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.

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School is back in session for students living in Las Vegas and police in the city are urging drivers to use caution. Every year, when school returns to normal business hours after a few month summer break, police notice a spike in the number of drivers who flaunt speed limits in school zones, attempt to pass school buses stopped to load or unload students, or just generally drive in an unsafe manner in areas where children are present.

It is a dangerous mix, children and vehicles. Cars are two- or three-tone missiles made of steel and glass and plastic, that are sometimes difficult to control, while children are fragile creatures prone to darting into the street after a ball or just because they see a friend across the road. Any time these two things mix in the same area the chances for a tragedy greatly increase.

Las Vegas police hope they can avoid tragedies on their roads this year by increasing their numbers on the street and reminding all motorists to slow and take it easy.

Drivers will be reminded that pedestrians, children or anyone walking on the street or crossing the street, always have the right of way. They will also be reminding pedestrians that jaywalking, crossing the street where there is no crosswalk, is also illegal. Unfortunately, in a collision between a human body and a car, the human body will always sustain more damage, and come out on the losing end.

It seems likely that these increased police patrols will result in more citations being written for both drivers and pedestrians. What is hoped is that the increased police patrols in Las Vegas will also result in fewer injuries caused by drivers who fail to exert caution when pedestrians are present.

Some vandals apparently thought shocking drivers along Interstate 15 near Bonanza Road would help get their message across. In fact, it worked like a charm. With the rising sun drivers began calling 911 to report the ads. It wasn’t the content of the vandalized ad, or the message (aimed at Wall Street bankers), it was the mannequin which went along with the message, dangling in a noose from the billboard that made them react so quickly.

The graphic display along the interstate was one of at least two unauthorized signs spotted Wednesday morning in the Las Vegas area. Another found on Highland Avenue and Desert Inn Road was white with black lettering that read, “Hope You’re Happy Wall St.,” and a similar mannequin hanging off the edge.

Las Vegas police immediately contacted the companies which owned the billboards (three separate billboards) and were told the billboards must have been vandalized overnight. The police set about cutting down the dummy while the billboards went to work removing the messages.

For drivers every distraction is an accident waiting to happen. It only takes a moment for a driver to look away from the road ahead for an accident to happen, especially on a busy interstate. Advertising has long been held by highway traffic safety experts as a possible distraction for drivers. There has been much debate about the wisdom of allowing roadways advertisements which are designed specifically to attract the attention of drivers. Do we really want drivers reading a billboard as they drive along at 65 or 70 miles per hour?

About 50 years ago drivers were often greeted with a myriad of signs designed to get them to read along. The “Burma Shave” company is perhaps the most well-remembered of these types of advertisements. They used multiple signs, each with one small part of their message, spread at nominal distances along the side of the roads. These signs were not only effective advertising, they were also responsible for more than their fair share of roadway crashes, prompting safety groups to petition for their removal.

Driving distractions abound. We don’t need to create more of them in order to get a message across.

It is no secret that Nevadans like to gamble, perhaps more so than any other people in the world, but it seems likely that they don’t want to gamble with their lives every time they get behind the wheel.

However, a recent study shows that Nevada is among the 10 most dangerous states for drivers.

There are a number of reasons why Nevada ranks so high on the list of dangerous places to drive. Those who made the study site the abundance of rural roads, often in the desert where it is very dark, and the huge number of out-of-state visitors who come there to gamble or enjoy the sights. The combination of dark, possible dangerous roads and people who don’t know their way around, are a deadly mix.

There are also the very liberal drinking laws in Nevada and the fact that “partying” is the number one reason visit the state. Even the commercials seem to advertise the fact that people can act with reckless abandon when they visit Nevada, perhaps encouraging people to act in a manner which is anything but safe.

Lets just say that defensive driving is certainly not the topic of conversation when people start talking about a visit to Nevada. It is more likely going to be where to go to have the best time; where to party, where to gamble, where to drink, where to eat or where to see the best shows.

With all this emphasis on having a good time it is no wonder that Nevada does not rank high as a safe state to drive in. In fact, it is more surprising to hear that the state does not rank as the most dangerous state to drive in. Given the sheer volume of distractions a dangerous state seems more likely than a safe state.

