YOU'RE NOT IN MASSACHUSETTS ANYMORE

A recent trip to Berkeley, Calif., reminded me just how different driving can be outside of Massachusetts. You know how you’re supposed to stop for pedestrians in crosswalks? People actually obey the law out there. All the time!

more stories like this

Of course, you’re probably not surprised that Northern Californians are kinder motorists than we are. It’s a cultural thing. But elsewhere in America, drivers behave differently not because of social norms, but because their laws are actually different.

Last week, for example, I wrote about how 41 states have a ‘‘move over’’ law that requires drivers to move out of the right-hand lane whenever a police officer is stopped on the side of the road. Massachusetts is not one of those 41 states, though, so you have probably never heard of such a thing.

Online websites list dozens of bizarre motor vehicle codes, from laws allowing you to shoot whales from your car (Tennessee) to jail sentences for screeching your tires (Kansas). Not all of the ‘‘laws’’ are true, I discovered in my research, but they are pretty funny.

That said, this week we go beyond state lines to look at some of the more interesting — and real — driving laws across the land.

Away from that pump!

The gas station attendant came running at me. ‘‘What are you doing?’’ he asked, as if it weren’t obvious that I was filling my tank. The attendant promptly informed me that in Oregon, where I was traveling, pumping your own gas is against the law. In fact, the fine for doing so is $500.

No kidding.

Oregon’s no self-service law was passed many decades ago, when there were safety concerns about the handling of gasoline, said David House, spokesman for Oregon’s Driver and Motor Vehicle Services Division. Other states may have had similar regulations, but in modern times, the law lives on only in Oregon and New Jersey.

Even more strange, voters like the law. In recent years, attempts to repeal it have been voted down statewide, House said.

‘‘They believe they’ll see less service for the same money,’’ he said. ‘‘There are times when our gas prices are higher than the rest of the country, but probably three-quarters of the time they’re lower’’ than neighboring states’. ‘‘So it doesn’t make any sense to Oregonians to change it.’’

Guilt by ownership

NFL quarterback Steve McNair was arrested and charged with drunken driving while in Nashville last May. But here’s the interesting part: He never once had his hands on the wheel.

In Tennessee, you can be arrested for drunken driving if you let someone else who is intoxicated drive your car. In McNair’s case, his brother-in-law was behind the wheel, and McNair was the passenger. But both men got charged with drunken driving. (The charges were eventually dismissed, according to the Nashville court clerk’s office.)Continued...

By Peter DeMarco

March 20, 2008

A recent trip to Berkeley, Calif., reminded me just how different driving can be outside of Massachusetts. You know how you’re supposed to stop for pedestrians in crosswalks? People actually obey the law out there. All the time!

Of course, you’re probably not surprised that Northern Californians are kinder motorists than we are. It’s a cultural thing. But elsewhere in America, drivers behave differently not because of social norms, but because their laws are actually different.

Last week, for example, I wrote about how 41 states have a ‘‘move over’’ law that requires drivers to move out of the right-hand lane whenever a police officer is stopped on the side of the road. Massachusetts is not one of those 41 states, though, so you have probably never heard of such a thing.

Online websites list dozens of bizarre motor vehicle codes, from laws allowing you to shoot whales from your car (Tennessee) to jail sentences for screeching your tires (Kansas). Not all of the ‘‘laws’’ are true, I discovered in my research, but they are pretty funny.

That said, this week we go beyond state lines to look at some of the more interesting — and real — driving laws across the land.

Away from that pump!

The gas station attendant came running at me. ‘‘What are you doing?’’ he asked, as if it weren’t obvious that I was filling my tank. The attendant promptly informed me that in Oregon, where I was traveling, pumping your own gas is against the law. In fact, the fine for doing so is $500.

No kidding.

Oregon’s no self-service law was passed many decades ago, when there were safety concerns about the handling of gasoline, said David House, spokesman for Oregon’s Driver and Motor Vehicle Services Division. Other states may have had similar regulations, but in modern times, the law lives on only in Oregon and New Jersey.

