Today’s Auptopian Asks query is “what’s the dumbest law,” instead of “name a dumb law,” because lawbooks are full of all manner of peabrained rules and regulations when it comes to anything and everything automobiles. Some are intelligent enough conceptually speaking, but become silly in execution or enforcement; others are just patently dumb from ding to dong.
In the ding to dong category, I nominate the NHTSA’s 1979 call for speedometers to highlight the 55mph position on the dial and cease providing any indication for speeds over 85mph. As the national speed limit at the time was 55mph, having some kind of emphasis for that annoyingly low velocity wasn’t the worst idea, and came at the expense of nothing beyond a little extra paint (or, in the case of the Mustang SVO speedo below, a different paint color – an orange tick at 55mph instead of white).
Spacer
But the 85mph maximum as some kind of safeguard against drivers “seeing what she can do” because whatever she can do beyond 85mph won’t be displayed? Well, that’s just silly. I assure you, many drivers still flat-footed the right pedal until the engine topped out, no matter the speedometer’s ability to keep counting the miles per hour. And in some cases – again with the SVO cluster above – one could still see how fast they were traveling as the needle swung past 85 into unlabeled but nonethless clearly marked speed units.
I’m confident 85mph-max speedometers led to more occurrences of speeding than they did instances where the tactic slowed drivers down. Ever been blithely sailing down the interstate at 95mph, pacing traffic, only to have your partner (if not yourself) glance at the speedo and say “whoa, better slow down”? That doesn’t happen when the needle pins at 85mph. “Do I know how fast I was going, officer? Honestly, I don’t. Not past 85, anyway.”
Your turn: What’s The Dumbest Automotive Law or Regulation?
Top graphic images: Bring a Trailer
Drivers license tests are too damn easy. I know this isn’t a traffic law per se, and I know my ideas would cost too much and some people would never get to drive here, but still. In the UK, my father failed his test six times, yes six. Why? He had terrible vision, and struggled with depth perception. Damn right he should be failed. He could pass the eye chart test, but struggled with following distance etc.
Most people have no idea what the rules of the road are, make it up as they go and are just selfish. And I’ll own this now, I am a selfish bastard at times as well. No doubt. Re-test every five years. At least written, and make it hard. In WA state I was able to do both auto and MC written tests in one 30 minute block, passed with a 100%. The lady at the counter was shocked, I was like, any monkey can pass the test.
Finally, why are brand new drivers of both cars and mc able to just buy whatever stupidly over-powered car or bike they can afford?
A lot has already been said about dash and guage lighting that remains on, even if one’s headlights are not active after dusk.
To that, I will add the draconian US headlight regulations that have suppressed proven matrix lighting technology stateside. As headlights get brighter and whiter, glare has become a real issue at night. The matrix beam technology significantly reduces that for other drivers in the beam path. The real kicker is that many European cars are already equipped with this advanced lighting hardware, but the system is disabled in the US market software programming.
Or just ban overly bright LED headlights so you’re not blinding everyone else who is on the road. As if replacement headlights on newer car aren’t expensive enough.
The dumbest one I can think of is Denver area emissions laws. To be clear, I’m fine with emissions laws as I enjoy breathing clean air, and if the law was just about tail pipe emissions I would have no issues with it, give me a number and I’ll make sure my vehicle meets it. That’s not what they chose to do. First of all the “visual inspection” has to be passed, so in other words all the malaise era junk that didn’t work worth a damn in the first place has to be there or it fails, regardless of actual emissions. Second, when all that garbage inevitably fails to clean up emissions enough to pass, if you then spend about $800 on repairs, and it still doesn’t pass, they just give you a waiver that you tried and your weezy junk can be on the road. So install a late model EFI motor in your 80s Impala SS, automatic fail, but you can cruise your single digit mpg, smog belching ride all day as long as you made an attempt to fix it. Absolute idiocy.
This. California has the same problem. If it were just about emissions, we’d have a tailpipe number that cars have to meet for a given year. If you’re above that you fail, at or below you pass. That’s how NJ was when I was growing up. Simple, and yeah, sometimes we’d tune for emissions, but California decided, nope, we don’t want anyone end-running the emissions testing, so, only stock vehicles, no matter how bad, can pass. I mean, seriously. I could go on, but I won’t.
