turtle Mound side, there is a curve to the right for golf cart drivers, making it a blind spot for them entering who could well come upon a golfer with a walking golf cart, or a non-golf person just wanting to walk to the Sand Hill side of the tunnel. Based on my background, this is a personal injury situation waiting to happen for a golf cart driver to hit or sideswipe a walker.
I have contacted the Villages District Office and spoke to one of its risk management specialists who told me the District is looking into this (I also supplied them with photos), but I thought posting my observations here might be of use in a general sense, particularly for the golfers in the community that use golf cart pull carts.
Miles Zaremski is a resident of the Village of Dunedin.