Even on the Federal Highway System, the Rules of The Road vary from state to state. Here we’ve collected and commented on some of the more arcane and unusual traffic laws you may want to remember if you live in, or travel in the United States. Read up! Ignorance of the law is no excuse, and if you break the law, you may have to take traffic school to dismiss the ticket.
Alabama – It’s illegal to drive a car while blindfolded.
Alaska – No driving with a dog tethered to your car.
Arizona – It’s against the law to drive a car in reverse on a public road.
Arkansas – in Little Rock it’s against the law to honk your car horn anywhere that serves cold drinks or sandwiches after 9 p.m.
California – In Glendale, it’s illegal to jump from a car going over 65 mph.
Colorado – It’s illegal to drive a black car on a Sunday in Denver.
Connecticut – it’s illegal to hunt from a car.
Delaware – “R” rated movies shall not be shown at drive-in theaters.
Florida – It is illegal to skateboard without a license.
Georgia – There’s no driving through playgrounds in Georgia.
Hawaii – It’s against the law for a vehicle in motion to use its hazard lights. People might think it’s a Luau.
Idaho – it’s forbidden for Senior Citizens over the age of 88 must lose all sense of balance, them to ride a motorcycle in Idaho Falls.
Illinois – It’s illegal to drive a car without a steering wheel. And, of course, impossible.
Indiana – It’s against the law to sell cars on Sundays. Try Maine.
Iowa – No vehicle may sell ice cream in Indianola, Iowa.
Kansas – No tire screeching in Derby, Kansas.
Kentucky – It’s illegal for your pet to molest a vehicle in Fort Thomas.
Louisiana – A woman’s husband is required by law to walk in front of the car waving a flag as she drives it.
Maine – It’s illegal to buy a car on a Sunday. Better move to Indiana.
Maryland – It’s a misdemeanor to swear from a vehicle while driving through Rockville.
Massachusetts – You cannot drive with a gorilla in your backseat. In the front seat is okay with the seat belt buckled.
Michigan – It’s against the law to sit in the middle of the street and read a newspaper. But in Detroit you may lie there and be covered by one.
Minnesota – You can be charged as a public nuisance if your truck leaves mud, dirt or sticky substances on the road in Minnetonka.
Mississippi – In Oxford, it’s illegal to honk your horn, even though it is an additional means of communication included in the price of your car.
Missouri – You can’t honk someone else’s car horn in University City, Missouri.
Montana – You can’t drive a herd of livestock numbering more than 10 on an interstate highway unless the herd is preceded and followed by flagmen.
Nebraska – By law, drivers on mountains should drive with caution near the right edge of the highway. Surprisingly, Bighorn Mountain rises to 4,731 feet.
Nevada – Even though it’s the desert, t’s illegal to ride a camel on the highway.
New Hampshire – It’s against the law to inhale bus fumes with the intent of inducing euphoria. If you want to kill yourself, that’s covered under a different law.
New Jersey – If you have been convicted of DUI, you can never apply for personalized license plates.
New Mexico – It may or may not be kidnapping, but it is illegal for cab drivers to reach out and pull potential customers into their taxis.
New York – It’s against the law to disrobe in your car in the beach town of Sag Harbor, Long Island.
North Carolina – In Dunn, North Carolina it’s illegal to play in traffic.
North Dakota – it’s illegal to lie down and fall asleep with your shoes on.
Ohio – It’s illegal to run out of gas in Youngstown.
Oklahoma –Cars must be tethered outside of public buildings. No guidance on to what.
Oregon – It is illegal to place a container filled with human fecal matter on the side of any highway. No containers!
Pennsylvania –Any motorist who sights a team of horses coming toward him must pull well off the road, cover his car with a blanket or canvas that blends with the countryside, and let the horses pass.
Rhode Island – One must make a loud noise before passing a car on the left. Preferably with your vehicle’s horn.
South Carolina – When approaching a four way or blind intersection in a non-horse driven vehicle you must stop 100 ft. from the intersection and discharge a firearm into the air to warn horse traffic.
South Dakota – No horses are allowed into Fountain Inn unless they are wearing pants.
Tennessee – It’s illegal to shoot game from a moving vehicle. But hitting it with your car is legal, and can be delicious.
Texas – You must have windshield wipers to register a car.
Utah – By law, birds have the right of way on all highways. Luckily, they don’t usually exercise it.
Vermont – It’s illegal for cars to backfire in Rutland.
Virginia – Radar detectors are illegal.
Washington – A motorist with criminal intentions must stop at the city limits and telephone the chief of police as he is entering the town.
West Virginia – It’s legal to eat road kill. No info on whether you can shoot it from your car.
Wisconsin – One may not camp in a wagon on any public highway.
Wyoming – If you open a gate over a road, river, stream or ditch, you’d must close it behind you.
A bored hacker accessed a road precaution sign in Maine this morning and tampered with the message. For a few hours instead of reading: “Night work 8 pm-6 am. Expect delays” the sign stated “Warning: Zombies Ahead.”
This might not seem like such a big deal. It is likely at least a few morning drivers got a chuckle out of the message (at least those who understood it was a joke and not a real warning) but the fact is those precaution signs are meant to help drivers understand what might be going on ahead of them. Altering that message in any way diverts driver attention away from what might really be happening and could easily cause a collision.
