This MS Coast city made a big traffic change for golf carts and bikers. Here’s why

Martha Sanchez
·3 min read
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Diamondhead is a golf cart city. And now, cars that drive its looping thoroughfare must move over – literally – for a new bike, pedestrian and golf cart lane its leaders created this year.

The lane is 8 feet wide and big news in the Mississippi Coast city.

And its story – the shrinking of a road and growth of a multi-use path – is also an increasingly familiar one becoming more popular around the country.

“We’re trying to promote a healthy community,” said Diamondhead city manager Jon McCraw. “This was one of the first big things we did.”

In one stretch of tree-lined Diamondhead Drive East, the city went all in: it turned what was once a two-lane road into a street with one lane for cars, and one lane for bikes, golf carts and everything else.

The rest of Diamondhead Drive now has a 10-foot traffic lane, 1-foot buffer and 8-foot bike, golf cart and pedestrian lane on each side of the grassy neutral ground. The path winds through all seven miles of the road, and the city slightly shrunk the traffic lane to make room for it.

A screenshot from the city’s “Envison Diamondhead 2040” plan shows the before and after renderings for the new bike, pedestrian and golf cart lane on Diamondhead Drive.
A screenshot from the city’s “Envison Diamondhead 2040” plan shows the before and after renderings for the new bike, pedestrian and golf cart lane on Diamondhead Drive.

The narrower car lane makes drivers go slower, said council member John Cumberland, whose ward includes the stretch of Diamondhead Drive that moved from two lanes to one.

“It’s a lot safer,” he said.

That mission, carried out in the Hawaiian-inspired haven in South Mississippi, is also evident across America.

In every region of the country, cities are pushing to expand safe travel by bike and foot at the same time that pedestrian deaths last year reached their highest rates in four decades. Golf carts have long been a vehicle of choice on the laid-back Mississippi Coast, but interest in biking also soared nationwide after the COVID-19 pandemic.

New bike lanes in some cities have prompted backlash from residents who complain of parking problems or wonder if riders will use them at all.

But the Coast has already committed: the Mississippi Department of Transportation announced plans this spring to build a $9.6 million bike and walking route from Gautier to Ocean Springs. And the new lane appears popular in Diamondhead, city leaders said.

The lane had some trouble in the beginning: construction crews repaved Diamondhead Drive around Thanksgiving but could not paint the striping until the weather warmed up, McCraw said. That caused confusion among residents about whether the street was a two-lane road.

A screenshot from the city’s “Envison Diamondhead 2040” plan shows the location of the new lane, which the city calls a “multimodal lane,” and a design rendering of the lane on Diamondhead Drive.
A screenshot from the city’s “Envison Diamondhead 2040” plan shows the location of the new lane, which the city calls a “multimodal lane,” and a design rendering of the lane on Diamondhead Drive.

The city has since added road symbols and dividers that separate the bike and golf cart lane from the car lane. Diamondhead Drive residents – especially the elderly – now feel safer walking down their long driveways to get their mail, McCraw and Cumberland said.

“There’s not really any issue,” McCraw said this week. “People are used to it now.”

City leaders say the project cost $3.3 million and is the first step in a vast plan to improve Diamondhead by 2040.

And the Diamondhead Drive addition is one of dozens of projects around the city. In March, the Mississippi Department of Transportation began a $155 million project to widen Interstate 10 near Diamondhead from four to six lanes. The project is funded by a $60 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation, MDOT public information officer Anna Ehrgott said.

By 2027, MDOT will also use the money to build another multi-use path that will run parallel to the interstate and will be separated from traffic by a new sound barrier wall, Ehrgott said.

A satellite image provided by the Mississippi Department of Transportation shows the I-10 widening project near Diamondhead. The red line represents the noise barrier wall and the blue line represents the multi-use path. MDOT expects to complete the project by 2027.
A satellite image provided by the Mississippi Department of Transportation shows the I-10 widening project near Diamondhead. The red line represents the noise barrier wall and the blue line represents the multi-use path. MDOT expects to complete the project by 2027.

And in yet another project, MDOT is spending $17 million at the Diamondhead interchange to widen the overpass and ramp, build three roundabouts and add third multi-use path across the interstate, Ehrgott said.

That path, which will be completed in 2026, will let bikes, pedestrians and golf carts ride across the overpass to the city’s south side.

Once completed, those lanes will link the winding corridors of the city together for bikers and pedestrians.

“We have always been a golf cart community,” McCraw said. “We’re just trying to make it safer.”

An image provided by the Mississippi Department of Transportation shows three future roundabouts planned for the Diamondhead interchange off I-10. The agency is building three roundabouts and adding another multi-use path on the overpass that will connect bike and golf cart traffic across the north and south sides of Diamondhead by 2026.
An image provided by the Mississippi Department of Transportation shows three future roundabouts planned for the Diamondhead interchange off I-10. The agency is building three roundabouts and adding another multi-use path on the overpass that will connect bike and golf cart traffic across the north and south sides of Diamondhead by 2026.