Street-legal golf carts could be coming soon to a neighborhood near you

Years ago, Ron Sciarro learned about and wanted what’s called a neighborhood electric vehicle — basically a golf cart enhanced to be street legal — and decided to research Pennsylvania laws to learn if he could get one. He learned Pennsylvania makes it illegal to take them on the road, so he let it go.

The law has since changed, and a Pittsburgh area business specializing in these buggies has opened to take advantage of this. Once Sciarro learned about the business, he reached out and bought a champagne metallic four-seater for $12,000.

“I use it every day unless it’s raining,” the 71-year-old Beaver Falls resident says. “Anywhere I’m going in town, it’s legal, because it’s 25 miles an hour. And I cross the bridge in Brighton and go in Brighton anywhere I want. And my grandson loves riding in it.”

Village Buggy, opened March in Sewickley by businessman Matthew Simmons, sells neighborhood electric vehicles. Simmons expects Village Buggy to grow and potentially face competition from other businesses once others realize these could be desirable for area residents.

Neighborhood electric vehicles more or less resemble a golf cart but come equipped with features to handle traffic, such as turn signals. They’re all completely electric and cost much less than a car. Pennsylvania law now allows these vehicles to operate on roads with speed limits as high as 25 miles per hour. Individual municipalities can regulate them further, or completely disallow them for use on streets, but so far, Pittsburgh-area governments don’t seem to be concerned.

So far, he’s mostly getting customers from Sewickley but has seen customers from other parts of the greater Pittsburgh region.

“The number one reason is it’s fun,” Simmons says. “I think it’s very fun to cruise around in a golf cart.”

Simmons started the business partly because he had a personal interest in the buggies. He currently owns a six-seater and has, for the most part, used it to effectively replace his car during the summer.

“Everywhere we go, everywhere we park it, people want to come up, they want to check it out, they have questions about how fast does it go, is it legal, what do they cost, etcetera,” Simmons says.

When developing the business, Simmons met with Sewickley’s chief of police and with the Greater Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce to get a temperature check on these freshly legal, odd vehicles. He also regularly meets with customers on Zoom meetings to check in with them about their purchase and to discuss any potential issues in their own neighborhoods. So far, he says he hasn’t heard of anyone running into issues with police or municipal government.

“Everyone has said that their local municipalities have been very receptive to it,” Simmons says. “So we haven’t had any issues.”

Simmons doesn’t have much in the way of local competition yet. He sees that large businesses such as Lowe’s are starting to get into neighborhood electric vehicles and anticipates other, similar businesses may start to add them to their inventory. It’s also possible more businesses will appear in the Pittsburgh area.

“In my experience, it’s not one of those businesses where you open the door and everybody floods in to buy one. This is one of those things where people want to wait and see,” Simmons says. “How are they being received by the authorities? Are they safe? Are my neighbors gonna get one? Am I comfortable driving one after I’ve seen a few on the road?”

Simmons, who has worked primarily in real estate for years and still does, expects to be able to handle any potential competition. He’s focused on keeping prices low, offering maintenance and winter storage for customers and stocking high-quality vehicles.

“We really do have all the bases covered for our customers,” Simmons says.