Driving Laws Dumb Enough to be Forgotten

Better be careful not to get snagged on one of these silly driving laws while you are behind the wheel.

Some driving laws make more sense than others.

There are so many laws on the books that it is easy for lawmakers to forget to take out the old ones after they are no longer useful. The old laws must have been important when they were first put in place to be enforced because there is usually someone who did something stupid to cause the law to be needed in the first place.

However, when looking at many of these old laws today most of us are just left scratching our heads wondering what our forefathers were thinking.

Silly Driving Laws Involving Animals

• You have to pay the parking meter just like you would for a vehicle when you tie an elephant to it in Florida.

• You can’t tie an alligator to a fire hydrant in New Orleans.

• In Massachusetts, you are not allowed have a gorilla in the back seat of your car.

• You are not allowed to park an elephant on Main Street in Virginia, Minnesota.

• Camels are not allowed to be driven on the highways in Nevada.

• Cars cannot pass horse drawn carriages in New Jersey.

Now the silliest of the driving laws pertaining to animals in from Pennsylvania:

“Any motorist who sights a team of horses coming toward him must pull well off the road, cover his car with a blanket or canvas that blends with the countryside, and let the horses pass. If the horses appear skittish, the motorist must take his car apart, piece by piece, and hide it under the nearest bushes.”

Silly Women Driving Laws

• Women are not allowed to drive in a housecoat in the state of California.

• In Memphis, Tennessee a man has to run waving a red flag in front of any car driven by a woman (yet, women have the lower insurance rates).

Silly Sunday Driving Laws

• You are not allowed to drive a black car on Sundays in Denver, Colorado.

• It is illegal to show movies or attend a car race on Sundays in Oregon (which would explain why there are no NASCAR races there)

Driving Laws that Make You Sad

• The “Ice Cream Man” and his truck are not allowed in Indianola, Iowa.

• In Wilbur, Washington you may not ride an ugly horse (well, we can’t all afford pretty horses).

These are just a small handful of the many silly driving laws that are still on the books. A person could probably fill an entire book with how many silly driving laws are in the United States and across the globe.

**Thank you to the Allstate Blog and the Land Rover Club for digging up these silly laws we got to laugh at today.