Golf Carts at Airventure

[Kevin O'Halloran]

Frank. Will give your wife a ride in the golf cart. Would probably make you walk. BUT. Since Oklahoma kicked Alabamas a$$ last January. Would not want to kick a man when he's down ��
kevin from Oklahoma. Driving the golf cart for cover since I can't run

[Karen Kryzaniak]

The thread asked for a perspective from risk management(boy, that doesn’t happen very often! <g>), so Hal asked me to jump in here. Reading through the thread, there are a lot of good viewpoints from allsides. I’ve been in similar situations both on foot and in a cart. Most of the cart users are very considerate, but it only takes a few bad eggs to leave a rotten impression.

I’ll try to keep this somewhat concise. The vehicle/pedestrian mix is something we continually wrestle with because ofcompeting demands. The grounds, as they’ve grown, aren’t the best natural setting to separate vehicles and pedestrians. People want to walk in vehicle areas and drivers want to use walkways. We’ve even had experienced traffic engineers study the situation, but at a place such as AirVenture, it’s impossible to knock over just one domino. Some of the programs that have started in the past few years include:

·Restricted vehicle zone from 9 am-6 pm (Boeing Plaza, immediate surroundings, main exhibit hangars to main gate)

·Dedicated vehicle routes and walkways (often effective, but see above statement on cross use)

·“How’s My Driving” program (we really do want people to report when vehicle drivers are doing things they aren’t supposed to)

·Denying dozens of cart requests each year and prohibiting any privately-owned carts from the flightline area

We’d love to have a magic wand to go “poof” and create aperfect transit system that would flow beautifully and separately. It’s a workin continual progress, especially when human nature comes into play. My finalpoint is that we’re always open to good ideas. Some of the best concepts through the years have come from attendees, chairmen and volunteers. The best way to forward an idea is through the feedback@eaa.orge-mail. The people running that mailbox ALWAYS make sure I get those…

Thanks again for the comments!

Karen Kryzaniak
EAA Risk management

[mmorrison123]

Karen, thanks for responding. It supports my statement that the EAA staff and volunteers are the best. I know that it is a difficult job managing all the traffic, wheeled and on foot.

In order for us to offer any "constructive" suggestions we probably need a better understanding of what the golf cart rule currently are. Can they go anywhere, anytime? if not what are the rules? Is parking in the way of other spectators to watch the airshow or a concert permitted? You point out that a vast majority of drivers are fine, and I agree that most are probably safe, friendly, and helpful, but if you could fill us in on the rules it would help us see if it's a procedure or a behavior issue. Then we would know whether to address it to the EAA or to the individual.

Thanks
Malcolm

[Mayhemxpc]

Karen,

I repeat Malcom's thank for the explanation. Although it would be good to know what the rules are as pedestrians, so that we can intelligently respond to the "How's my driving part," it is even more important that the cart drivers know, understand, and can apply those rules. In the Sport Aviation before last, Lane Wallace wrote of her experiences in volunteering, which included driving one of the shuttle tractors. She briefly mentioned the training required to do that. Is there any training required and authorization issued to golf cart drivers? (I hope so) What does that consist of?

[FlyingRon]

I will reiterate, carts aren't monolithic. The EAA parcels them out to the various groups operating on the show. There may be some official guidelines, but I guarantee you they don't make it down to the individual drivers universally. The best you get is "don't do nothing stupid." I certainly don't think you're going to get anything that says don't park in front of others. While I try to avoid parking a cart/scooter or standing in away that adversely affects other attendees, be advised that my duties do require me to be in front of the crowd line and I can't aways be out of everyone's line of sight.

Still, I've found that if someone parks in a really objectionable way (I saw a guy pull up in front of some disabled attendees who didn't really have the option to move or stand up to see over them), politely asking them to move out of the way generally works.

If you see any trully unsafe rather than just annoying activity, I've never had any issue with talking to either security or one of the higher ups (typically you can tell these people as they are carrying radios). Frankly, security is trained with dealing with people without getting emotionally involved, even when someone reports an unsafe activity to me and it is more than a "Please don't do that" to resolve it, I let security or the chairman handle it.

[psvinny]

I come to Airventure to wind down from 51 weeks of work so my goal is to relax, which I do. My only gripe about the golf carts is after the evening air shows. The carts, and there are a lot of them, down on the flight line for the air show. They could care less about the people walking in the path next to the theater in the woods heading to camp Scholler. It is like watching a pinball machine as they weave in and out trying to miss the bumpers(pedestrians).

[FlyingRon]

Yes, that road and time of day is particularly bad. Everybody wants to leave at once (either to go to Scholler or just to the parking lot bus areas). That would be another good place for a "NO CART" zone and send anybody who wants to go that way around the permieter road to the gate between the Theatre in the woods and Sally's. Let the carts fight it out with the vehicle traffic

[mmorrison123]

FlyingRon, you suggest "NO Cart" zones but also say drivers are simply told "don't do anything stupid". Would it be reasonable to insist on a little more instruction for drivers? And at the same time to ask for cart rules to be made available to the rest of us so we would know whether a cart driver is doing something inappropriate and we should address it with them?

Malcolm

[FlyingRon]

The no-cart areas are enforced by security (actual security staff at the entrances to the area) as well as signs.

We train our guys in Vintage, but it's rolled into the overall training about being safe around moving aircraft more than anything else (most of our people are on the 30 or so scooters we are assigned, the carts are primarily used to shuttle volunteers to the distant work assignments and to deliver provisions, primarily water and gatorade to our work areas and typically we shoot down the front side of the "crowd burn line" so we're not mixing with the public on those). However, at least hanging a laminated card with the rules on the vehicle (perhaps with a "hows my driving" number on the rear).

[Infidel]

The carts, go-carts, scooters, ATV's, UTV's, and dirt bikes in Camp Scholler is, a whole other problem.