Odd Laws You Could Get Pulled Over For While Driving In California

I’ve been living in California for almost a decade now and someone pointed out to me that it is law you put your lights on when using windscreen wipers. I didn’t realise this but do it anyway because I have a brain.

Odd Laws You Could Get Pulled Over For While Driving In California

I’ve been living in California for almost a decade now and someone pointed out to me that it is law you put your lights on when using windscreen wipers. I didn’t realise this but do it anyway because I have a brain.

You may wonder why something so obvious has to be legislated, but California is a place where legislators feel they have to legislate the obvious. When someone has a career is based on how many laws they make, and then on top of that grandstanding on them helps to get re-elected, a state can end up with some real head scratchers and some genuine Captain Obvious laws.

Then of course, like anywhere, there are some bizarrely antiquated laws that for what ever reason never got struck down.

Here’s a mixture of all the above:

(1) In California, it can be illegal for a woman to drive while wearing a bathrobe. Although if you have driven in L.A you can be forgiven for thinking it’s perfectly legal to use the rearview mirror to do your makeup while drinking coffee and checking your Facebook feed… unless you’re wearing a bathrobe.

(2) You can actually be pulled over for driving too slow. The reality is that California and a few other “vacation” states actually recognises that a slow moving vehicle in normal paced traffic can be a hazard.

It also may be the most humiliating law for a petrol head to have to show up in court for.

(3) State law legislates that it is illegal to play “any sound amplification system” so loud that it can be heard 50 feet or more from the vehicle. I actually like this law because I don’t want to listen to other peoples terrible taste in music, but it’s rarely used as anything more than probable cause when cops want to check out someone they want to have a word with.

(4) It’s a misdemeanor to shoot at any kind of game from a moving vehicle, unless the target is a whale.

This was perfectly legal as she was shooting at a whale.
This was perfectly legal as she was shooting at a whale.

Here are some more local laws:

In the city of Arcadia peacocks have the right of way to cross any street, including driveways.

In Eureka, no matter how comfortable that concrete or tarmac may look it is in fact illegal to use a road as a bed.

In case you were thinking about it, if you visit Baldwin Park you’re not allowed to ride a bicycle in a swimming pool.

Chico has made it illegal to plant rutabagas in roadways. I have no idea rutabagas is but in case you ever end up in Chico also bear in mind bowling on the sidewalk is illegal as well as driving a herd of cattle down a street and planting a garden in any public street. Just to kill all the joy of it’s residents, Chico has ruled that detonating a nuclear device within the city limits will result in a $500 fine.

In Glendale It’s illegal to jump from a vehicle moving more than 65 mph…

Odd Laws You Could Get Pulled Over For While Driving In California

… Sixty four miles per hour and you’re fine, but sixty five and your wearing these steel bracelets and coming me with me son. It’s also illegal in Glendale to jump into a passing car, and cars may not be driven in reverse.

Good news though, contrary to popular belief, it’s not illegal for anyone in California to drive while barefoot.

So there’s that.

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Comments

Anonymous

The law against slow driving isn’t wierd, it’s brilliant!

01/13/2017 - 12:26 |
2 | 0
DanCal22 (*insert car model/brand* squad) (Twingo gang) (Gan

It could be worse… you could be arrested in New Jersey for having an ice cream cone in your back pocket on a Sunday.

01/13/2017 - 12:27 |
0 | 0
Anonymous

My two cents:

  • N. 2 is also a law of the Italian Street Code, and I think it makes sense. Slowly driving people can cause severe traffic jams, and can really be a hazard in certain situations, like driving on a motorway: you are driving at the speed of, say, 130kmh/80mph, and suddently you see some guy in front of you doing barely 75kmh/46mph. With such difference in speed, there is the risk that you might rear-end the other guy, or that someone else might crash into you while you’re trying to overtake the slowpoke ahead of you. So I agree with this law

  • Per Wikipedia: “The rutabaga (from an old Swedish dialectal word), swede (from Swedish turnip), or neep (Brassica napobrassica, or Brassica napus var. napobrassica, or Brassica napus subsp. rapifera) is a root vegetable that originated as a cross between the cabbage and the turnip; confusingly, the rutabaga can also be called a turnip.” . They were also ate by cattle in the early 19th century. So maybe this is just a very old law that regulates cattle feeding.

  • Detonating nuclear devices? And a fine of just $500 for that?? Must be a law made in the 50s, when $500 were a really big sum of money, otherwise, WTF???

01/13/2017 - 14:48 |
2 | 0
Dude

All states have a law about driving to slow in some way or another. Most places don’t bother to enforce it though.

01/13/2017 - 15:01 |
2 | 0
Anonymous

“(2) You can actually be pulled over for driving too slow. The reality is that California and a few other “vacation” states actually recognises that a slow moving vehicle in normal paced traffic can be a hazard.”

Wait. Why is this an “ODD LAW”? This should be a bloody norm everywhere!

01/13/2017 - 15:02 |
28 | 0
Anonymous

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

most of the states in the south east have this law on state and interstate highways

01/13/2017 - 16:21 |
4 | 0
Anonymous

What does the law say about this one?

01/13/2017 - 15:13 |
16 | 0
Andrés Cely Herazo

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

I guess that in my country is completely fine…

01/14/2017 - 17:03 |
6 | 0
Kyle Ashdown

Chico sounds like a buzzkill.

01/13/2017 - 15:39 |
0 | 0
Kyle Ashdown

Also, the shooting game from a moving vehicle law makes perfect sense to me. As a hunter, it’s just plain antisocial. As for whales—ever tried to kill a whale with anything other than a harpoon in a boat?

01/13/2017 - 15:41 |
2 | 0
Sig Astra

They told me in high school I couldn’t write a bunch of BS and get away with it. Turns out, people get paid to write nonsense.

01/13/2017 - 15:51 |
2 | 0
Anonymous

I would like to know, why i have to put my lights on when I’m using my windscreen wipers? 🤔
To me, this makes no sense at all.

01/13/2017 - 16:10 |
0 | 0
MrWafflez

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

dude seriously

visibility

01/13/2017 - 17:12 |
0 | 0