A new year is upon us and it’s time for visit our respective state or country Department of Transportation websites to find out what the latest motoring laws are. Here is a short list of some of the new laws that took effect this morning.
Do you live in South Carolina, Illinois, Alaska or Washington? These states will start enforcing a law that requires first-time DUI offenders to have a Breath Alcohol Ignition Interlock Device, or BAIID, installed on their cars.
In Dallas, Texas, you are going to want to make sure your insurance is up-to-date. Failure to do so will result in your car getting towed.
If you live in Arizona, the name of your state on your license plate will have to be visible. There does seem to be a bit of controversy surrounding this one.
If you live in Minnesota, you will have to learn to share the road with your big-rig brethren and auto makers will be required to tell you exactly how much refrigerant is leaking from your car.
And, finally, for those of you Californians among us, it’s time to put the cell phone down all the way as you are no longer allowed to send or read text messages or emails while you drive. **Finally**.
If you aren’t sure about the news laws in your own state/province/country, be sure to check out the Department of Transportation website for your state/province/country for a complete list.
I wish some of these laws were also enacted here in Florida. The cesspool of wreckless/careless drivers that we have here is simply mind boggling.
Not getting the AZ plate thing??? Is the issue about plate frames covering the word Arizona? Don’t get it, the AZ plate is quite distinctive.
As far as my state CA, unless CA has upped the fines for using a mobile phone while in route it seems unless.
>Not getting the AZ plate thing??? Is the issue about plate frames covering the word Arizona? Don’t get it, the AZ plate is quite distinctive.
The link above points to an article that says the same thing. I’m pretty sure it’s just the state of AZ trying to drum up more revenue.
And you can bet enforcement will be strict as states are hard pressed for revenues these days.
I don’t think that the DUI laws are strict enough! Years ago you lost your car and right to drive. Now you pay a fine, take a class and have a gizmo in your car. I don’t think that this is enough to have much impact on DUIs.
I’m glad Dallas has the new law. I wonder if it applies in Richardson. I’m tired of all those losers out there who drive around without liability.
My wife was hit by an uninsured driver just a few months ago and the guy got to drive away without penalty. He even tried to make a claim on our insurance. Fortunately, he couldn’t prove that my wife’s car can drive sideways and denied his claim.
I heard a news story on the radio about the CA texting ban, where they played sound bytes from random interviews with the public. Of course most were happy about the ban, but a shocking number admitted that they would continue to respond if they received a message.
Not all AZ plates have the distinctive cacti on them. Like many states there are a multitude of special interest designs.
<a href="http://www.azdot.gov/mvd/vehicle/mvdplate.asp" rel="nofollow ugc">http://www.azdot.gov/mvd/vehicle/mvdplate.asp</a>
In IL if you need to start your car while intoxicated just have a sober friend or, so called friend, blow.
On the uninsured, I was just hit by one with no license no headlights on. He promised to pay but, so far I’m the one paying.
The California cell phone/text law is next to near-useless! The fine is only $20 for your first offense and the Police in San Francisco are not being encouraged to pull you over as a primary offense. You have to be doing something else like speeding or inattentive driving, then they can tack on the additional $20 hit. They claim they’re trying to ease people into getting used to the new laws. It’s a feel-good fine put in place to placate the hippies. If they were serious about safety, they’d do something more along the line of Philadelphia’s cell phone fine, $250! Bamm!! Now that I like.
I wonder if I was caught checking my email on my iPhone I could get away with it by saying that I was actually changing the music. No law yet about not using an iPod.
To Roccorocket: …now THAT’S what I call,”giving your friend a blowjob”,(cue in durm roll and rimshot)…
In Florida we haven’t seen cell phone banning while driving, just because the legislators here are in bed with the cell phone providers.
Also the problem is that when you don’t enact these laws and/or enforce them in the face of proliferation of these devices, it becomes almost a futile effort trying to curb use. These laws should have come about in the early 1990’s when cell phones were beginning to become the staple of society at large.
Same with speeding. If you don’t truly enforce speed limits (Instead of placing bogus police speed traps on the rare instance) you would have more effective means of hammering into people the idea of respecting posted speed limits.
I see some cops here all the time either yanking on the cell phone themselves and/or speeding without their lights on. LEAD by example, yet the men in blue think they are above the law and everybody else. This is why people don’t respect police.
Also hefty fines for 1st time offenses are needed to drive the point across. People hurt the most when they take a hit on the wallet. $20 ticket for a first offense is simply put a “slap on the wrist”.
Whats funny is a local DA attorney in my hometown in Washington that just walked away with nothing but a tiny slap on his hands for blowing double the legal limit after causing two separate accidents. He paid a small fine and got a deal for nothing on his driving record about DUI. Second time he was cited for DUI.
I entirely agree with C4- the drivers in Florida are useless! Coming from Boston, I expected “Massholes” to be the absolute last word in bad driving, but these guys… they’re a whole different breed altogether! Laws, please?!?
driverphil… thanks for the link. Wow AZ does have an amazing amount of plate choices! Now I understand why maybe they need to have this law. CA does have quite a few plate styles but no where near that many.
I picked up my 1st MCS in Naples Florida. I had to wait 2 days to pick up the car and was given a rental to drive while there. I then drove through your state to come home to CA. Didn’t really see any worse driving than here in CA but I was only in your state for 3 days.
I live in south florida and yeah the driving isn’t great, but c’mon, its not that bad. I just got back from NY, and that is just insane.
It’s kind of like when your in South America, that the traffic lines are non existant. People are all over the road everywhere.