Alberta’s government announced last week that it is collaborating with interested municipalities in the province to pilot the limited use of golf carts in those communities.
Among the seven communities that have applied for and been granted permission as part of the pilot project to use golf carts on select municipal roads is the Village of Delburne.
Delburne Mayor Tim Wilson states that they love trying new things, love being part of pilot projects, so they are excited about it. He says “it is a pilot so we are not a hundred per cent sure what it is going to look like in the end. However, starting with we had a lot of interested from citizens in and around the golf course to be able to go from home to the course. So we saw it as an opportunity to listen to our citizens and give it a shot and see where it goes.”
Mayor Wilson emphasizes the fact that discussions have just begun on what it will look like so it won’t be all the roads, it will be select roads and just part of the community to start with – not the complete community. He says “our next council meeting will have a big discussion on it. So it’s as brand new to us as it is to everyone else and we’re not sure what it’s going to look like. We have quite a bit of say in that so there’ll be a lot of conversation and crafting.”
Mayor Wilson says Delburne has a population of about 1,000 people and the golf course draws a lot of traffic to their little Village.
If the golf cart pilot project is successful, Mayor Wilson was asked if he thinks it will pave the way for other new modes of transportation to be used on municipal roads in the future. He says “I absolutely do. The idea of a pilot project is to try something and see how it works. What the pitfalls are and what the positives are. See what communities it might fit into and how it will look when it is implemented. So yeah, I think it is, I think it is a good idea as long as it is done right and safely.”
According to Alberta’s government, three Canadian jurisdictions already have provisions within their legislation that addresses golf cart use on select municipal roads – they are British Columbia, Ontario, and Saskatchewan.
Village of Delburne along with the Town of Coaldale, the County of Lacombe, the Village of Linden, the Summer Village of Whispering Hills, the Village of Acme, and Half Moon Bay are the municipalities in Alberta that have applied for and been granted the use of golf carts on roadways in their communities.
