Foley has cleared the way for golf carts and other low-speed vehicles to use a stretch of Irwin Street after the City Council gave final approval to an ordinance lowering the road’s speed limit.
The new limit drops Irwin Street from 40 mph to 35 mph along the section running from West Azalea Avenue to West Michigan Avenue, west of Alabama 59. The five-mile-per-hour change may look minor on paper, but it carries real consequences for how the road can be used: under state law, the difference between a 40-mph street and a 35-mph street is the difference between a road that is closed to low-speed vehicles and one that is open to them.
Mayor Ralph Hellmich said the change is designed to give low-speed vehicle owners a way to reach nearby businesses without merging onto busier roads. “That will make that street consistent with the requirements for these vehicles,” Hellmich said. “Any low-speed motor vehicle that’s approved by the state will be able to drive down it and reach some of the businesses without having to use busier streets. That’s one of the purposes of doing this.”
What Alabama Law Allows
Under Alabama law, low-speed vehicles are defined as those with a top speed of 25 mph or less, and state law bars them from operating on roads where they would slow down traffic. That restriction is the reason a speed limit ordinance in Foley matters to golf cart owners: most cities, including Foley, generally keep low-speed vehicles off streets with posted limits above 35 mph, which made the previous 40 mph limit on Irwin Street a barrier for that class of vehicle.
The distinction between vehicle classes trips up many residents. A standard golf cart and a low-speed vehicle are not the same thing in the eyes of state law. Low-speed vehicles are built or modified to meet federal safety standards — the same category that covers many neighborhood electric vehicles — and they carry the equipment that makes them legal to operate on public roads that cities designate. Conventional golf carts, which lack that certification, fall under different and stricter rules about where they may be driven.
Cities can open specific streets to low-speed vehicles as long as the vehicles meet certain safety standards, including working headlights, tail lights and turn signals. Drivers operating them on city streets are also required to hold a valid driver’s license. Those requirements mean the vehicles must be registered and equipped for road use, not simply rolled out of a garage and onto the street, and they give police a clear basis for enforcement when unregistered or unequipped carts appear on public roads.
Why Foley Changed the Limit
City officials said the change reflects a broader shift toward low-speed vehicles among residents and visitors in Foley. Across Baldwin County, golf carts and similar vehicles have become an increasingly common sight in recent years, a trend driven by the region’s rapid growth, its warm climate, and the short-hop errands that fill daily life in a city where shops, restaurants, and neighborhoods sit close together.
By adjusting the Irwin Street limit, the city expects to make more of the area accessible to those drivers while easing congestion on higher-traffic routes nearby. The logic is straightforward: when a driver can reach a business on a 35-mph side street instead of taking a car onto Alabama 59, that is one fewer vehicle on the main corridor, and one less trip that ends in a parking lot rather than at the door.
The Setting: Irwin Street and Alabama 59
Irwin Street runs through the western part of Foley, and the section between West Azalea Avenue and West Michigan Avenue sits west of Alabama 59, the highway that serves as the city’s main north-south spine. Alabama 59 carries heavy traffic through the heart of Foley, connecting the inland parts of Baldwin County to the beach communities of Gulf Shores and Orange Beach to the south, and its intersections with local streets are among the busiest in the city.
For low-speed vehicle drivers, that traffic is precisely the problem. Crossing or merging onto a highway-grade corridor is not something a 25-mph vehicle can do safely, so accessibility for those drivers depends on the network of local streets that parallel and cross the main roads. Lowering Irwin Street to 35 mph adds a usable east-west connection to that network, letting drivers reach businesses on the west side without touching the highway.
Foley’s street grid makes that kind of adjustment practical. The city was laid out with a network of parallel local streets around its historic downtown, and short changes to speed limits on individual corridors can meaningfully change how much of the city is reachable by slow-moving vehicles without altering any pavement or intersections.
The Ordinance Process
The council’s final approval marked the last step in the legislative process for the ordinance. Municipal speed limit changes in Alabama require an ordinance adopted by the city council, and traffic engineers and police typically weigh in on whether a reduced limit is safe and enforceable for the stretch of road involved. Final approval means the new limit takes effect once posted, with signage marking the 35-mph zone between the two avenues.
