In November 2025, the City of Santa Barbara's Access Advisory Committee reviewed the State Street Loop — an electric golf cart shuttle operating on the city's downtown promenade. The committee's finding: the vehicle was not fully compliant with ADA requirements. Specific issues included a roof height too low for wheelchair users needing taller seating configurations, a ramp that was too steep, and a lack of mandatory edge protection. The committee consulted San Diego's ADA coordinator and the accessibility consulting firm Evan Terry Associates to confirm. Despite modifications by the vendor, the fundamental compliance gaps could not be resolved without replacing the vehicle entirely. (edhat / Santa Barbara News-Press / Access Advisory Committee)

A golf cart. The same type of vehicle that stadiums, arenas, golf tournaments, festivals, universities, and convention centers across the country use as the backbone of their ADA transportation programs. Found non-compliant by the city's own accessibility committee.

This isn't an isolated finding. It's a preview of a much larger reckoning — because the population that depends on accessible transportation at these properties is about to nearly double. And the golf cart programs currently serving them weren't designed for the demand they have today, let alone the demand that's coming.

The demographic surge

The numbers are not ambiguous.

The number of Americans ages 65 and older is projected to increase from 58 million in 2022 to 82 million by 2050 — a 42% increase. By 2030, every baby boomer will be 65 or older, making this the largest cohort of elderly Americans in the nation's history. (Population Reference Bureau / U.S. Census Bureau)

The 65-and-older share of the total U.S. population is projected to rise from 17% to 23% by 2050. The 85-and-older population — the cohort with the highest rates of disability — will triple from 6 million in 2020 to 19 million by 2060. (PMC / National Population Projections)

Adults 65 and older are six times more likely to have some form of disability than younger adults. Approximately 40% of adults over 65 have some form of activity limitation. (CDC / NCBI)

If current disability rates hold — and the research suggests they may actually increase due to the obesity epidemic and chronic disease burden — the number of older Americans with impairments or activity limitations will grow from approximately 14 million today to more than 28 million by 2030. (National Academies / NCBI — The Future of Disability in America)

Twenty-eight million people with mobility limitations. In four years. Every one of them is a potential guest at a stadium, a patient at a hospital, a resident at a senior living community, an attendee at a convention, a visitor at a theme park, a fan at a golf tournament, a passenger at a cruise terminal. And at most of those properties, the plan for moving them from the parking lot to the entrance — and from the entrance to their seat, and from their seat to the restroom, and from the venue back to their car — is this: a golf cart, dispatched on request, if one is available.

How ADA programs actually work at most venues

The ADA requires that venues provide accessible routes, accessible seating, accessible parking, and accessible facilities. Most major venues comply with these requirements. The parking spaces are striped. The ramps are built. The elevators are installed. The accessible seating sections exist.

But the distance between those accessible features — the distance between the accessible parking space and the accessible entrance, between the entrance and the accessible seating, between the seating and the accessible restroom — is where the experience breaks down. And the solution most venues offer for that distance is an ADA shuttle program that operates like this:

At the Buffalo Bills' Highmark Stadium: Guests with accessible needs who park in Bills-controlled parking lots "may receive a golf cart ride to the stadium gates from the Guest Experience ADA Team." There are five designated pickup locations. On game day, guests call 716-312-8933 or text their location and request to 716-588-1960. Post-game, golf cart service is limited to "a limited number of designated drop-off locations on the North and South side of the stadium only." (Buffalo Bills / Highmark Stadium Accessibility Guide)

At Clemson University: Golf cart shuttles are available throughout the athletic district beginning four hours before kickoff. ADA bus shuttles take fans to Gate 1 and "will make multiple runs until all ADA fans with wristbands have been delivered." Buses leave "as soon as buses are full." (Clemson Athletics / Venue Accessibility Information)

At the University of Texas: The athletic department published a dedicated "ADA Golf Cart Shuttle Map" for the 2025 season — a document large and detailed enough to require its own map, confirming that the golf cart ADA operation has become a significant logistical effort. (Texas Longhorns / 2025 ADA Golf Cart Shuttle Map)

At the PGA Championship: Accessibility services require advance email contact to AccessibilityServices@pgahq.com. Guests receive wristbands at an Accessibility Services Center located inside the Main Entrance. Services are request-based and managed case by case. (PGA Championship 2026 / Accessibility Services)

The pattern across every one of these programs is the same:

Request-based, not scheduled. The guest has to know the service exists, call a number or visit a desk, and request a ride. There is no posted schedule. There is no fixed route. There is no guarantee of wait time.

