Many laws, especially here in the United States, are bad. It’s like the people writing them don’t have our best interests at heart or something. One group of people, however, always does: Us. Earlier this week, we asked you all what automotive laws need to change, and today we’re picking through the answers.
I’ve seen enough JustRolledIntoTheShop videos to know that mandatory yearly vehicle safety inspections should be the norm in every state.
It’s just so crazy dangerous that Jethro is allowed to drive around with frame rails full of spray foam and rear brake lines clamped off with vice grips on the same road that you are driving with your family.
Inspections are a hassle, sure, and they’re ripe for exploitation by unscrupulous shops. They’re also sometimes the only thing stopping someone’s rusted-out brake lines from bursting as they pull up behind you at a red light. I, for one, think they’re worth it.
It needs to be both much harder to get a driver’s license in this country and much easier to lose it.
The issue with licensing in the United States is that, unlike many other countries, driving is a necessity here. While Europe and Asia have efficient public transit, here we have... whatever the hell is going on in Boston. It should be harder to operate a massive vehicle capable of terrifying damage, but it also can’t be.
There’s a similar comment in here already that I want to expand on: we need to do a MUCH better job of making sure that all drivers receive regular instruction. The other comment is “It needs to be both much harder to get a driver’s license in this country and much easier to lose it.” And I agree with this… but have some extensions.
Driving is a privilege, and needs to be treated as such. I think there are three aspects:
Licenses are harder to get. Which is certainly truer now than it was when I got a license, but clearly not hard enough.
Licenses are harder to maintain. We wait until there’s an accident to tell someone with a license to go take some training. I’d be perfectly ok with mandatory driver training every 10 years if it meant that everyone driving around me were sharper with their skills and avoiding bad habits.
Licenses are easier to lose. I know the legal system where I am will try really hard to allow a bad driver to keep their license because of some economic reason. Which is just dumb. There’s no motivation to avoid bad behaviour. Suspensions need to start at a year, and become permanent with multiple infractions. Drive with a suspended license? Go to jail. Again, it’s a privilege to drive, not a right. It needs to be treated as such.
Look at Andy up there. Look at how happy he was to get additional driver training, in the form of the Motorcycle Safety Foundation’s Basic RiderCourse. You too could be like Andy.
Laws against left lane camping need some real teeth. We hear about the occasional story of someone getting pulled over for going the speed limit in the left lane, but they’re rare enough the general public often has no idea they exist. There’s no reason, on a 3 lane highway, for anyone to have to be in the left lane for more than a half mile, unless there’s a left hand exit.
This one feels like it’s maybe lower on the priority list than a full restructuring of American life to prioritize public transit over personal vehicle use and tighten licensing restrictions, but sure. Let’s get some people out of the left lane.
CAFE
When the Corporate Average Fuel Economy rules were setup, they carved out lower requirements for light duty trucks and SUVs. This encouraged manufactures to make everything into pickups and SUVs. Recently, it has been changed to encourage larger vehicles and it’s VERY complex now.
From Wikipedia (I can’t find it clearly stated on NTSB or EPA or the like), it says that for 2025...
small cars 60.26
Mid cars 51.13 (15% less than a small car)
Large Cars 45.10 (12% less than a mid car)
Small Trucks/SUVs 48.32 (20% lower than similar sized car)
Mid Trucks/SUVs 38.31 (25% lower than similar sized car)
Large Trucks/SUVs 31.73 (30% lower than similar sized car)
X-Large Trucks/SUVS 29.07
These MPG standards have nothing to do with the EPA estimated fuel economy. But if you look at how big a reductionin fuel economy that is allowable with size/class, it basically tells the manufacturers to make large trucks/SUVs or use more expensive hybrid powertrains.
But wait... there’s more. Trucks/SUVs stop at 8500 lbs. Above this, all bets are off for fuel economy standards.
Have you noticed how LT trucks have gone from 1/2 ton to full ton trucks in payload capacity? That’s so that the manufacturers can creep up towards that 8500 lb cutoff. 2024 F150s can have a gross weight of 7850 if you option them the right way. Go back to 1980, and the Gross Vehicle weight of a F150 was 5500 lbs or so.
Have you also noticed how much more popular HD trucks are now? They aren’t much more expensive and have a reputation of being better built and lasting longer (no idea if that is true with today’s trucks). The Big 3 is really pushing 8500 lb trucks to avoid CAFE.
But thankfully, with EVs coming around the corner, the bias towards big heavy trucks will go away...
