Unreasonable Laws To Keep Us Off The Streets

What are some of the laws in your area to keep you from lawfully enjoying your street car? In a recent Post the discussion turned to anti-racing intended laws that do nothing to stop street racing. How crazy are some of these laws and how do they go against the constitution?  

As Ryan mentioned, in a previous post we discussed the Province of Ontario, Canada law. Basically if you get caught racing, stunt driving or exceeding the posted speed limit by 50kmh, you are subject to immediate towing and impounding of your car and license suspension for 10 days and fines over $1000, plus towing and impound fees. I don't know how effective it is at controlling actual racing, but it seems to be cutting down on the number of minivans and SUV's running down the highway (posted limit is 100km/62mph) at 150+kmh (90+mph). It always amazes me that people driving a vehicle with the aerodynamics of a barn door and the center of gravity of a loaded dump truck want to drive so fast and then complain about the price of gas!
Steve  
Trying to help... 'cause we don't all have to learn the hard way!

I got a ticket yesterday in Houston. Strangly enough, I wasn't in my loud 400 hp '78 Trans Am - but in my clunkady 1997 Ford Explorer. The inspection sticker had expired and I haven't been able to pass an inspection because my #&%$ dog chewed through the wiring harness and completely screwed up the computer and sensors.

Now it won't pass an emission test, the horn honks unexpectedly, and the lights start flashing on and off at the most inapproiate times - which is what happened yesterday while sitting behind a policeman at a light. Thus the ticket.

Ironically, I can drive the old T/A everywhere with no problem. No emission controls (25 year old and older cars are exempt from testing). One cop on a radio talk show recently summed up the police departments view on traffic in Houston.  It went something like this:

"The main thing we watch closest are the Soccer Moms talking on their cell phones with an SUV full of screaming kids." "Next we watch the little foriegn cars with blacked out windows and two foot high 'bicycle racks' on their trunk lids."
"The ones we really don't worry about are the old dudes tooling around in their old Camaros and Firebirds - they don't ever seem in a hurry, they always have their windows down where you can see them, and half the time they are sitting on the shoulder of the road with their hood up fixing something."

I know I'm much calmer in my Trans Am just "knowing" it will get me out of the way of other road annoyances.

Brazil  

In Edmonton it is illegal to modify a car in any way from factory. This includes ride height. This is a general law set so cops could fine cruisers who frequent popular cruising streets like White Ave. Cops also use it when they have issue with you, but you have not broken any laws. My buddy got a $200 fine and his car towed for having a clear license plate cover and stopping at a 7-11 for a soda. Tchenicaly a truck could be ticket for having a trailer hitch. Absurd...


Also we have a new excessive noise law. There is no specific DB level to breaking the law. Just the officers opinion that your vehicle is loud gets you a $400 fine that cannot be fought. City buses are exempt from the law. This law was the resault of a very small moniroty of people who live downtown complaining that they hear traffic noise. Wow, Jasper Ave is not as quite as a country farm.

I put 4 mufflers (2 resonators and 2 of 40 series flowmasters) on my 800hp pump gas Pontiac 76 Trans Am with full 3.5" exhaust and tail pipes. It is allot of weight, but I can hear my own stereo and still make great power.  

Wow, some of these laws sound quite brutal, no modification to a car what-so-ever? I know here in the states, cold air intakes, dual exhaust is 49 state legal (believe california you cannot get dual exhaust if the car came with a single from factory)

Where I live, they have the most ridiculous law for cruising... if you're with a group of collector/modded cars, you cannot cruise the same street twice within a certain time period or else you will get ticketed for "cruising". Ever since that stupid fast and furious movie came out, it seems like it triggered all these laws against street racing  

Yep!  
professional hi-performance engine builder

Horsepower sells engines and torque wins races

In Houston it's become a whole new world. Unfortunatly, the latest generation of street cruisers around here powder their nose and become Kamikazes. Nowdays, if one is confronted with a challange in traffic, especially at night, it's most likely you will end up in the ER or worse.  It's not like the good old days when you could swap drivers or girlfriends at the red light. Instead of just showing off their cars and flirting, there seems to be some overly busy agenda now. Houstons also bad about jerks waiting for you to go in a store, and then slashing long key marks all over your new triple clear coat paint job.

