Can You Drive a Golf Cart on Longboat Key? Mostly No, and Here Is Why

The short version

We found no Town of Longboat Key ordinance designating any street for golf carts. Until the town confirms one, treat a plain golf cart as not permitted on the island’s public roads. LSVs (low-speed vehicles: the tagged, titled, insured kind that every rental company on this coast actually rents) are legal only where a road is posted 35 mph or less, and on Longboat Key that is a short list, because the one road that runs the length of the island is a 45 mph state road for most of its length. The thing most people get wrong is assuming the rental they picked up on Anna Maria Island can carry on down the key. It cannot go past the north end. For the two vehicle types, see golf cart vs LSV in Florida.

Who makes the rules here

Longboat Key is a single town that straddles the Manatee County and Sarasota County line. The town commission is the body that could designate streets for golf carts under s. 316.212; nothing we opened shows that it has. Gulf of Mexico Drive is State Road 789, so FDOT controls it, and it is posted 45 mph through the middle of the island. A golf cart may never travel along a state road, and an LSV may use one only where the posted limit is 35 mph or less.

Plain golf carts

A local real-estate guide says its author could not confirm that any Longboat Key street has been designated for golf carts, and we found nothing either. Under s. 316.212 the default is prohibition: a golf cart may be driven only on streets the local government has designated and signed. No designation means no public-road use.

If you keep a cart inside a gated Longboat community, driving it on that community’s private roads is a matter for the association, not for s. 316.212. The moment you leave the gate onto a public street, the public rule applies, and here the public rule is that there is nowhere to go.

The multi-use path along Gulf of Mexico Drive is not open to carts. The statute allows sidewalk use only where the town has designated a specific stretch after consulting FDOT, and we found no such action.

LSVs

An LSV may use roads posted 35 mph or less under s. 316.2122 and may cross a faster road at an intersection. On Longboat Key:

• Gulf of Mexico Drive is posted 45 mph through the middle of the island. An LSV may not be driven on that section.
• A rental-industry blog and the real-estate guide report that the limit drops to 35 mph roughly from Broadway Street north to Longboat Pass. That is the only section of Gulf of Mexico Drive an LSV may legally use, and the posted limits should be checked by driving it.
• The town’s side streets off Gulf of Mexico Drive are a separate question that nobody we read has answered, and reaching them means using the 45 mph road.

Police do stop rental LSVs. The Observer’s Cops Corner reported a 26 July 2024 stop in the 3900 block of Gulf of Mexico Drive; the driver was warned for operating in a prohibited area and said the rental company had not told him. The driver, not the company, takes the warning or the ticket.

South of the island, a rental blog describes the St. Armands and Lido side streets as low-speed and LSV-friendly, and the John Ringling Causeway as a state road that is LSV-legal only where posted 35 mph or less. We could not verify either claim, so confirm the signage before you rely on it.

Bridges and getting on and off the island

Longboat Pass bridge at the north end connects to Bradenton Beach on Anna Maria Island. Anna Maria Island rental operators allow their LSVs across the pass only as far as Broadway Street, naming Mar Vista, Shore and Whitney’s as the limit of the permitted area. That is an operator boundary that happens to line up with the reported 35 mph zone; we could not verify it as law. No golf cart may cross the bridge, which is part of the state road.

At the south end, the route toward Lido and St. Armands and the John Ringling Causeway beyond it are state roads. We have no verified posted limits for them. Treat them as closed to golf carts outright and closed to LSVs unless a sign in front of you says 35 mph or less.

Renting here

We found no rental operator based on Longboat Key itself. Anna Maria Island and Sarasota firms deliver. Every rental is an LSV, and the usual terms apply: a driver 21 or older, a licence and proof of your own auto insurance. Ask the operator in writing where its contract allows you to drive on Longboat Key, because the 2024 stop above began with a renter who had not been told. GolfCartNearMe lists rental companies by town, and renting a golf cart on the Gulf coast covers the paperwork. Whatever the contract says, the driver gets the citation.

Parking, paths and the beach

Park in car spaces. No multi-use path, sidewalk, bike lane or sand. The beach accesses along Gulf of Mexico Drive are for feet. If you own a cart or LSV on the key, the salt air is working on it whether or not you drive it; see salt-air golf cart care.

What we could not confirm

• Whether the Town of Longboat Key has designated any street for golf carts, and any ordinance number. Ask the town clerk or Longboat Key police on the non-emergency line.
• The exact posted limits on Gulf of Mexico Drive, including where the 35 mph zone begins at the north end. Drive it and read the signs.
• Posted limits on the south-end bridge and the John Ringling Causeway, and whether LSVs may use either.
• Whether St. Armands and Lido side streets are posted 35 mph or less throughout.
• Whether any rental operator is based on the island.

Sources

• Walter Group Real Estate, are golf carts legal on Longboat Key (undated local real-estate guide)
• CartBooker, best things to do by golf cart on Longboat, Lido and St. Armands (undated rental-industry blog)
• Your Observer, Longboat Key Cops Corner (stop reported 26 July 2024)
• Sharky’s Golf Cart Rentals, where you can drive on Anna Maria Island, 8 January 2025 (rental operator)
• Florida Statutes s. 316.212, golf carts on public roads
• Florida Statutes s. 316.2122, low-speed vehicles