Screen shot from IRS rules. If it doesn’t post, the Maximum MSRP for the$7500 tax incentive is $80kfor vans, SUVs and pickups and $55k for other vehicles.
So, even in the world if EVs, there is a legal bias towards making big ass SUVs and Trucks.
CAFE is one, but it’s not the only law that encourages ever-growing vehicles. All of them need to be looked at again, preferably as they enter some sort of industrial shredder.
There needs to be an automobile driver bill of rights that stops vehicle manufacturers from monetizing the drivers’ information when no permission was given in the first place—especially with them spying on drivers and relaying it to insurance companies.
The case should be by default the car’s data belongs to the driver, not the manufacturer, and if for some reason the driver agrees to share his data, it’s his choice—not pilfered by the manufacturer just because no one stopped them from doing so in the first place. IE: an automobile driver’s bill of rights.
This is a big one, far bigger than just cars. People should own their own data, from car telematics to legally purchased digital files — it shouldn’t all be owned by corporations. Hack the planet.
You guys had an article on it a ways back, and I was pretty against the change, but the more I think about it rationally, I’ve come around to agree.
Get rid of right on red.
I live in a city without right on red — it’s just banned citywide — and we get around just fine. Granted, we’ve got public transit, which does make things easier. Are you getting a theme yet?
The “Chicken Tax”. Let me get all those sweet forbidden trucks from overseas.
Give me my compact pickups, America. We deserve kei trucks and utes, and we deserve them now. Can we please get this question into the debates?
Two words:
Lane. Splitting.
It’s worth noting the difference between lane filtering — slow and controlled, when surrounding traffic is at or near a stop — and lane splitting, which is what you see on YouTube. The rest of the world has figured out that filtering means less traffic for everyone, why can’t we?
Some changes to the buiding codes. New construction should include wiring for 220V home chargers; and maybe a minimum number of chargers for multi-family buildings. I’d also amend the commercial zoning code to reduce the number parking spaces per floor area.
Specifically about cars? Require a commercial license for class A motor homes, enforce resonable maximum bumper heights for lifted vehicles, and require vehicles to meet certain standards like ISO 26260 - Functional Safety and ISO 21434 - Cybersecurity.
But the biggest would be to unify FMVSS and ECE standards. The US regulatory market is incredibly behind the times.
The commercial zoning approach here is an interesting one, requiring less parking for stores, event spaces, and other locations. People might just need a different way to get to those locations. I wonder what that could be.
Not sure how this would be enforced, but the amount of people driving with high beams on in normal traffic needs to stop. I wish it was enforced a bit more.
This one fascinates me, because I genuinely cannot fathom the carelessness required to operate your vehicle with its high beams on at all times. You’re not the only person in the world, you know. The rest of us are real too. Real sick of your high beam shit.
The ability to change mirrors for cameras. Everyone adopting Germanys standards for getting a drivers license.
All the cool kids are replacing their mirrors with cameras. Let us do it too.
Noise laws as it relates to exhaust. I don’t want to be able to hear your exhaust from 1/4 mile away as your crappy Civic speeds by. The goal should be quieter cars, traffic and neighborhoods.
There should be laws around lifted trucks/visibility (I’m nearly 6' tall and some of those hoods come up to my chin or higher) and headlights that blind you as well.
Just last night, someone on a motorcycle appeared to be doing laps of my block. Revving their engine out, standing on the brakes to skid the wheels, they sounded like they were having an absolute blast. Unfortunately they were having this blast at 1:30 a.m., which I did not love.
Not a change, but one that should be in place all the same - strict parking lot speed limits. I’m getting real tired of seeing people hauling ass through supermarket and shopping center aisles just feet from where people are loading groceries.
There’s no good reason to be going more than 10 mph down the mere 300 feet of aisle.
I remember back in high school, we’d all race to try and triple the speed limit at the local mall. The limit was 15, and one side of the mall parking lot was always empty enough to safely hit 45, but we felt like such badasses anyway.
I know this is a crazy thought but can we find a way to get law enforcement to actually enforce based on the threat vs revenue. I drive about 1000 miles a month...so average miles...and running red lights has become a completely normal thing because there is no enforcement. Better get that dude on the 6 lane wide freeway doing 70 because the speed limit is 60 for no reason but stop sign and red light runners? Naw, that will just work itself out.
Did you know that police have, legally speaking, “no specific legal duty” to protect or serve anyone? Next time you see one, keep in mind that — according to the United States Supreme Court — they are not there to help.