The Peachtree

City Police Department will host a special meeting Thursday at 7 p.m.

at the McIntosh High School media center to educate the public about the

city's new golf cart ordinances and regulations.

Organizers

plan to conduct the meeting as an open forum so the public can ask questions

as necessary. Parents, students, teachers and concerned citizens are encouraged

to attend.

In August,

the City Council voted to allow 15-year-olds to drive golf carts unchaperoned

as long as they have a valid Georgia learners permit. A later restriction

was adopted that allows the 15-year-old drivers to have one unrelated

passenger who is at least 15 also or no more than three immediate family

members, which allows them to drive their siblings on the cart.

The city received

a number of complaints in the following months about reckless driving

on the cart path, but the police department asked if it could work to

educate the public on the regulations before council enacted strict penalties

for violating the rules.

Council also

enacted several safety related rules in September, including:

No one may

sit in the driver's lap while the cart is moving;

No one is

allowed to stand on the golf cart while it is in operation; and

Anyone who

has had their driver's license suspended or revoked cannot drive a golf

cart on the streets or path system.

While they

are operated on city streets, golf carts must follow the same rules of

the road as other motor vehicles, according to city officials.

Council also

changed the golf cart ordinance to allow grandparents to chaperone cart

drivers between 12 and 14 years old. Previously only parents and legal

guardians were allowed to chaperone the younger drivers.

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