Bob Polk has been giving bike tours of Cleveland since 2011 under the moniker of Bob’s Bike Tours. He starts at the former Sokolowski’s in Tremont and takes people on two and a half hour rides through Tremont, Ohio City and downtown, peppering them with tidbits of Cleveland history along the way. But as Polk, who is now 68, has gotten up there in years, he’s become interested in alternative ways of touring people around the city.
“As I’m getting older and a lot of people are retiring with me, they don’t always want to ride a bike,” said Polk, who grew up in the Clark-Fulton neighborhood and worked full-time until recently as manager of Dave’s Supermarket in Ohio City. “So, I figured I’d give golf carts a try.”
Now, Polk offers golf cart history tours, which he runs through his website Leisure Tours Cleveland. The electric-powered, Put-in-Bay-esque jaunts start at $39 per person. “This is my fun little retirement gig,” said Polk, who stores his eight-person luxury golf cart in a garage in Tremont when he’s not cruising city streets. “I’m not looking to make a killing.”
Fellow Clevelanders Chris and Britney Taylor share Polk’s passion for golf carts. After renting them on vacation, they wondered, why can’t we bring these to downtown Cleveland? Britney is a disabled veteran who has degenerative arthritis from her hips down, and the couple found it endlessly frustrating to navigate downtown on Browns gamedays (that is, frustrating for reasons beyond simply the Brownies’ perpetually losing record and their impending move to Brook Park).
“The city has no answer for disabled people who want to go to a game,” said Chris Taylor, describing $50-60 Uber rides and hour-long waits navigating downtown traffic. “It’s a logistical nightmare for disabled people. We were in Myrtle Beach and thought, ‘This would be really cool for people to get to a Browns game.’”
Pretty soon, the Taylors had taken out a mortgage on their house and bought four golf carts complete with LED lights and bluetooth speakers. They called their business the Golf Cart Girl CLE after Britney. Instead of having to pay $50-60 or more for parking, or walk from a far-flung spot on the perimeter of downtown, people could park wherever they wanted to take the Golf Cart Girl CLE shuttle to the game. The couple charges $5 per ride according to their website and were regularly making $400-600 per Browns game, they said.
There was only one problem: they weren’t street legal. At the time, neither of the entrepreneurs knew it, but golf carts weren’t allowed on city streets. Golf carts are legal to drive in Ohio as long as they’re properly licensed, but each municipality regulates them differently.
In Polk’s case, a police cruiser pulled up in front of him and stopped him. In the Taylors’ case, Gordon Holmes, Commissioner of Traffic with the city’s Department of Public Safety, told them he’d impound their vehicles if he caught them riding on the streets again.
That started Polk and the Taylors, both of whom view themselves as ambassadors for Cleveland, on a two-year journey towards trying to get their businesses back on track and street-legal again. Although it took much longer than they anticipated, their goal to legalize golf carts on city streets for business purposes has recently been realized. On October 13th, Cleveland City Council approved new legislation setting up rules for so-called “under-speed vehicles.”
According to a city council release, the ordinance “sets speed, safety and registration requirements for small vehicles that can travel up to 20 miles per hour and weigh less than 3,000 pounds.” Golf carts are now allowed on city streets with speed limits of 35 miles per hour or below. They can only be used for business purposes, however – personal uses or rentals to individuals or groups are not allowed.
Additionally, business owners need to have their golf carts titled and registered, pass a $150 annual inspection, and have headlights, brake lights, and seat belts. Any violations could result in a minor misdemeanor and a fine.
At a recent meeting of Cleveland City Council’s finance, diversity, equity and inclusion committee before the legislation passed city council, Calley Mersmann, director of city planning, explained why the city had put its foot on the proverbial gas when it came to approving legislation to allow golf carts. She likened them to the shared mobility vehicles like scooters and e-bikes that are proliferating on Cleveland streets, and said golf carts would provide additional options for getting around in ways that are easier and more environmentally-friendly than driving a car.
“This is the introduction of golf carts on city streets to support the entrepreneurs behind two small businesses,” Mersmann said. “The overall goal is to provide mobility and options, especially between entertainment districts where distances might be a little too far to walk but don’t necessarily necessitate travel by car.”
City council members were concerned about safety, extending the reach of golf carts beyond downtown and into the neighborhoods, and whether or not the licenses would be abused by local business owners. Mersmann responded that the city has control over how many licenses can be issued, but has not currently set a limit on the number or the geographical areas that will be served.
Council president Blaine Griffin joked that if golf carts catch on, parts of his ward could soon look a little bit more like the Erie Islands. “I was working overtime to see if we can get a loop between Little Italy, Larchmere and Shaker Square,” Griffin said regarding previous efforts to better connect parts of his ward. “At some point, we may have Ward 6 looking like Put-in-Bay. Don’t count it out, because I think it would be a cool thing if we were able to do that.”
Indeed, after the legislation passed, Ward 8 Cleveland City Councilmember Mike Polensek reportedly received a flood of phone calls from residents asking, “When can I get my own golf cart and drive it around the neighborhood?”
As for Polk and the Taylors, when city council passed the legislation last week, they say their two years of advocacy have finally paid off. “I was pretty persistent,” said Polk of his lobbying city hall. “I was downtown more than some of the people who worked there. I would just go down there and start knocking on doors.”
Initially, the Taylors and Polk said they were promised the legislation would be wrapped up by August, but that didn’t end up happening. Unfortunately, the Golf Cart Girl CLE was booked solid for two nights in August for the Morgan Wallen concerts at the Browns stadium, but had to cancel all those reservations, losing thousands in revenue.
Although golf carts may give off a party-like atmosphere, unlike the golf carts in Put-in-Bay or other vacation destinations, Polk and the Taylors say these carts are safe because they always have a professional driver. Or, as Britney put it, “You can be drunk on my golf cart, but you’re not gonna drive it.”
The Taylors are now expanding their business by offering brewery and winery tours starting at $75 as well as gameday transportation to Browns, Cavs and Guardians games (admittedly, it’s somewhat of a seasonal business).
Mostly, they’re just glad to be back in business and showing off the town they love so much. “If you want to experience the Flats East Bank from downtown, you’re not gonna walk there in heels,” Chris Taylor said. “We call it the last mile. We want to connect that last mile in Cleveland.”