Rental carts ‘aren’t cars in a Disneyland ride.’ : Avalon Finds Itself in a Jam With Big-City Traffic Woes

It’s a city where there are no traffic lights, the maximum speed limit is 20 m.p.h. and the number of automobiles is fixed by quota. And it’s in Los Angeles County.

But the hub of Santa Catalina Island--that hideaway of balmy temperatures, clear waters and picturesque coves--seems to have caught a slight dose of traffic craziness from the mainland.

Islanders blame visitors tearing about in rented golf carts, or autoettes, as the local Vehicle Review Board calls them.

“(Tourists) drive too fast and they cut off people,” cart salesman/mechanic Mike Minuto said. “I saw a guy in a cart get mad at a woman who lives here. He pulled out an ice chest and swung it at her as she went by on her moped. Knocked her down and broke her arm.”

“I saw two guys trying to rent the same cart get in a fistfight,” chimed in Minuto’s brother, Buddy. “There was blood and everything!”

‘They Get Mad at You’

Aside from frantic tourists, the natives are also perturbed by the opposite, or dazed, variety--”the kind that’ll stop in the middle of the road, looking at a map and pointing in all directions,” Buddy Minuto said. “Then if you give ‘em the horn, they get mad at you.”

All in all, the behavior of autoette renters is so unpredictable that agencies routinely send out patrols to spy on their customers.

“You have to protect your investment,” said Kelly Whittaker, one rental manager. “These cars sell for anywhere from $3,500 to $5,500 brand new. And you never know what (renters) are going to be up to--drinking, letting the kids drive, hanging out over the side. There’s an old race track on the island we had to fence off. Some idiots were racing each other on it.”

Whittaker said some visitors seem unaware that the 12-horsepower golf carts, which rent for $20 per hour and hit speeds of up to 25 m.p.h., are subject to the same general traffic rules as automobiles.

He keeps a collection of unusual questions from prospective renters. His favorites: “Do we have to drive the cars ourselves?” “Can you still drive if you’re over 20?” “Are the streets red where you can’t go?” “Do you accept American money?”

“(Autoettes) aren’t cars in a Disneyland ride,” he said. “Someone could get hurt if one turns over. Fortunately we haven’t had that happen.”

Many renters also seem to think parking tickets are make-believe citations.

“Fortunately,” he added, “when an officer (Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy) writes a ticket, he usually notifies us so we can bring it to the attention of the customer. Or mail it to them.”

‘Reckless’ Bicyclists

Out-of-control autoettes aren’t the only traffic problem.

A few months ago, bicyclists were banned from the island’s back roads due in part to “reckless riding and speeding” that were endangering plant and human life.

Even when they’re on foot, visitors can disrupt traffic, islanders say.

“Some seem to think that because our streets are so small, they’re really not streets at all and so they can walk right down the middle,” said resident Richard X. Slattery, an actor better known as “Murph” in the Unocal television commercials.

Erratic tourist traffic only complicates existing congestion problems in Avalon (pop. 2,300), a city visited by an estimated 500,000 people each year. About 1,000 automobiles and trucks, 600 golf carts and 225 motorcycles vie for space in the 1.2-square-mile city.

Avalon’s City Council recently placed a four-month moratorium on the issuance of golf cart permits while it ponders a quota. Autoette numbers had swelled after some hotels began buying them up so they could offer free use of the machines to guests. Condo salesmen were also offering carts (and tiny garages) as a condition of purchase.

Mayor Irene Strobel admitted that residents don’t do much themselves to ease the congestion.

“People here don’t seem to walk anymore,” said Strobel, an admitted cart user. “I guess our lives are getting busier too.”

And, because almost all the golf carts are gasoline-powered, a dreaded, big-city word has cropped up in conversations here.

“I’d hate to see smog over here,” Strobel said. “I hope we don’t reach that point before people realize we have to make some changes.”

She advocated a concept whose very name seems at odds with the restful image of Catalina: rapid transit. “We need open-air trams to get people out of the carts,” Strobel said.

Councilman George Scott traced the congestion problem back to the late 1970s when the automobile quota was imposed. (There is a nine-year-long waiting list to get a car permit.)

“They gave everyone notice first, and people panicked and went out and bought cars even if they didn’t need them,” he said. “(The quota) made people car conscious.”

Councilman Hal Host asserted that the council also erred by regulating cars only. “Once the quotas went into effect, everyone went out and bought golf carts,” he said.

And, now, Host lumps Catalinans in the same boat as the rest of the state’s residents: “Hell’s bells. You can’t keep people in California from driving.”

But soon summer will be over, and the number of wild golf-carters will decline.

Besides, whatever Avalon’s problems, residents stress that the city’s a long way from becoming Little L.A.

While on patrol for mischievous cart renters the other day, Kelly Whittaker’s brother, Ron, said: “I’ve only been shot at once here--by a girl with a squirt gun.”