Sections 46.2-916.1 through 46.2-916.3 of the Code of Virginia govern the use of golf carts and utility vehicles on Virginia highways.
Golf carts are allowed on streets in Irvington with a 25-mph speed limit (including King Carter Drive, Steamboat Road, and Chesapeake Drive). Golf carts are not allowed on Irvington Road (State Rt 200) due to heavier traffic per the Virginia Department of Transportation’s guidelines.
Virginia law allows the governing body of a town to authorize the operation of golf carts and utility vehicles on designated public highways within its jurisdiction. A locality may designate a state-maintained road for golf-cart use without obtaining prior approval from the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT). However, the locality must consider the speed, volume, and character of motor-vehicle traffic and determine that golf-cart operation is compatible with applicable transportation plans and the Commonwealth’s Statewide Pedestrian Policy. State law also prohibits designation of a highway if golf-cart operation would impede the safe and efficient flow of motor-vehicle traffic.
For state-maintained roads, VDOT has established guidelines for evaluating proposed golf-cart routes and whether or not they would impede the safe and efficient flow of motor-vehicle traffic. Among the criteria in VDOT’s guidelines, the Annual Average Daily Traffic (AADT) of a highway proposed for designation shall not exceed 1,000 vehicles per day. The guidelines also address roadway speed limits, traffic volumes on intersecting roads, sight distance, roadway width, truck traffic, crash history, and other roadway characteristics.
VDOT’s guidelines can be found in the document below, starting on page 3:
A VDOT traffic study conducted in January 2022 in Irvington recorded traffic volumes on Route 200 of more than 3,000 vehicles per day. Because this was a January count, the figure is not itself an AADT; however, it demonstrates that traffic volumes on Route 200 were already substantially above VDOT’s 1,000-vehicle-per-day guideline for a highway proposed for golf-cart designation, even during the winter period.