Here’s why Myrtle Beach is banning golf carts, mopeds on this busy street

Golf carts and other low-speed vehicles are once again being prohibited on some of Myrtle Beach’s busiest roads this Memorial Day weekend, but officials won’t bring back an unpopular traffic loop that’s caused headaches in years past.

Here’s all you need to know if you plan on driving through the city between May 26 through 29.

The proposed plan will be discussed during the city’s Human Rights Commission meeting Thursday.

No moped or golf carts will be allowed in the city’s downtown

The golf carts and other low-speed vehicles regularly seen cruising along Ocean Boulevard will be prohibited south of the road to 29th Avenue N. between midnight on May 26 through midnight on May 29.

Mopeds are also barred from the same locations between midnight and 8 a.m. on May 26, between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m. May 26 through May 28 and 8 p.m. through the early morning hours of May 29 until all traffic control devices are removed.

City police have extra authority through the holiday weekend

City Manager Jonathan “Fox” Simons on May 11 signed an executive order valid May 26 through 29 giving authorities several additional powers including:

• Requiring businesses in designated areas to hire private security
• Facilitate the towing of vehicles, golf carts, mopeds, scooters and motorcycles
• Allowing the temporary suspension of business operations from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m.
• Establishment of no cruising zones
• Ability to temporarily divert pedestrian and vehicular traffic

Ocean Boulevard will be handled as a single lane road. Prepare for delays

Traffic will run through a single southbound lane along Ocean Boulevard, with northbound lanes reserved for emergency response vehicles. Specific entry points will be made along Ocean Boulevard to Kings Highway.

Officials are substituting the narrow travel lanes for a 23-mile loop that was the subject of a federal lawsuit in 2018.

Memorial Day weekend on the Grand Strand plays host to Atlantic Beach BikeFest, also referred to as Black Bike Week, which draws thousands of predominantly Black visitors to the area.

The NAACP sued in 2018, citing discrimination over the lengthy detour that looped riders into Horry County and then back into Myrtle Beach city limits on a winding circuit.

NAACP officials previously said the detour, which funneled traffic from Ocean Boulevard out of the county before coming back into city limits, was discriminatory since it wasn’t used during other festivals. The loop started at 10 p.m. and sometimes added four hours of travel for motorists.

Police have recently used ‘flushing’ on Ocean Boulevard to manage volume

City police over the past several weekends have cleared out loiterers and idling traffic along Ocean Boulevard using a method authorities call “flushing.” While used sporadically over the last few years, it’s become more consistent in the wake of a crime-filled April night.

Chief Amy Prock told city leaders in an email April 16 that Ocean Boulevard was “flushed” between 10 p.m. and 1:30 a.m. on April 15 and 16 as officers tried to keep people from congregating and worked to clear parking lots.

The practice, said city spokesman Mark Kruea, is nothing new. “We have turned traffic off the Boulevard for 15 or 20 years, as needed ... When traffic comes to a standstill, the officers will turn vehicles onto Kings Highway so that traffic can move,” he said in an April 21 email.