A new ordinance allows residents in Keokuk to travel city streets in golf carts and utility terrain vehicles.
The ordinance goes into effect on May 2, 2022 and includes several rules:
- Drivers must be 18 or older and have a valid driver’s license
- Each golf cart and UTV must be registered with the city - registration stickers cost $75
- The vehicles will be restricted to streets with speed limits of 25 mph or less
- All golf cart and UTV drivers who travel along city streets must always drive with the headlights on and have rearview mirrors
- No UTV or golf cart may be driven on 13th Street or 18th Street, except to cross at an intersection
- UTVs and golf carts may operate only on paved roadways in the city’s parks
- UTVs and golf carts are prohibited in any cemetery in town
Keokuk Police Chief Dave Hinton said the new ordinance is similar to laws in Fort Madison and rural Lee County.
He also said it will sunset on April 30, 2023.
“It will be a learning process for us, and I think that’s probably why the City Council put a sunset provision in there. They want to take a look at it and see how it effects the community, see how it’s received for that first year and then take another look at it after that,” Hinton said.
The ordinance does not permit all-terrain vehicles, or ATVs, on city streets. ATVs have one seat and are like four-wheel motorcycles, whereas UTVs are like a golf cart and have two to four seats inside a cab.
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