Mahatma: My husband and I were walking in the Heights the other day. We were on Hawthorne Street when a golf cart came toward us. A boy who looked about 10 was driving while his father and another child rode along. They stopped at a nearby house and I asked the father, in my best innocent voice, "Is it legal for a child of that age to drive on the street?" He replied, "No, but I allow it." What say you? -- Perambulatory Person
Dear Person: We say stop. No kid that age should be driving anything but a bike.
The larger issue concerns golf carts in the Heights, about which we have fielded questions for years. At some point, a similar question was asked about Benton. Fundamentally: Can a golf cart be driven on a city street?
Depends on whether a municipality has passed an ordinance to allow the practice.
Used to be that state law allowed such ordinances, but only to allow carts from home to a golf course and back. Then Act 170 of 2013 was passed, taking out the qualifier and leaving municipalities to decide whether to allow golf carts on all their streets. (Those streets may not be federal or state highways or county roads.)
A few municipalities around the state allow carts on their streets. Little Rock is emphatically not one of those municipalities. Neither is Benton, for that matter.
What to do? Call 311, the city's nonemergency number. Ask for enforcement, and hope the police get to the scene before the golf cart gets home.
Readers have also told The Mahatma about seeing golf carts being driven in the Heights by intoxicated adults. Can you spell D-W-I? In that case, call 911.
Dear Mahatma: I notice numerous diesel pickup trucks idling in parking lots around Little Rock. Most of the time the trucks are empty with occupants in a nearby store or restaurant. Why? I thought modern diesel engines started as easy as gas engines. -- Smoke Gets In My Eyes
Dear Smoke: Carl Dessens is an instructor at Northwest Technical Institute in Springdale and knowledgeable about diesel engines, although he admits his focus is on heavy trucks.
Nonetheless, he ventures an answer. Yes, Dessens said, today's diesel engines start as easily as a gas engine. Reasons for idling a diesel vary. One could be the age of the vehicle. Some folks, regardless of the vehicle's age, believe they need to keep it running so the passenger compartment stays warm in winter or cool in summer. Or they may believe it takes more fuel to restart an engine than to leave it running.
Here is The Mahatma's theory: Drivers who leave their vehicles running while they run into a store or restaurant are begging to have it stolen.
There's more. Arkansas Code 27-51-1306, "Unattended motor vehicles," says drivers shouldn't leave their vehicles unattended "without first stopping the engine, locking the ignition, and removing the key."
Mahatma@arkansasonline.com
Metro on 04/16/2016