You can turn your car in California and other CARB states – you just need to use CARB certified parts.
I vote for the fasten seatbelt bonging when you turn on the ignition. I’d been driving for years before I read an owners manual and learned what that was for. I always get in, start the engine, and then put on my seatbelt. I was quite surprised that if you put on the seat belt *before* you start the engine, it doesn’t bong at you.
The one that has never made sense to me, is that the President can no longer drive a car, even after leaving elected office!
President or vice president, current or former: it doesn’t matter. None is allowed to drive a car on a public road.
The policy is enforced by the Secret Service. If a president wants to motor around, they have to do it as a passenger while an agent trained in evasive maneuvers is behind the steering wheel.
It’s really the only thing stopping me from running for President.
Virginia/D.C. being the only place where radar detectors are illegal. It’s never going away because radar detectors are now less effective than Waze. Not advocating speeding, but the law made things nuts in Virginia. Police started going crazy buying radar detector detectors and radar detector companies started trying to add features that made them less detectable, all leading to make a bunch of people spend more money than the stupid speeding tickets would have cost.
back in the 80s, I knew a guy who hacked his radar detector so that they sensor was hidden in his grill, but the alarm and head unit where below the dash. This allowed him to, …go under the radar, when driving in VA. Everyone else I knew tried to hide theirs by routing the power cable through bandanas hanging from their mirror and mounting it at the top of their windshield… that was less stealth, and probably drew more attention from the cops.
Also, some of my less smarter friends thought they could put aluminum foil and steel wool pads in their hubcaps to ‘confuse’ the radar.
A friend (back in the early 1990’s) mounted his behind his dashboard and lined it up so that his parking brake light would come on if it detected a speed trap. I think he still got caught with it.
Agreed, police send a bunch of radio waves or laser light at you but you’re not allowed to use a device to detect it? Seems like their unwanted emissions should be more illegal than me detecting it.
My pet peeve is SUVs and trucks being excluded from passenger car window tint regulations. Driving around 40 years ago, yeah sure, there were some panel vans and other big opaque rolling bricks, but mostly you could see through (front-to-back or side-to-side) other vehicles, providing more awareness of what’s going on around you. These days approximately everyone is driving SUVs or 4-door pickups with limo tint from the second row back. Looking around in traffic you mostly can’t see what’s going on beyond the neighboring vehicle.
Here’s one that I haven’t seen yet: The mandate that all brake fluid has to be amber in color. Goodbye Ate Super Blue! Sure, you can still get the same formulation, but to get the blue/red stuff, you have to source it from Canada. So much easier to change the brake fluid.
When the Viper was introduced, I always thought it was hilarious when Car and Driver pointed out that it was required by federal law to have door locks despite not having outside door handles, roll up windows, or even anything that could reasonably be called a roof.
The entire FMVSS regulations that were politically motivated rather than written from the engineering perspectives as ECE WP.29, Australian Design Rules (ADR), and a certain regulations in some countries. We don’t need lot of dumb regulations that were rescinded again and again.
I can go on and on, but you get the idea.
FMVSS is largely responsible for the shitty range of body types, models, engines, and gearboxes that Americans have to make do with as compared to Australia (despite tinier market). Why? Reportedly, it cost about $40 million to have the vehicle certified for the US market. So, the manufacturers cannot always amortise the cost quickly and must choose what they think would sell well in the US. Thus, tiny choices of brown station wagons with diesel engines.
I have seen a report in the early 2000s where it costs about $2,000 per vehicle to engineer specifically for the US regulations. Yet, thanks to the link rot: I couldn’t access it anymore.
This and another idiotic federal law, Motor Vehicle Information and Cost-Saving Act of 1972. This law allows the manufacturers to demand the proof that any safety regulation would save lives and cost; leading to ten-plus years of battle to mandate the airbags. What’s shocking is that the first generation airbags massively failed this cost-saving act. Ford invoked this law to force NHTSA in rescinding the mandatory coating against UV radiation that causes yellowing and cloudiness of the polycarbonate lens because it would cost fifty cents per vehicle more. So, people are stuck with jaundiced and cataracted headlamps…thanks, Ford.
