Which Mississippi Cities Allow Side-by-Sides on Local Roads?

Which Mississippi Cities Allow Side-by-Sides on Local Roads?

None of the ordinances surveyed for this guide do. Every Mississippi municipal program found and read is a golf cart and low-speed vehicle registration scheme, and a side-by-side does not fall into either category. The advice to "check your local ordinance" is everywhere in UTV guidance and it is technically correct, but it leads to a document written for a different machine.

That answer is worth stating clearly because the two bodies of writing on this topic never meet. UTV guides tell you to check the ordinance without naming one. Golf cart sites catalogue the ordinances in detail without ever asking whether a side-by-side qualifies. Reading them together resolves the question.

Why Is Every One of These a Golf Cart Ordinance?

Because that is the only authority the Legislature gave municipalities. In 2021 the state passed Senate Bill 2605, which allowed cities to adopt ordinances permitting golf carts and low-speed vehicles on certain streets. Cities wrote programs to match the authority they were given, and the authority covers two defined vehicle categories.

Under that framework, golf carts running 20 miles per hour or less and low-speed vehicles running over 20 and under 25 miles per hour must be registered with the city, display a decal, and stay on streets where bicycles are permitted. Operators carry a valid driver's license or temporary permit and proof of financial responsibility.

A "low-speed vehicle" is not a loose description. It is a defined class of four-wheeled vehicle built to a federal safety standard with a top speed in the 20 to 25 mile per hour range. A side-by-side is manufactured as an off-road machine and is not built to that standard, which is why it cannot be registered into a program written around it. Mississippi's off-road vehicle statute reinforces the point from the other direction, defining these machines as manufactured and designed exclusively for off-road use.

What Does Hattiesburg's Ordinance Actually Require?

Hattiesburg's Ordinance 3316 permits golf carts and low-speed vehicles on city streets with a posted speed limit of 30 miles per hour or less, with registration handled at the City Clerk's Office on the second floor of City Hall for $100. Registered vehicles display a decal proving registration. Operators need a valid driver's license and proof of financial responsibility, and underage operation is prohibited outright. On multi-lane streets, vehicles stay in the outside lane.

The equipment list is specific: headlamps, front and rear turn signal lamps, tail lamps, stop lamps, reflectors, an exterior mirror on the driver's or passenger's side, a parking brake, a VIN or serial number, Type 1 or Type 2 seatbelts, a proper windshield, and an alert sound.

Read that list against a utility side-by-side and most of it is already there or is a catalogue part. Seat belts, a parking brake, a VIN, headlamps and tail lamps ship on the machine. Turn signals, a mirror, a windshield and a horn are straightforward additions. The obstacle is not the equipment list and never was. It is the line above the equipment list naming which vehicles the program covers.

Which City Says No to UTVs Outright?

Ocean Springs, and it is the most useful document in the state on this question. The city states that it "does not allow registration and operation of ATVs or UTVs including but not limited to Honda Pioneer, Polaris RZR, Can-Am, Maverick, Arctic Cat, Big Horn, Bobcat, John Deere Gator, Kawasaki Mule, Yamaha, Rhino, on public streets."

Nine machine families named in a municipal ordinance is not ambiguity. Ocean Springs anticipated exactly the question this guide exists to answer and wrote the answer into the ordinance. Other cities reach the same result more quietly, by defining eligibility as golf carts and low-speed vehicles and leaving it there, but Ocean Springs is the one that says it out loud.

What About Gulfport and the Coast?

Gulfport runs the most detailed program of the five. City of Gulfport Ordinance Chapter 6, Article XXIII limits operation to streets posted 25 miles per hour or lower, requires inspection and registration at City Hall for $100, and requires a valid driver's license plus proof of current liability insurance both at registration and during operation. Required equipment includes a VIN or serial number, seat belts for all seats, a parking brake, headlights, brake lights, front and rear turn signals, a windshield, a horn, and exterior mirrors. Low-speed vehicles and golf carts are not permitted in Ward 3 at all.

Gulfport does not name ATVs and UTVs as excluded the way Ocean Springs does. It does not need to: the program registers low-speed vehicles and golf carts, and a side-by-side is neither.

Several other coast municipalities run comparable programs, including Diamondhead, Pass Christian, Pascagoula, Bay St. Louis, Waveland, and Long Beach. Those were not read in full for this guide and are listed here as places to check rather than as verified entries, which is the honest distinction.

What If My Town Has No Ordinance at All?

