By John Lyon
Arkansas News Bureau

LITTLE ROCK — Golf carts may be legal to drive on city streets under certain circumstances, but the same probably can’t be said for riding lawnmowers, motorized wheelchairs or electric scooters, Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel said in an opinion Tuesday.

McDaniel issued the opinion in response to a question from state Rep. Tiffany Rogers, D-Stuttgart, who asked about the legality of driving certain non-automotive vehicles on public roads.

One of the vehicles Rogers asked about was a golf cart. McDaniel noted that in a recent opinion he said a golf cart could be driven on a city street if a city passes an ordinance to that effect, provided the cart is driven only between the owner’s home and a golf course.

As for other non-automotive vehicles, McDaniel said Arkansas law requires registration of motor vehicles that are driven on public roads. A riding lawnmower is exempt from registration requirements because it is considered special mobile equipment, but as such it should be operated on a public road only incidentally while performing the task it was designed to perform, he said in the opinion.

Motorized wheelchairs and electric scooters are not exempt from registration requirements, according to McDaniel.

“Because the law generally requires motor vehicles to be registered before being driven on the highway, but provides no mechanism for the registration of the types of motor vehicles that you mention, one could reasonably conclude that the General Assembly has chosen not to permit these types of vehicles to be driven on public roads,” McDaniel said in the opinion.

McDaniel also said motorized wheelchairs and electric scooters would not likely meet equipment standards or be able to keep pace with ordinary traffic.