I have said again and again that United States should just swallow its fucking pride and start harmonising its regulations with the international regulations. Ironically, United States is a member of the WP.29 forum but refuses to implement any of those regulations except for the headlamp with sharp horizontal cut-off in 1991. Australia and United States are so much similar in geography and such, yet Australia has implemented many of WP.29 regulations into its ADR. So, no reason to claim “oh, everything is so different here in the United States!”
Counterpoint: All of this equates to increased protectionism of domestic brands.
(at the expense of exports)
FMVSS allowed motorized and door mounted seatbelts as an optional way to follow the regulations for passive restraints systems. It was quickly amended to specifically require airbags instead of those smartassed “solutions” car makers of all sorts came up with instead, and was implemented well over a decade before it was required in the EU.
It’s also not true that “FMVSS is largely to blame” for why the American market is homogenized for engine and transmissions. FMVSS has always been happy to give out waivers for lower volume cars for certain regulations, which is basically the only reason Lotus was able to stay in the US market after the Esprit ran its course. Because the EPA does not, *emissions* regulations is the reason for that, specifically how Europe basically didn’t have any until 2000 when they had been heavily regulated in the US from the 1970s; and now that it is in Europe as well you’re seeing the exact same kind of one size fits all approach to drivetrains that the US has had for decades.
Forcing drivers in the left lane observing the posted speed limit to yield to speeders because those speeders might have a tantrum.
What is the point of multiple lanes if traffic is unable to move at different speeds?
That’s why it’s law (in my Province, anyways) “Keep right, except to pass”. It’s really that simple. God forbid someone have to give steering input on a highway to aid traffic flow.
Why indeed? By that law if the right lane is moving at the speed limit the left lane may as well not exist for you except to make a left turn.
“God forbid someone have to give steering input on a highway to aid traffic flow.”
Counterpoint: God forbid someone follow the speed limit to aid traffic safety AND traffic flow.
The problem is that, historically, it is neither safer nor more efficient. “Go with the flow, within reason” is considered the safest method.
This is where road design comes into play. People will drive whatever speed they are comfortable on a given stretch of road. There’s an 80 zone in my city that pretty much everyone does 70ish in. Why? Because they road design makes 80 or above feel uncomfortable.
The OPP have also said publicly, on multiple occasions, that you are more of a hazard by blocking the flow, and can be ticketed for such. Even if you’re driving the limit.
You need to read about the 85 percentile rule. Basically setting the speed limit at the speed 85% of vehicles drive if there were no traffic is the safest speed. “Effects of Raising and Lowering Speed Limits” by the Federal Highway Association showed raising speed limits decreased or had no negative impact on accidents by getting closer to the 85th percentile. Other studies have shown drivers going 10+ MPH lower than the average speed of other drivers were in more accidents.
You have to realize speed limits aren’t always set by road engineers. If you want people to drive slower the speed limit isn’t the determining factor. You have to engineer the roads so that the 85 percentile speed is lower. If when you’re camped out in the left lane you’re going below that 85 percentile speed you’re not making driving safer. If you’re going 10MPH lower than that speed you’re greatly increasing your risk of an accident.
This is a lost cause. All left lane hogs think they are the equivalent of the one good guy with a gun, but I’ve seen this play out with this user before and they are *particularly* insistent that they are the arbiter of which traffic laws they are allowed to enforce on behalf of police and not others.
OK Leadfoot.
Until you get a badge your opinion of what traffic laws you’re allowed to ignore and what ones you’re allowed to enforce on others is irrelevant.
Cops give out tickets for this in some states, I wish they’d do it more. Keep right, except to pass! Its there for a reason. Left lane campers cause compounding issues.
No they don’t. It’s speeders who cause “compounding issues” by driving like jerks.
I’ll say the same thing that I say to pedestrians and cyclists when it comes to “what’s right”. In an accident, “right” doesn’t make you any less dead.
So you can be a salmon and swim up river, or you can realise that’s a dumb evolutionary solution and flow with it.
If he’s speeding and you’re in the left lane not passing aren’t you both breaking traffic laws?