In what will surely (eventually) become a seminal moment in history, the state of Nevada this week fully licensed the first autonomous motor vehicle, allowing it to cruise all public roadways in the state including city roads and state highways. Since the car will not have a driver, the license was awarded to Google, the company which will be responsible for the vehicle.

Nevada made news late last year when it passed a law allowing for the licensing of autonomous vehicles to drive on their roadways. Google has been working on an autonomous vehicle for nearly a decade, using on-board computers, GPS navigation ad remote sensors to help it stay on the road, avoid obstacles and find its way around. This means the car can be programmed to go to a certain place, say, a movie theater, restaurant or place of work, and the car will drive itself there. In the meantime, someone will be sitting in the drivers seat in case they need to manually take control of the car, but otherwise, all passengers are free to do what they wish and leave the driving to the robot, I mean car.

Some have questioned the logic of allowing autonomous vehicles and human controlled vehicles on the roads at the same time. In the event of an inadvertent collision, who would be responsible for the damages? If two autonomous vehicles collide, who is responsible then?

Law makers, insurers and automobile manufacturers have been working together to fashion law which addresses these issues and Nevada encapsulated these suggestions into their new law which went into effect this year.

It is believed these autonomous vehicles will soon be ferrying people and cargo around the country, bringing freedom to people who might not otherwise be able to drive themselves where they need to go. In the meantime, despite the rise of autonomous vehicle, there will likely always be a reason and an option for a human beings to drive themselves if they want to.

Following a near record number of traffic fatalities for the first quarter of 2012, the Nevada Departments of Public Safety and Transportation, have started a full court press when it comes to educating the public about traffic safety.

Following a record number of traffic deaths in 2006, Nevada created the Nevada Strategic Highway Safety Plan which aimed to cut the number of traffic related fatalities in half by 2030. Ultimately the plan calls for there to be zero traffic related fatalities in the state, but given the sharp increase in deaths seen recently, that goal is still far off. In fact, even the goal of cutting traffic fatalities by half seems a tall order.

Despite these long odds, the Nevada Departments of Public Safety and Transportation offer these public safety reminders for anyone using Nevada roadways, whether for driving, walking, biking or riding:

* Buckle Up — Nearly 50 percent of fatality crashes that Nevada law enforcement agencies investigated in the past year involved unbuckled vehicle occupants. It only takes two seconds to click your seat belt, and the life you save might be your own.

* Don’t Drive Impaired — On average, more than 50 people are arrested daily for driving under the influence in Nevada. A first DUI arrest will likely result in a 90-day loss of driving privileges, an impounded vehicle, legal fees, court costs, two days in jail and attendance at a victim impact panel, with harsher penalties for subsequent offenses.

* Be Pedestrian Safe — In the first quarter of 2012, there were 12 pedestrian deaths on Nevada roads, double the number from the same time last year. Pedestrians should always cross safely, making eye contact with drivers. Drivers should always look for and yield to pedestrians.

* Stay in Your Lane/Keep Your Eyes on the Road — Distracted and/or sleepy driving can lead motorists to unintentionally leave their lane. Put away the distractions and drive with your full attention.

* Stop on Red — In a five-year span, 467 people died in Nevada intersection crashes. Whether at a traffic signal or stop sign, always stop on red.

Despite a statewide pursuit of zero annual traffic deaths, a new report shows that Nevada saw a near 25 percent increase in the number of people killed on state roads for 2012 compared to the same period last year.

Nevada adopted a “zero fatalities” campaign after a record 432 traffic deaths in 2006. This past October they adopted a new law making it illegal to text or talk on a hand-held cellphone while driving. Despite these efforts, traffic deaths have still risen.

Just five years after their record number of traffic deaths, Nevada managed to drop the fatalities to just 246. This precipitous drop was preceded by a campaign to increase awareness of safe driving and a focus on defensive driving skills. The effort by legislators to ban the use of handheld devices and texting and driving in particular was the culmination of years worth of effort and public education.