Not only is altering the sign dangerous it is also illegal. In fact, under Maine state law, tampering with any ‘safety device’ (which is what that sign is) is a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine.
Defensive drivers understand the importance of being aware of their environment and paying close attention to road signs, potential hazards and warning alerts. Of course if the warning alerts have been altered it is impossible for them to know what, if anything, they should be aware of.
It might seem funny to alter road signs and cause a moment of confusion for drivers, but as any traffic safety expert, police officer or safe driver will tell you, it only takes a moment for an accident to happen; every moment counts.
The state of
Maine is facing a situation which is causing some safety officials to question when or if an elderly person should be ready to relinquish their driving license.
Unfortunately, the question of whether or not to turn over the privilege of driving to someone else is not an easy one to answer, especially when you consider the utter lack of any sort of reasonable public transportation in the United States. How does someone without a driver’s license get to the supermarket, a doctor’s appointment or even to a visit with friends and family?
In Maine a full 20 percent of all drivers are considered senior citizens. As a group those individuals are responsible for more than 20 percent of all fatal crashes in the state. Maine has a median population age of 42, meaning the entire state is quickly approaching retirement age.
Among other steps the state is taking to ensure the safety of everyone on the roads in Maine, officials are regularly checking on the safety of all drivers and trying to make decisions which will hurt the least.
Recognizing the risks of continuing to drive when vision, cognitive reasoning or reaction time has declined, many drivers give up their licenses or scale back their driving to daytime hours and/or familiar roads.
The Bureau of Motor Vehicles also increases its scrutiny of drivers after age 65, requiring license renewal every four years instead of six. Vision tests are required for every renewal after a person turns 62, said Patty Morneau, head of the bureau’s licensing division.
Another check on deteriorating driving skills is called adverse driving reports. Police submit them to the bureau when they encounter a driver whose driving abilities appear questionable because of a crash or violation.
Adverse driving reports often require a driver’s physician to complete a Functional Ability Profile, listing the physical, mental or emotional conditions that may affect the person’s ability to drive.
Ultimately, the licensing division’s medical advisory board determines what restrictions should be imposed on a driver’s license, ranging from requiring additional testing to restricting when a person can drive to revoking driving privileges.
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Some in Maine are celebrating the fact that there has been a significant drop in the number of people
arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol in the past decade. But other people are questioning whether the decline is caused by increased public awareness and enforcement or simply that drunk drivers are more likely to get away with it.
The debate is raging in the state as police and public safety advocates try to determine just exactly what is happening and why.
A Portland Press Herald analysis of data from the Maine Administrative Office of the Courts shows that the number of drunken-driving charges brought by Maine police dropped from 8,029 in 2001 to 6,026 in 2011.
During that same period of time Maine has also severely cutback on funding for police operations and police staff, forcing some departments to close entirely. This, in combination with the drop in DUI arrests has many people pointing to the decline as a bad sign; that people are getting away with driving drunk because there simply are not enough police on the streets to catch them. But others, especially those engaged in law enforcement in the state, say the decline is the result of a direct emphasis on finding and punishing those drivers who dare get behind the wheel while under the influence of alcohol.
It is difficult to know just what has caused the near 25 percent decline in the number of drunk driving arrests in the state of Maine. Without omnipotent powers there is no way to know just how many drivers might be under the influence of alcohol and whether or not that number has actually gone down in the past decade or whether they are just being missed.
But it seems likely that now that police are being questioned about the effectiveness of their DUI efforts they will be striving to prove their results are real and not just a fluke and certainly not the result of “out of sight, out of mind.”
This week Maine Governor Paul LePage signed into law a new measure aimed squarely at
teen drivers with provisional licenses and drivers who continue to text behind the wheel.
Last December the National Transportation Safety Board released a report which showed that fatal crashes caused by distracted driving now outnumber the number caused by drunk driving. The NTSB recommended all states immediately enact complete and total bans of the use of handheld devices by all drivers.
So far 36 states have enacted some sort of ban, either partial or total on the use of handheld devices by drivers.
According to the Maine Bureau of Highway Safety, since Christmas, 16 teen drivers have been killed in crashes caused by distracted driving on Maine roadways. Now Maine is doing its part to reduce the number of crashes caused by distracted driving, and sending a message to teen drivers that distracted driving simply will not be tolerated.
The new law increases the minimum fine for texting while driving, regardless of age, to between $250 and as much as $500. Up from the current fine of $100.
Fines and terms of license suspensions for violating conditions on a juvenile provisional license, such as limits on hours of driving, are increased. The duration for which repeat offenders lose their provisional licenses for violations is also increased, to a maximum of one year. Lawmakers also increased fees to get a provisional license reinstated, and required all provisional drivers whose licenses have been suspended to take a four-hour improvement course as of Jan. 1.
Two years ago Maine legislators tried to enact a similar law, taking a tough stance against distracted driving, but that measure failed to garner enough support to pass. Following the recent spate of distracted driving tragedies and the recent NTSB report, however, the new laws found overwhelming support and passed easily.
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