Even more strange, voters like the law. In recent years, attempts to repeal it have been voted down statewide, House said.

‘‘They believe they’ll see less service for the same money,’’ he said. ‘‘There are times when our gas prices are higher than the rest of the country, but probably three-quarters of the time they’re lower’’ than neighboring states’. ‘‘So it doesn’t make any sense to Oregonians to change it.’’

Guilt by ownership

NFL quarterback Steve McNair was arrested and charged with drunken driving while in Nashville last May. But here’s the interesting part: He never once had his hands on the wheel.

In Tennessee, you can be arrested for drunken driving if you let someone else who is intoxicated drive your car. In McNair’s case, his brother-in-law was behind the wheel, and McNair was the passenger. But both men got charged with drunken driving. (The charges were eventually dismissed, according to the Nashville court clerk’s office.)

Page 2 of 2 --

The law has been around since 1989, said Laura McPherson, spokeswoman for the Tennessee Department of Public Safety. It’s based on the principle of aiding and abetting, where, in Tennessee, ‘‘all persons who aid and abet in the commission of a misdemeanor are deemed principals and punished as such.’’

more stories like this

Legal at 80

Montana used to be Autobahn of America, with no speed limits on its highways. But state lawmakers changed that in 1999, implementing a 75-mile-per-hour limit on interstates.

That leaves Texas as the state with the fastest highways, a pair of mostly desert roads near El Paso where the posted limit is 80 miles per hour.

‘‘To be exact, 432 miles of I-10 and 89 miles of I-20 in rural counties of Texas’’ have the increased limit, said Mark Cross, spokesman for the Texas Department of Transportation.

How rural?

‘‘I would say there are some small towns in the areas. Very, very, very small, though,’’ he said.

Texas raised the speed limit in 2005, and officials did not need federal permission to do so.

‘‘The states have classically had the right to make those decisions themselves,’’ said Doug Hecox, spokesman for the Federal Highway Administration. ‘‘It wasn’t until the Nixon administration that a national speed limit was established at 55 miles per hour ..... as a means to avoid a gas crisis. It was rescinded in the early days of the Clinton administration, so we don’t have a national speed limit today.’’

‘Slugging’ a ride

I’ve been fascinated with ‘‘slugging’’ since my friend Amanda moved to Washington, D.C., a few months ago and commented on all the people in suits and ties who stand at the bus stop and hitchhike to work.

‘‘A driver will yell out ‘Capitol Building’ or ‘Dupont Circle’ and someone will raise their hand and jump in,’’ she told me. That someone is referred to as ‘‘the slug.’’

According to government statistics, more than 3,000 slugs carpool into the city every workday. How is this possible? Well, the high occupancy traffic lane leading past the Pentagon and into D.C. is apparently very effective, lopping 20 or 30 minutes off people’s commutes from Northern Virginia. But the lane has a three-occupant minimum, as opposed to the standard two-occupant minimum.

To meet the requirement, drivers began picking up strangers. By the 1970s, savvy drivers and hitchhikers had worked out a system where everyone met at the bus stop, destinations were called out, and hands would go up.

It’s all explained online at slug-lines.com, where you can also read slugging’s extensive rules. Slugs can’t eat or drink in the car, talk about religion, sex, or politics, or change the radio station. Drivers — from what I can tell, they don’t have a catchy nickname — must take slugs to the stated destination, should never ask for gas money, and should never put on makeup or comb their hair while slugs are in the vehicle.

Granted, slugging isn’t a law. But it’s an incredibly successful, grass-roots ride-sharing program the likes of which you won’t see anywhere else. The Virginia Department of Transportation dedicates several pages to slugging on its official website.

‘‘The Pentagon is a huge destination for slugs,’’ said Joan Morris, the department’s spokeswoman. ‘‘This is all done without our interference. That’s exactly why it’s worked so well. It would be much more complicated if we were involved.’’

Related Links

Links provided with these articles were active and accurate as of the posting of the article to ResponderSafety.com. However, web sites change and the organization hosting the page at the link may have moved or removed it since this article was posted. Therefore, some links may no longer be active.

Scroll to top