Low-Speed Vehicles Help Older Drivers Zip Around the Neighborhood

Finding a parking space near the beach in Margate City, New Jersey, used to be an exercise in frustration for Lynn and Neil Sperling. Margate’s population swells more than tenfold in the summer as day-trippers, second-home owners and vacationers flock to the seaside town. Year-round residents like the Sperlings contend with SUVs clogging the streets, restaurants and parking spaces.

Then the couple found an ideal solution: They bought a street-legal low-speed vehicle. Their gold four-seater slips into the tightest of parking spaces and makes running errands a delight. “When the weather’s nice, we do not drive our cars on the island,” says Lynn Sperling, 63. “It’s so easy to live here and to have one. They just make sense.”

Increasingly, these small, lightweight electric vehicles are being accepted on many roads across America.

Resembling golf carts but outfitted with required safety features such as speedometers and windshield wipers, low-speed vehicles (LSVs), or neighborhood electric vehicles (NEVs), are street-legal in 18 states and in many more municipalities in other states — provided they’re driven on roads with speed limits of 35 mph or less. (Some vacation communities have long promoted golf carts as a form of transportation, but only on a network of private paths, not neighborhood streets.)

They can be an attractive option to older drivers who want to get around their neighborhoods easily without traveling on busy roadways. They are also easier to enter, exit and maneuver than cars, potentially allowing older drivers to remain mobile longer.

LSVs are relatively inexpensive (generally $8,000 to $12,000), easy to maintain because they are battery-powered and less expensive to insure than cars. They plug into a standard wall socket to charge and can travel up to 40 miles after a five-hour charge, while producing no emissions (which may also appeal to those looking for green alternatives to cars).

Some might worry about colliding with a car, but advocates say the risk of injury is reduced by limiting LSVs mainly to side streets, and with a maximum speed of about 25 mph, they’re less likely to be involved in a serious accident in the first place. Plus, their open-air styling increases visibility for the driver, with no vision-blocking quarter panels.

Valued at $2.59 billion in 2025, the LSV market is expected to more than double in the next decade to $5.75 billion. The demand continues to grow as lithium-ion batteries become more efficient and manufacturers add amenities like sound systems and touchscreen dashboards.

“We’re seeing huge growth and interest in LSVs,” says Jared Stokes, owner of Tigon Golf Carts in Hanover, Pennsylvania. “People want to keep up with the Joneses. Your neighbor gets one, you get one.”

That’s exactly right, Lynn Sperling says. After her neighbors saw her and her husband cruising around town in their LSV, they bought one too.