At least his way you both get to drive the speed you want. Your way, everyone drives your speed and that’s that. In an ideal world we’d all go the limit and the left lane would be for people to get around those going slower but we both know that’s not reality. All you’re accomplishing is pissing people off and slightly increasing the jam up on the road.
It’s ok with me if we disagree, these are just opinions on a car blog.
So sitting in left lane is fine with you… OK, so are you also the guy that tries to ‘police’ the merge lane?
SD is the only state with no law. The great majority say to stay right to allow traffic to pass, with minor variations.
https://www.autoinsurance.org/left-lane-driving-laws-by-state/
For instance
Indiana Code Title 9. Motor Vehicles § 9-21-5-7″The new law, which took effect as of July 1, 2015, allows law enforcement to issue tickets to motorists who are driving at or above the speed limit in the left lane if they do not move over when a faster-moving vehicle wants to pass. … Drivers who violate the law are committing a Class C infraction and risk a fine of up to $500.”
The left lane is for passing not lollygagging. The sad thing is that we need a law for that and even sadder is that people have the HUTA©️ and don’t even recognize they are the reason for the line of cars in all three lanes behind them.
Found the leadfoot. Driving the speed limit is not “lollygagging”.
Drive the speed limit, that’s fine dude – just do it in the right lane. But stop worrying about what everyone else and GTFO of the way. You sound like Volunteer Deputy Sherriff Dwight Shrute.
Yes it is.
Try going the speed limit on a freeway in California (without heavy traffic) and see what happens…
The correct (and only) answer is the fact that FMVSS is distinct and different from the European Union’s or Japan’s standards (which are, broadly, stricter about safety for those inside and outside the vehicle, require lower emissions, and mandate more active crash prevention). It should be possible for an individual or a manufacturer to import any fully-compliant (i.e. not low-volume or kit-car exempt) homologated production car to the US and register it to be driven on our roads.
This single restriction covers the chicken tax, 25-year rule, and a litany of other dumb regulations.
(I’ll allow that it might be wise to exclude Japan and the UK from this due to them being RHD)
Why should they be excluded? RHD cars are perfectly legal in the US and in most other predominantly LHD countries (just think of the old Postal Jeeps).
And.25+ year old JDM vehicle being used a rural route USPS delivery vehicles.
I’m not sure that I agree with the claim that EU safety standards are safer than FMVSS ones for those inside the vehicle. Certainly pedestrian safety is much more important in the EU than it is in the US simply by virtue of the fact that they give a shit about it at all when FMVSS doesn’t and probably never will; but before the EU ramrodded a bunch of stuff into cars last year the EU was always more than a bit laggard for a lot of things that the US mandated pretty quickly to really support the claim that they are “stricter” about occupant safety.
Emissions I would agree with being ahead of that of the US technically (but only practically once Trump took office) but that is an *extremely* recent change of pace from how things were from the 1970s throughout basically the entire 2010s; and I’ll believe the EU will follow through with their 2035 emissions goals when I see them.
I used to be manufacturing engineer for the M-Class dashes and center consoles back in the mid-00’s. We had 6 different versions for different crash standards. US standards are less safe than European ones because they require restraining unbelted passengers in the front seats while European simply base their regulations on the idea that people are smart enough to wear a seatbelt.
The unbelted passenger requirement led to having airbags that deploy faster with more force – which is cause more damage to belted passengers – especially small framed ones that sit close to the wheel. The under dash structure was also more rigid so that when an unbelted passenger’s knees hit the dash it would hold them in place better while the EU version was soft and designed to collapse. This also leads to increased injuries for belted passengers when their legs fly forward and contact the more rigid dash structure.
Chicken Tax or 25 Year rule.
crash testing standards based on unbelted drivers like in the US. Apparently in Europe, the crash testing is done with belted passengers, so their airbags are smaller and deploy with less force.
That states are banning keis is my biggest peeve. Practical and 45mpg? Can’t have that competing here. Fun gullwing doors but only 11 feet long? Not safe! Has a VIN that is short? Too hard to figure out how to enter into DMV computers. Result? Ban them, at least from interstates, when you can still drive a ’60’s Beetle or ’29 Model A, because a Honda Beat or Mazda AZ-1 is an ‘unsafe’ kei truck…
And riding a motorcycle w/o a helmet is no big deal either but KEI cars? That’s crazy talk. I’m tired of this “Land of the Free” BS.