Capacity-constrained. Golf carts carry 4–6 passengers. During peak arrival, the handful of ADA golf carts serving a 70,000-seat stadium are overwhelmed. The guest who calls at 12:30 PM for a 1:00 PM kickoff may wait 20–30 minutes — or may be told to proceed on their own.

Inconsistent post-event. At Buffalo, post-game ADA service is limited to "a limited number of designated drop-off locations" on only two sides of the stadium. At Clemson, ADA buses run "as many times as possible" — a phrase that acknowledges the service may not reach everyone. The post-event window is when demand peaks and the service is least reliable.

Dependent on the guest self-identifying. Every one of these programs requires the guest to identify themselves as needing accessible transportation — by calling, texting, showing a placard, wearing a wristband, or visiting a desk. The guest who doesn't know the service exists, who is embarrassed to ask, or who assumes they can manage the walk and then can't — that guest falls through the gap.

These programs exist because the venues are trying. They're staffed by people who care. And they work — at current demand levels, on most days, for most guests who know to ask.

The question is what happens when current demand doubles.

Operating an ADA transportation program at a venue, campus, or property?

FlexTram offers ADA-accessible transit as the default — every vehicle, every route, every trip. Up to 27 passengers per vehicle, one driver, level boarding, wheelchair securement standard. Single-event rentals, seasonal deployments, and turnkey accessibility programs available.

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The system that doesn't scale

A golf cart carries 4–6 passengers. A typical stadium ADA program deploys 6–10 golf carts for a 70,000-seat event. That's a maximum capacity of 40–60 ADA passengers per dispatch cycle — in a venue where 5–10% of attendees may have some form of mobility limitation.

At 70,000 attendees with 7% requiring accessible assistance: 4,900 guests.

At 40–60 passengers per dispatch cycle, with a 10-minute round trip: 240–360 passengers per hour.

At a 90-minute arrival window: 360–540 total passengers served before kickoff.

That's serving roughly 7–11% of the guests who need accessible transportation. The other 89–93% are walking — because the golf cart program is structurally incapable of serving the actual demand.

And that's today. Before the demographic surge. Before the baby boomer cohort — the largest generation in American history — has fully entered the 65-and-older bracket where disability rates are six times higher.

By 2030, the 65-and-older population will increase by 42%. The number of older adults with activity limitations will double to 28 million. The share of event attendees, hospital patients, convention goers, and resort guests who need accessible transportation will increase proportionally.

The golf cart program that serves 7–11% of current demand will serve 4–6% of 2030 demand. The gap doesn't narrow. It widens — every year, automatically, driven by demographics that are already locked in.

The golf cart itself is the problem

Beyond the capacity math, there's a more fundamental issue: the golf cart — the vehicle most commonly used for ADA transportation at venues — is often not ADA compliant itself.

Santa Barbara's Access Advisory Committee confirmed this when they evaluated the State Street Loop cart. Despite modifications by the vendor, the vehicle could not fully meet ADA requirements — the roof was too low for wheelchair users needing taller configurations, the ramp was too steep, and mandatory edge protection was missing. The committee consulted accessibility experts and ADA coordinators to verify their findings.

Standard golf carts lack the features required for truly accessible transportation: level boarding for wheelchair users, adequate securement systems, weather protection, stable ride quality on uneven surfaces, and the capacity to serve multiple passengers with different mobility needs simultaneously.

A wheelchair user who needs to board a golf cart faces a transfer — from the wheelchair to the cart seat, with the wheelchair either folded and loaded separately or left behind. That transfer is a barrier. It requires physical assistance. It's undignified. And it's unnecessary — because vehicle platforms exist that provide level boarding, wheelchair securement, and capacity for both wheelchair users and ambulatory passengers in the same vehicle.