For drivers, the transition carries practical warnings as well as permissions. The 35-mph limit applies to all traffic on that section of Irwin Street, not just the low-speed vehicles it is meant to accommodate, so regular motorists will see the change reflected in enforcement there. And the opening of the street to low-speed vehicles does not change the rules everywhere else: streets that remain posted above 35 mph stay off-limits to the vehicles, and violations remain enforceable.
A Growing Trend in Baldwin County
Foley’s move fits a pattern playing out across Baldwin County and the broader Gulf Coast, where municipalities have increasingly rewritten their vehicle ordinances to accommodate the rise of golf carts and low-speed vehicles. In beach communities to the south, carts have long been part of the local transportation mix, and that culture has steadily spread inland as the county’s population has grown and as newer neighborhoods are built near commercial centers.
The vehicles appeal to residents for obvious reasons: they are inexpensive to operate, easy to park, and well suited to the short trips that dominate daily errands in a small city. For older residents and for teenagers too young to drive but old enough to ride along, they also provide a kind of neighborhood mobility that a car trip does not. Cities that fail to adapt often end up with illegal cart traffic on roads never intended for it; cities that do adapt, like Foley, can channel that traffic onto streets where it is legal and safer.
Safety officials emphasize that the vehicles remain vulnerable in any collision with a standard car, which is why the equipment requirements — lights, signals, and a licensed driver — matter as much as the speed limits. With Irwin Street opened at 35 mph, Foley has given low-speed vehicle owners a legal route to the west-side businesses they were previously driving around for, while keeping them off the corridors where their 25-mph top speed would become a genuine hazard.
What Drivers Need to Know
For low-speed vehicle owners planning to use the newly opened stretch of Irwin Street, the requirements come down to a checklist. The vehicle must be approved by the state for road use, which for most owners means it falls into the low-speed vehicle category with its federal safety certification. It must have working headlights, tail lights and turn signals, and it must be operated by a driver holding a valid driver’s license. Vehicles that meet those standards can now travel the 35-mph section between West Azalea Avenue and West Michigan Avenue without risking a citation.
Owners of conventional golf carts should note that the ordinance does not automatically open the street to every cart. A standard golf cart that lacks the required safety equipment remains subject to the existing restrictions, and police can still enforce against unequipped or unregistered vehicles on public streets. Residents who want their carts street-legal generally need to add the mandated equipment and complete whatever state registration applies to the vehicle class.
The speed limit itself also deserves attention from regular drivers. A drop from 40 to 35 mph changes the character of the road for everyone who uses it, and enforcement on the corridor will reflect the posted limit once signage is in place. Motorists accustomed to moving through that stretch at the old 40-mph pace should expect to adjust, both to the new limit and to the presence of slower vehicles sharing the road.
Balancing Access and Traffic Flow
Every decision to open a street to low-speed vehicles involves a trade-off, and Foley’s approach reflects how city officials have weighed it. A 25-mph vehicle on a 35-mph street slows traffic behind it, which is exactly the condition state law is written to prevent on faster roads. But on a street where the volume is moderate and the distance is short, that difference is manageable — and the alternative, forcing those drivers onto Alabama 59 or leaving them unable to reach local businesses, carries its own costs.
Mayor Hellmich’s explanation of the change captured the practical goal: giving low-speed vehicle owners access to businesses without having to use busier streets. That framing treats the ordinance as a traffic-management tool as much as a recreational accommodation, a way of distributing trips across the street network instead of concentrating them on the main highway.
As low-speed vehicle use continues to grow in Foley and across Baldwin County, more of these decisions are likely to follow — street by street, limit by limit, as the city maps out which corridors can safely accommodate vehicles that top out at 25 mph. The Irwin Street ordinance is a small change on a single stretch of road, but it is part of a larger adjustment that Gulf Coast cities are making to a transportation trend that shows no sign of slowing down.