5 Unusual Types of Traffic Laws Adopted to Save Your Life

It’s a jungle out there.  Just preparing to keep your life moving can be challenging – especially if you must drive to get there.  Sometimes you have to violate a traffic law to avoid an accident. That usually isn’t part of the plan. 

However, there are other times when you may be driving illegally without knowing it.  The Vintage Vixen is here to help. I’m here to help her keep you safe by sharing some obscure traffic laws. If you break these laws, you could cause an accident, get a citation or be tossed into the slammer.

I am pleased to help you legally reach your destination.  I learned about some of these laws while studying to take a driving test.  California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) requires senior citizens to take a written test when they renew their driver’s licenses.

I have been reading the driver’s handbook to prepare. I read as a writer. I read everything - even stuff most people skim or ignore. Take the DMV Handbook of traffic laws. I got to the copyright page and realized I needed more insight.  So, I conducted some research to learn about a few no-nos.  I discovered too many to count.  Therefore, I clumped a few of them into five practical categories to help you absorb some unusual rules of the road.

1.      To Communicate or Not to Communicate When Driving?  That Is the Question.

It is important to communicate with other drivers. Awareness can prevent accidents. However, the California DMV Driver’s Handbook copyright page states that you are engaging in copyright infringement if you read this collection of traffic laws in public.  You have to get permission from the DMV.

I live in the Los Angeles area.  I know a lot of actors who supplement their incomes as Lyft or Uber drivers.  Violating the copyright law is not in their best interest.  But a couple of comedian friends plan to contact the DMV for permission to perform the rulebook as part of their audition reels.

Let’s face it, the Driver’s Handbook just isn’t sexy material.  I’m not a songwriter, but I think it would be tough to write a love song about traffic laws – although take a listen to this hit by Meatloaf:  “Paradise by the Dashboard Lights.”

2.      Major Thoroughfares Can be a Jungle and a Zoo.

Nationwide Insurance compiled a collection of strange traffic laws.  One of my favorites regulates activity on one of the busiest streets in Los Angeles.  It is illegal to drive more than 2,000 sheep down Hollywood Blvd. at any one time. 

I find that astonishing.  I can’t drive more than four at a time because I don’t have enough seatbelts.  A comedian/actor friend contends the 2,000 number was generated by tourists counting off as they stood in line to ride a tour bus.  I hear the tour of the stars’ homes is fun if you like seeing trees, fortress walls and other tour buses.

Speaking of driving livestock, when I was a teenager in Texas, I dated a cowboy.  He took me to the big cattle drive hosted by the high school rodeo club.  They did pretty well until they took their hooves off the steering wheel.  I’m just joking, the cowboy and I never dated.  The cattle didn’t drive. 

But the high school band performed at a few rodeos.  The band qualified as my gym requirement. I played the clarinet and amateurishly twirled a baton. We had our own batch of traffic rules that applied to marching on football fields.  They were copyrighted.  But the band director shouted them in public anyway because we didn’t always focus.

OK, I couldn’t resist writing a few jokes about the sheep law. But it really is an actual law. Another strange traffic law involving animals pertains to people driving in Massachusetts.  They’re breaking the law if they drive with a gorilla as a backseat passenger.

This might sound strange, but I believe you might be able to get around that law. Let the gorilla drive. You can ride behind him or her and serve as a backseat driver.  You’ll be a law-abiding citizen, but the gorilla will probably hate you.

3.      Traffic Laws Are Nothing to Spit At.

In fact, if you’re driving in the State of Georgia, you can get a citation if you spit from a car or a bus.  But it is not against the law to spit from a truck.

I don’t know much about trucks, but I know a tad about spitting.  When I was a journalist covering the San Antonio festival scene, one of my assignments involved the Texas Folklife Festival at the Institute of Texan Cultures.  One of the activities involved a spitting contest.  I don’t remember if tobacco or watermelon seeds were involved.  But during an interview with the winner, he contended there are environmental concerns to consider while spitting, factors such as wind velocity.

Speaking of spitting, this next law has nothing to do with it.  But like spitting, it involves the mouth.  For motorists in Arkansas, it is against the law to honk your horn from any place that serves cold drinks and sandwiches after 9 p.m.  My friend insists honking for service at night is wasted energy because a lot of diners are only open for lunch.

4.      Some Laws Are Just Strange.

In California, it is against the law for women to drive while wearing a house coat.  I contend this regulation is sexist at best, especially if men are allowed to wear their house coats.

In New Hampshire, people are prohibited from inhaling bus fumes if they are doing so just to get high.

Lawmakers in Ohio just want to keep drivers moving.  They made it illegal to run out of gasoline in Youngstown. 

5.      A Few Laws Are So Ridiculous You May Want to Go to Georgia and Take Up Spitting.

Sexism is also alive and well on Louisiana roads.  A traffic law there requires a woman’s husband to wave a flag in front of his spouse’s car before she can drive it.

It is not my intention to pass judgement here.  But if I were the woman behind the wheel, I’d insist this be done at the beginning of a drag race. I would take off and drive across the state line as rapidly as possible.  But that’s just me.

Here is a law that does pertain to me. It also involves reading in public. Reading inspired this blog post. Now that you know that, I feel obligated to warn you that officials in Michigan are as serious about reading as the copyright folks in California.

In Michigan, you can get a fine if you are caught sitting in the middle of the street reading your newspaper.  I find that absurd since most people don’t read newspapers.  They get their news online.

All joking aside, most traffic laws really are in place so we all have a safer experience when driving.  So be aware of what’s going on around you.  Spit if you want to do so.  But remember, you are the driving force of mankind. You deserve to arrive safely to your destination of brilliance.