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1. Do you need to find out about the Island Golf Cart Rules?

• Persons who operate a golf cart within Clear Lake Shores must hold a valid Texas Drivers's License. Children 16 years or younger are allowed to drive a cart ONLY if they have a DRIVERS LEARNING PERMIT and are accompanied by a licensed passenger of proper age.
  
• A "slow moving" emblem or hazard triangle must be attached and visible to the rear of the cart.
  
• Open containers of alcohol are NOT permitted on golf carts.
  
• You must follow all Texas traffic laws as golf carts are considered moving vehicles. This includes stop signs, yield signs. traffic lights, pedestrians, stopped school buses, and DWI/DUI laws.
  
• You may cross over FM 2094 in your golf cart, however it is not legal to drive on the roadway itself as the speed limit is over 35 mph on this roadway.
  
• Just like an automobile, your golf carts must be equipped with operable headlights, taillights, blinkers, mirrors, and a parking break.
  
  
  
  
  For more information and all of the rules regarding the use of Golf Carts, you can contact the Clear Lake Shores Police Department.

2. May a golf cart be driven on a city street?

Yes , if allowed by city ordinance and in other, very limited circumstances. Three sections of two Texas Transportation Code provisions govern whether a golf cart may be driven on a city street:

1) a golf cart may be driven on a street if the street is: (1) in a master planned community that meets
certain conditions; (2) on a golf course; or (3) on a public or private beach. TEX TRANSP. CODE
551.403 (a). (Because state law provides no definition of "master planned community," and the
attorney general declined to define the term in Texas Attorney General Opinion GA-0966, each city
will likely have to look at its own definition of master planned community within its subdivision and
zoning regulations.); NOT APPLICABLE FOR CLEAR LAKE SHORES

2) a golf cart may also be driven on a city street that has a posted speed limit of 35 miles per hour or
less, if the golf cart is operated to and from a golf course during the day time and no more than two miles from
the place where the golf cart is usually parked. Id.; the Attorney General also added that the purpose of driving
the golf cart on public streets under this subsection must be to transport a person
to and from the golf course under GA-0966; and/or NO APPLICABLE FOR CLEAR LAKE SHORES

3). a city council may, by ordinance, authorize a golf cart to be operated on any street in the city that has a posted
speed limit of not more than 35 miles per hour, so long as the golf cart has special safety equipment, including
headlamps, tail lamps, reflectors, parking brakes, and mirrors. Id. § 551.404.

In addition, a golf cart may be driven across an intersection of any street if the cart is
being lawfully operated under one of the provisions above. Id. § 551.405. Under a
provision adopted in 2013, the Texas Department of Transportation can now offer license
plates to golf carts that are driven on public streets as described above. Id. § 551.402.