That’s easy- the regulation that requires dash lights to come on at dusk, whether or not the headlights are lit. Masking it worse, the DRLs are turned off because they’re “daytime” lights. This leads to countless “ghost cars” haunting the roads between sundown and full dark. Especially common in urban areas where streetlights allow the driver to see even if his headlights are dark. None of the info on the dashboard is as important as seeing and being seen!
Personally, I’d rather drive with a dark dash and better headlights. At minimum, automatic headlights should be mandated. THAT would surely prevent accidents.
+1
This is the dumbest. In the old days, people would automatically know their lights weren’t on because they couldn’t see their guages.
In the name of occupant safety, to hell with everyone else, eh?
I do find it absurd that some DRL’s [Nissan Rogue in particular] are bright enough that people drive them thinking their lights are on. Nearly rear ended one coming around a corner as it pulled out of a driveway, because my lights didn’t catch the reflectors until I was right on it. Was not the first, nor last, I saw one with no taillights at night.
I question whether having the dash lights on all the time does anything meaningful for safety.
I guess you could make a case for the speedometer. That’s why I loved SAAB’s idea for Night Panel, which illuminated only the speedo when you chose.
Well here’s the thing… if the driver checks their speed, they’ll notice their lights are off when they can’t see it because it’s dark. Hence, they’ll turn on their lights.
So in the end, they’ll be able to see the speedometer anyway… just not immediately.
Agreed.
I think that vehicles which have always-on DRLs for branding or styling reasons should also be required to have automatic headlights that default to an auto setting and need to be manually turned ‘off’.
And in ‘off’ they should have all exterior lighting and gauge cluster lighting turned off as well.
Yeah, but that’s impossible when the dash gauges are OLED display screens instead of mechanical gauges. When the screen isn’t lit, there’s no information at all.
And force headlights to come on when the wipers run more than about a minute.
Also some way for the car to detect fog would be nice. Rode to the big metro this week.in the fog. So.many cars and trucks with no lights.
This is an actual regulation? I thought this was just a trend but nothing actually mandated gauges to be always illuminated.
I believe I’ve read that, but I can’t remember the reference. I’m giving the manufacturers credit by blaming regulations. I can’t imagine every automaker, individually, deciding, “We’ll make the dash lights come on at dusk, the same time we turn off the DRLs, but the headlights will operate manually.”
If you happen to find the reference to the mandate you think you saw, I’d love to see it.
Well I think it’s largely due to a shift in gauges having a fully digital electronic face instead of a mechanical gauge with a needle. In that case they have no choice but to illuminate the gauges at all times in order for it to be visible.
That’s true. But this has been happening for at least a decade, when physical gauges were still common.
The law that prevents ATVs and side by sides from being driven on the roads. As far as I’m concerned, the only things they need to be road legal are headlights, taillights, turn signals, road rated tires and a horn.
If a motorcycle can be on the road without a windscreen, so can these vehicles. If we want Kei-Cars on the road (and we do!) we should also want these on the road.
Give them motorcycle regulation emissions and I’m fine with it.
Yeah, it seems fine to me too. I’d say that they need a license plate light as well, but that’s just being pedantic.
We need to allow all sorts of quadricycles and not ban them from the absurd number of rural roads with (unsafe) high speed limits.
Given in increasing price on cars, it’s also the only new vehicle some people can afford. (Talking entry level Kawasaki Mules here.)
OK, but doesn’t this basically create a class of cheaper cars with no crash safety? At that point, why would you pay 2x the money for a FMVSS regulated car?
You can drive ATVs on public roads in a lot of rural areas already, in that context it’s practical and the safety impact is minimal.
City roads is what I’m talking about. Commuter cars that cannot go on the freeway. Yes they would not be safe as a car so classify them as a subset of motorcycle that doesn’t need a motorcycle license to drive (think slingshot). Just let the buyers know that in an accident they will be chunky salsa. Their choice.