Nevada state legislators and Nevada police departments have focused primarily on driving safety specifically to reduce the number of traffic related fatalities, yet still, the first quarter of 2012 showed that those efforts have at least a few flaws.

However, the flaws in Nevada’s plans to decrease traffic fatalities have more do with natural factors than with anything the state did or did not do. For instance, a milder than normal winter and an early spring meant more drivers were on the roads during the first quarter of 2012 than usual. This increased number of drivers means the chances of having an accident were increased, through no fault of police or state officials. Also, economic factors have forced more employees to drive further for their work (assuming they found work.) This longer commute puts more drivers on the road for longer periods of time, increasing their exposure to the inherent dangers of driving.

The year is only just beginning and it is too early to know if the upward trend in Nevada traffic fatalities will continue or subside, but knowing where they stand now you can expect that police in the state will likely redouble their efforts to remind drivers that safe driving saves lives.

For the last five years the number of drivers killed on Nevada roadways has fallen. This is great news for defensive drivers, who have therefore increased their chances of making it home safely.

The state had an all-time high of traffic related deaths in 2006 of 432. In 2011 just 243 driving-related deaths were reported, down from 257 in 2010.

The continued downward slide in traffic-related deaths is all part of a series of programs initiated in 2006 by the Nevada Department of Public Safety, Office of Traffic Safety. Among the areas they focused their efforts on to curb what had been an upward trend in traffic deaths was increased enforcement of existing traffic laws; installation of center line “rumble strips” which alert drivers if they cross it; road safety audits and more flashing yellow lights; and the new handheld device law which took effect this year.

All of these changes came about as part of the Nevada Strategic Highway Safety Plan. This plan calls for a more than 60 percent reduction in highway traffic deaths by 2015, and eventually a zero annual death toll from driving.

That’s one heck of a defensive driving campaign, but so far, their efforts have been successful. Five straight years of decline in traffic-related fatalities seems to indicate that the state is on the right track when it comes to highway safety.

Increased education of drivers has also been a part of their plan, but most drivers don’t need a defensive driving course to understand what is safe, responsible driving and what is a flagrant disregard for the law and the safety and security of others. Although, judging by the number of citations already handed out to enforce their new ban on handheld devices for drivers, at least a few people need a reminder just how dangerous distracted driving can be.

In case you forgot, here’s yours: Distracted driving is WORSE than driving under the influence of alcohol. Do yourself and everyone who shares the road with you a favor, and don’t do it. Besides, it’s against the law to do it in Nevada anyway.

Image: Paul Martin Eldridge / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Nevada drivers will welcome the New Year on Sunday, and a new law which says drivers are prohibited from using cell phones while driving. The new law is to help reduce the number of crashes attributed to distracted driving.

In case you didn’t know it, distracted driving is the exact opposite of defensive driving. It means that instead of paying attention to yourself and your surroundings, you’re simply not paying attention to anything at all.

The new law in Nevada is a strict interpretation of the cell phone ban. It provides severe penalties for drivers who continue to use their cell phones either to make a call or send and receive text messages. Nevada legislators approved the new law this past year and it takes effect with the new year. Their passage of the new law preceded a recommendation by the National Transportation Safety Board which said sates should ban the use of all handheld devices by drivers. This recommendation was welcomed by many states, 35 of which already have strict laws against the use of cell phones or text messaging by drivers. But some legislators, such as those in Texas, have resisted a statewide ban, saying they support local measures instead.

The new ban on handheld phones and testing for drivers is statute SB 140. Anyone who breaks the law is subject to a $50 fine on their first offense, a $100 fine for their second offense and a $250 fine for each additional offense. If you cause a crash because you were texting and driving or chatting on your cell phone while driving, and you hurt or kill somebody else, you could face between 1 and 6 years in prison and an additional $2,000-$5,000 fine.

You can always turn to a defensive driving course to help you get the points off your license, but the fines and fees can really pile up. The best advice is that you turn your cell phone off before you get into your vehicle. Don’t take the chance that you might be tempted to answer it or “make a quick call” while driving. It just isn’t worth the risk.