Babcock Ranch discourages driving with ample walking and rolling infrastructure and dense development that offers many of the services residents need within a short walk or ride.
New residents of Babcock Ranch, a planned community in Florida, received a free golf cart when they bought a house in 2025 — and home sales are booming, writes Kea Wilson in Streetsblog USA.
The community bills itself as a haven for the "joy of golf cart living" and is designed for low-speed, non-automotive transportation with dense land use and robust pedestrian and golf cart infrastructure. "Collectively, those initiatives have made leaving the car at home the sensible choice for all sorts of daily trips — from 'Publix to the pool,' the community says, referring to the popular grocery chain."
According to the article, Babcock Ranch has over 100 miles of bike trails, keeps speed limits to 10 miles an hour in school zones and has plans to introduce smaller delivery vehicles to reduce the number of large e-commerce vans driving on its streets. While community leaders acknowledge that a fully car-free lifestyle is difficult in the autocentric Fort Myers metro, they hope that it offers a model for car-light living.
Editor's note: This article was updated to clarify that the free golf cart promotion is no longer active.
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