Rules of the Road Change With Many New Laws

2003 was a remarkable year in Sacramento. The governor was recalled and replaced by an actor perhaps best known for his role as a man-like machine. Fighting over one of the worst budget deficits in state history left legislators bloodied and bruised.

Yet lawmakers found time amid the distractions last year to pass nearly 100 new laws related to transportation or affecting drivers directly, with most taking effect Jan. 1.

None of the laws was exactly groundbreaking -- you still need to drive on the right side of the road -- but together they touch the lives of tens of thousands of Californians, from movie-loving motorists to teens itching for the car keys and drivers too impatient to wait for the light to change.

The laws, many of them additions to the vast state vehicle code, are numerous and complex. “As they are every year,” said California Highway Patrol spokesman Tom Marshall. “They are a record of the Legislature trying to be responsive to safety needs and even to changes in technology that were sort of unexpected.

“We are spending so much time in our cars these days. The car has sort of become a mobile room, an extension to our houses. It’s important that people know what the changes are.”

Here’s a sampling of the new road rules:

* No more video monitors in the front seat.

State law has long banned the use of TVs in the front seat. But over the years, drivers have pushed the limits by installing DVD players in their cars and typing on laptop computers while winding through traffic. It became obvious that the law needed updating, said Assemblywoman Sarah Reyes (D-Fresno), who sponsored the law banning all monitors in front seats.

“I’ve seen cases where people were installing DVD monitors on the visor in front of the driver’s wheel,” Reyes said. “People can watch movies at the cinema. They shouldn’t be watching movies or working on their laptops while they are driving a car.”

The law does not apply to global positioning systems.

* Tougher requirements for new teenage drivers.

Until this law was passed, 15-year-olds could get a learner’s permit (a temporary license allowing student drivers to operate vehicles when accompanied by a licensed adult) without acquiring classroom training covering basic procedures and laws.

“We had kids driving cars without one day of driver’s education,” said Assemblyman Todd Spitzer (R-Orange), the bill’s sponsor. “That’s like telling someone to go prosecute a legal case without going to law school. It was scary and ridiculous. This law says they have to go through driver education first.”

The law also raises the minimum age for acquiring a learner’s permit to 15 years and six months. That provision didn’t sit well with many private driving schools.

Student drivers are required to spend 56 hours on the road before being fully licensed. Many educators want them to get at least twice that.

Since most teens try to get their license as soon as they turn 16, critics believe the law won’t give them enough time to get extra practice in.

“It compresses the time they have to train from a year to six months,” said Robert Stahl, owner of Dollar Driving School in Los Angeles.

“It’s going to be tough for kids to get on the road enough in six months. They’ve got to find time to practice, usually with moms and dads who are very busy these days. I’m worried they aren’t going to be able to accomplish what they need to in order to really be good drivers.”

* Further restrictions on child safety seats.

Beginning next year, children under age 6 who weigh less than 60 pounds must be placed in safety carriages placed in the back seat. Under previous law, safety seats also could be placed in the front seat.

The law was bolstered by studies by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety showing that children riding in the back seat during an accident suffered one-third fewer fatalities than children in the front seat.

“As soon as a kid is out of the booster seat they can sit up front,” said Debra Gravert, chief of staff for Assemblywoman Fran Pavley (D-Agoura Hills), the law’s sponsor. “Until then, if they are in the front seat, all the studies show they are at risk.”

Parents have one year to get used to the new regulation. It won’t become law until Jan. 1, 2005.

* New regulations on red-light cameras.

The law was created to allay public fears that the cameras were being overused, more to boost public coffers by writing a lot of tickets than to enhance public safety.

The law keeps any private firms operating the cameras from being paid on a per-ticket basis. It also requires police to review each citation before it is mailed to a violator, and calls for local governments to review the timing of traffic lights.

Although almost all the new traffic laws cover drivers statewide, at least one is geographically specific: a measure allowing residents of suburban Rancho Murrieta, about 20 miles outside Sacramento, to cross a highway in their golf carts.

There also is a law banning “whistle tips.” Popular mostly with young car buffs, the roughly 1-inch metal devices go inside exhaust pipes and create a high-pitched whir.

A pair of laws protect stalking victims in state-approved domestic violence programs. They now can quickly get new license plates and keep the Department of Motor Vehicles from divulging personal information such as their address for four years. In the past, such information would be blocked for only one year, though victims could apply each year for an extension.

Some new laws seem to have been enacted with both the environment and public safety in mind. Witness the measure allowing police to test cars for emissions standards at drunk-driving checkpoints.

“You can now be stopped and have police put a breathalyzer in your mouth and a probe up your tailpipe,” said a chuckling Steve Schnaidt, staff director for the Senate Transportation Committee.

All kidding aside, Schnaidt said the laws passed last year show that even in a time when budget cuts have stripped Sacramento’s ability to pay for big-ticket highway and transit projects, lawmakers still keep their eyes on the road.

“The law is always catching up to what is happening in the culture,” he said. “These laws are responsive. We are never ahead of the culture much. After all, we aren’t electronic machines that just push through laws to make driving better. Thank God, because if we were machines, we’d pass some bad laws.”

Would the Terminator agree?

If you have a question, gripe or story idea about driving in Southern California, write to Behind the Wheel c/o Los Angeles Times, 202 W. 1st St., Los Angeles, CA 90012, or send an e-mail to [email protected].