I caught one once. That was fun.  

Brazil,
I don't fully know what you mean but i'm up here in Dallas, are you talking about the racers being more aggressive and willing to ram you off the road or flat out just pull a gun on you to win, or both? People that cruise up here are pretty cool unless it's the ritsy cruisers that think just because they have high dollar cars that they can be ***  

Yeah David,
I guess I was talking a little in code! I've been to Dallas and everyone does seem a lot more sociable - the cruising is all friendly with everyone admiring each others cars. Houston has turned into a population of total assopenings. Yes, cars will come up beside you at red lights and flick you off for no reason, then cut sharply in front of you when the light changes even if you just peacefully start to go. Then they will stop to turn with no turn light just to start something. Houston is swarming with idiot gangs who would just as soon shoot you for simply breathing. It happens every night - sad but true.  

I hear ya Brazil. I live in Katy and work at NASA, drive thru Houston twice a day. The ones I have problems with are the Mercedes 2 seaters. They will pass you up like you are going to slow then get in front of you and slow down. What's up with that? It ecspecially happens when I am in my truck towing the 48' trailer. I will have the cruise set a 65 and this crap happens.  

Yep, my wife and I took a short trip to San Antonio last weekend and it was so peaceful walking down the river walk at night and everyone saying hi and being friendly. Once we got back to Katy the aggressive drivers started letting us know we were back in Houston. I live in south Houston by Hobby and it's not quite as bad, but I hate having to drive down I-10 or the Southwest Freeway - it's very stressful. And don't you love those BMW's two feet from your rear end with bright lights and horns when your already going ten miles over the speed limit!
And it continues to amaze me when these fools cut in front of an 18 wheeler with no conception of what it takes to slow those suckers down.  

You know, that seems to be an almost universal complaint. Fancy foreign cars and SUV's driven by people that can't drive are everywhere. Try to imagine being that truck driver putting up with that level of stupidity in SNOW!!! In addition to fixing diesels for a living, I do some part-time truck driving too. After 5 years, the supreme idiocy still amazes me, I can't imagine how much my Dad witnessed over his 35+ years as a driver.
We now have a law against handheld cellphones when driving, but it isn't doing much to stop that problem. Then our government passed a law (Ontario & Quebec) requiring all medium and heavy duty trucks to have their electronic engines governed to 105kmh (65mph). Of course every truck's ECM is calibrated slightly different and tires wear affecting the accuracy of the speed-limiter. This causes some rigs to run 0.5-1.0mph faster than others which leads to "elephant races" where one rig tries to pass the other, taking up to 5 miles to get by on a divided 4 lane. This doesn't directly affect our classic cars until you get caught behind one, then we all get a front row seat to a road rage exhibition...FUN!
Steve  
Trying to help... 'cause we don't all have to learn the hard way!

Has that always been that way? Bert and Sally must have been lucky!  

My favorite part in "Smokey and the Bandit", aside from Jerry Reed's compliment to Sally Field's posterior, is when that motorcycle gang kicked Jerry Reed's ass and he got in his truck and run over all their bikes.  

smog testing cars makes somebody money...  other than the smog techs or machine companys...

there is a group of people trying to spread iron oxide in the ocean to cause an algae bloom..  once it gets big enough they plan on stopping the iron diet.. so it will die and fall to the ocean floor and take the carbon the algae has absorbed with it.. carbon sequestration... is what they call it.. they are planning on being funded by selling the carbon credits by the carbon they have removed from the atmosphere..

the smog tests do the same thing.. ever notice that you almost always fail the first test..     when you come back for the second test... the difference in output reduction is something they can sell..