A FlexTram vehicle is ADA-accessible as standard — not as a modification, not as a special configuration, not as a separate vehicle in the fleet. Every vehicle accommodates wheelchair users, scooter users, and ambulatory passengers simultaneously. No transfer required. No separate service. No request needed. The guest boards the same vehicle as every other guest, at the same boarding point, on the same route, on the same schedule.

From request-based to default

Here's the shift that the demographic surge demands: ADA transportation at venues, campuses, and properties needs to move from a request-based service to a default system.

Request-based means the guest identifies themselves, contacts the venue, and receives individual dispatch. It works at small scale. It does not scale to 28 million people with activity limitations.

Default means the system exists for everyone — posted routes, posted schedules, high-capacity vehicles running continuously between the key accessibility points on the property. The guest who needs accessible transportation doesn't call a number. They go to the nearest boarding point and wait for the next vehicle. The same way transit works in every other context.

As we wrote in "Systems Over Units" — the solution to predictable, high-volume movement is not more individual vehicles dispatched on request. It's a system. Fixed routes. Posted schedules. High-capacity vehicles. Consolidated boarding. Predictable frequency.

The ADA programs at most venues today are unit-based: individual golf carts dispatched individually to individual guests. That model worked when ADA demand was 3–5% of the guest population. It will not work when ADA demand is 10–15% — which is where the demographics are heading.

The alternative is system-based: a tram running a fixed loop from accessible parking to the venue entrance to the key interior destinations, on a posted schedule, with ADA accessibility built into every vehicle as standard. The guest with a wheelchair and the guest with a walker and the guest who is simply 78 years old and can't walk a quarter mile all use the same system. No call. No text. No wristband. No request. Just a tram that arrives every 5–10 minutes and takes them where they need to go.

The accessibility journey, not the accessibility checklist

The ADA was designed to ensure equal access. Most venues have achieved technical compliance — the accessible parking space exists, the accessible entrance exists, the accessible seating section exists.

But compliance is measured in features. The guest's experience is measured in the journey between those features.

A wheelchair user with an accessible parking space 300 yards from the accessible entrance has a technically compliant venue and a functionally inaccessible experience. The features are compliant. The journey between them is the barrier.

An elderly guest with accessible seating in Section 112 and an accessible restroom in the concourse has both features. The 200-yard walk between them — through a crowded concourse, past concession stands, navigating other fans — is the barrier.

The ADA checklist says: accessible parking, yes. Accessible entrance, yes. Accessible seating, yes. Accessible restroom, yes.

The guest's experience says: I had to call a phone number, wait 20 minutes for a golf cart, ride to the gate, then walk 10 minutes through the concourse to my seat. After the event, the golf cart service was limited to two drop-off areas. I waited 25 minutes. My family waited in the car.

Both of those things are true at the same time. The venue is compliant. The experience is not equal.

A transit system that connects the accessible features — parking to entrance to seating to restroom to exit — transforms the checklist into a journey. The features don't change. The distance between them disappears.

The venues that get ahead of this will win

The demographic surge is not a prediction. It's a census projection. The 73 million baby boomers are aging on a fixed timeline. The disability rates at 65+ are well-documented. The math is already done.

Every venue, campus, and property in the country will face increasing ADA demand over the next decade. The venues that redesign their accessible transportation programs now — shifting from request-based golf cart dispatch to system-based, scheduled, high-capacity transit — will be positioned for the demand curve. The venues that don't will face the same pattern we've documented across every other vertical: the demand grows, the infrastructure doesn't, the experience degrades, and the response is reactive.

As we wrote in "Coachella. The Kentucky Derby. The Super Bowl. F1. They All Have the Same Problem." — the pattern doesn't break on its own. It breaks when someone decides to design the transportation before the event outgrows it.

The ADA demand surge is coming. The only question is whether you design for it now or react to it later.

28 million people with activity limitations by 2030. Your golf cart program serves 40 at a time. The math isn't hard. The decision shouldn't be either.