Then there is no local authorization to rely on, which is the situation across much of the Pine Belt. No golf cart or low-speed vehicle ordinance could be located for Petal, Purvis, or Columbia. That absence is not proof that none exists, since small-municipality ordinances are frequently not published online, and it is a reason to call the city clerk rather than to assume either answer.

What the absence does mean is that there is nothing to register into. Without a local ordinance, the state default governs, and the state default is that an off-road vehicle has no authority to operate on a public road. The practical route in most of the region remains private land with permission, off-road parks, and designated federal trail systems, which is the ground covered in the guide to whether side-by-sides are street legal in Mississippi.

How Should You Check Your Own Jurisdiction?

Call the city clerk and ask one specific question: does the municipal golf cart or low-speed vehicle registration program accept a side-by-side. Not whether UTVs are allowed on the road, which invites a general answer, but whether the registration desk will register your machine type. That is the question the ordinances actually turn on.

Three things worth having ready. Know your machine's manufacturer, model, and width, since eligibility questions often start there. Ask whether the program has a posted speed limit threshold, because 25 and 30 miles per hour both appear across the state and it determines which streets are usable at all. And ask whether the ordinance covers the county as well as the city, since county roads outside municipal limits are a separate question with a separate answer.

Put the answer in writing if you can, and note the date. Ordinances get amended, and a clerk's verbal yes from two years ago is not a defense.

FAQ: Mississippi UTV and Golf Cart Ordinances

Can I register my side-by-side as a low-speed vehicle if I limit its speed? No. Low-speed vehicle is a manufacturing classification built to a federal safety standard, not a description of how fast you drive. Restricting a side-by-side's speed does not move it into the category.

My neighbor drives a side-by-side around town. Is that legal? It may be tolerated rather than authorized, and those are different things. Enforcement discretion varies by department and by day, and a machine that has not drawn a stop is not the same as a machine with legal standing.

Do these ordinances cover county roads? Generally no. Municipal ordinances reach streets within city limits. County road authority is separate, which is why a machine legal on one side of a city line can be a problem on the other.

Is a golf cart ordinance any use to a side-by-side owner at all? Indirectly, yes. It tells you the city has thought about small-vehicle road use, which is the constituency a future UTV ordinance would come from. It is worth knowing which cities already run a program.

Would a state law fix this? It would need to. A UTV road-use framework has been proposed repeatedly in the Legislature and has repeatedly failed, most recently in the 2025 Regular Session. Until a bill passes, municipal authority remains limited to golf carts and low-speed vehicles.

Does titling my machine help here? No. Mississippi now requires titling on many machines, and the statute states explicitly that titling carries no authority to operate on highways or other public places. The details are in the guide to titling a side-by-side in Mississippi.

Bottom Line

The local-ordinance route is the most repeated advice in Mississippi UTV guidance and it is the least likely to work, because the ordinances exist for golf carts and low-speed vehicles and a side-by-side is a third thing. Read against five real programs, the eligibility line stops the machine before the equipment list is ever reached. Call your clerk, ask specifically whether the registration program accepts a side-by-side, and get the answer dated. For the wider question of what routes exist at all, start with the guide to making a side-by-side street legal in Mississippi.

Verified against City of Hattiesburg Ordinance 3316, City of Gulfport Ordinance Chapter 6 Article XXIII, the City of Ocean Springs golf cart ordinance, City of Laurel Chapter 13, and Biloxi's council-adopted low-speed vehicle ordinance on 30 August 2026. Municipal ordinances are amended frequently and small-town ordinances are often unpublished; confirm with the city clerk before relying on any row above.

Sources

• City of Hattiesburg, golf carts and low-speed vehicles - Ordinance 3316, the $100 registration, the 30 mile per hour street limit, and the full equipment list.
• City of Gulfport, low-speed vehicles and golf carts on public streets - Chapter 6 Article XXIII, inspection and registration, insurance requirement, and the Ward 3 exclusion.
• City of Ocean Springs, golf carts - the explicit exclusion of ATVs and UTVs and the nine machine families named.
• City of Laurel, Chapter 13, Motor Vehicles and Traffic - the municipal golf cart and low-speed vehicle provisions and the civil penalty for violation.
• Mississippi Code Section 63-31-3 - the definition of an off-road vehicle as designed exclusively for off-road use, and the provision that nothing in it authorizes public road operation.
• Hattiesburg Cycles - the Gulf South dealer this publication recommends; scale and tenure figures are the dealership's own stated numbers.