Even on the Federal Highway System, the Rules of The Road vary from state to state. Here we’ve collected and commented on some of the more arcane and unusual traffic laws you may want to remember if you live in, or travel in the United States. Read up! Ignorance of the law is no excuse, and if you break the law, you may have to take traffic school to dismiss the ticket.

Alabama – It’s illegal to drive a car while blindfolded.

Alaska – No driving with a dog tethered to your car.

Arizona – It’s against the law to drive a car in reverse on a public road.

Arkansas – in Little Rock it’s against the law to honk your car horn anywhere that serves cold drinks or sandwiches after 9 p.m.

California – In Glendale, it’s illegal to jump from a car going over 65 mph.

Colorado – It’s illegal to drive a black car on a Sunday in Denver.

Connecticut – it’s illegal to hunt from a car.

Delaware – “R” rated movies shall not be shown at drive-in theaters.

Florida – It is illegal to skateboard without a license.

Georgia – There’s no driving through playgrounds in Georgia.

Hawaii – It’s against the law for a vehicle in motion to use its hazard lights. People might think it’s a Luau.

Idaho – it’s forbidden for Senior Citizens over the age of 88 must lose all sense of balance, them to ride a motorcycle in Idaho Falls.

Illinois – It’s illegal to drive a car without a steering wheel. And, of course, impossible.

Indiana – It’s against the law to sell cars on Sundays. Try Maine.

Iowa – No vehicle may sell ice cream in Indianola, Iowa.

Kansas – No tire screeching in Derby, Kansas.

Kentucky – It’s illegal for your pet to molest a vehicle in Fort Thomas.

Louisiana – A woman’s husband is required by law to walk in front of the car waving a flag as she drives it.

Maine – It’s illegal to buy a car on a Sunday. Better move to Indiana.

Maryland – It’s a misdemeanor to swear from a vehicle while driving through Rockville.

Massachusetts – You cannot drive with a gorilla in your backseat. In the front seat is okay with the seat belt buckled.

Michigan – It’s against the law to sit in the middle of the street and read a newspaper. But in Detroit you may lie there and be covered by one.

Minnesota – You can be charged as a public nuisance if your truck leaves mud, dirt or sticky substances on the road in Minnetonka.

Mississippi – In Oxford, it’s illegal to honk your horn, even though it is an additional means of communication included in the price of your car.

Missouri – You can’t honk someone else’s car horn in University City, Missouri.

Montana – You can’t drive a herd of livestock numbering more than 10 on an interstate highway unless the herd is preceded and followed by flagmen.

Nebraska – By law, drivers on mountains should drive with caution near the right edge of the highway. Surprisingly, Bighorn Mountain rises to 4,731 feet.

Nevada – Even though it’s the desert, t’s illegal to ride a camel on the highway.

New Hampshire – It’s against the law to inhale bus fumes with the intent of inducing euphoria. If you want to kill yourself, that’s covered under a different law.

New Jersey – If you have been convicted of DUI, you can never apply for personalized license plates.

New Mexico – It may or may not be kidnapping, but it is illegal for cab drivers to reach out and pull potential customers into their taxis.

New York – It’s against the law to disrobe in your car in the beach town of Sag Harbor, Long Island.

North Carolina – In Dunn, North Carolina it’s illegal to play in traffic.

North Dakota – it’s illegal to lie down and fall asleep with your shoes on.

Ohio – It’s illegal to run out of gas in Youngstown.

Oklahoma –Cars must be tethered outside of public buildings. No guidance on to what.

Oregon – It is illegal to place a container filled with human fecal matter on the side of any highway. No containers!

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.

Rhode Island – One must make a loud noise before passing a car on the left. Preferably with your vehicle’s horn.

South Carolina – When approaching a four way or blind intersection in a non-horse driven vehicle you must stop 100 ft. from the intersection and discharge a firearm into the air to warn horse traffic.

South Dakota – No horses are allowed into Fountain Inn unless they are wearing pants.

Tennessee – It’s illegal to shoot game from a moving vehicle. But hitting it with your car is legal, and can be delicious.

Texas – You must have windshield wipers to register a car.

Utah – By law, birds have the right of way on all highways. Luckily, they don’t usually exercise it.

Vermont – It’s illegal for cars to backfire in Rutland.

Virginia – Radar detectors are illegal.

Washington – A motorist with criminal intentions must stop at the city limits and telephone the chief of police as he is entering the town.

West Virginia – It’s legal to eat road kill. No info on whether you can shoot it from your car.

Wisconsin – One may not camp in a wagon on any public highway.

Wyoming – If you open a gate over a road, river, stream or ditch, you’d must close it behind you.

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The city of Baltimore, Maryland, has 83 speed cameras installed on high traffic roads throughout the city and a recent survey by the company’s owner shows that as many as 5 percent of them are likely malfunctioning.

The dozens of speed cameras around the city have resulted in the issuance of more than 900,000 speeding tickets last year. The fines for these tickets equated to more than $35 million in revenue for the city making them a heavy hitter when it comes to putting money in city coffers.

Now new questions are being raised about the effectiveness of these cameras after the investigation showed that a not insignificant number of these cameras do not work correctly. In some cases it has been proven that the speed cameras actually issued tickets to vehicle which were not moving at all.

Xerox is the company which now owns the speed camera system in Baltimore, although it only recently purchased the system and was the group which first sought to review the functioning of the camera system. The results of their survey showed that only a handful of the cameras were malfunctioning. Outside those few cameras, Xerox said, the margin of error was less then a half of a percentage point.

But this has hardly sated opponents to the speed cameras which are now being used in more than a dozen states across the nation. They claim the cameras are intrusive upon their right to personal privacy, and given that the technology is “unreliable” and cannot be trusted to determine who gets a ticket and who doesn’t.

Unfortunately for these people the fact remains that cities which have installed these automatic speed cameras have seen a huge influx of new revenue and a decrease in costs for police normally used to patrol for speeders. Instead of watching for speeders these police hours can now be used for other public safety, another boon for cities leaders looking to score points with their constituents. Given all this, a few malfunctioning cameras seem unlikely to deter other cities looking to boost revenue while decreasing man-hours.

A new report by Allstate Insurance Company was good news for many major urban centers across the United States, but bad news for two: Maryland and Washington D.C. are considered by the insurance company to be at a much higher risk of having a vehicle crash than those living anywhere else.

Of the 200 cities studied, Washington D.C. received the lowest ranking of 195. Baltimore was ranked at 194, the second lowest slot on the list and only slightly better than those in D.C. According to the report D.C. residents go about 4.7 years between accidents and Baltimore residents only go a bit longer between accidents, with 5.3 years. Compare that to drivers in the best ranked city, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where they go almost 14 years between accidents. That’s more a decade of difference.

For insurance companies this information is crucial for determining what insurance premiums to charge. The more claims they can expect from any given geographic area the more likely they are to need to charge more money for insurance. It’s simple economics.

The report does not go into details about why certain cities might have a shorter time frame between accidents, but it does supply some information about what drivers can do to drive more carefully. It also does not indicate why drivers in some cities might be more safe than others. All it does is compile information in such a way as to identify trends; ups and downs of traffic collisions.

While data analysis is important for determining trends it is also crucial to take your analysis one step further and determine cause and effect. Once these can be established the cities that scored low on the recent Allstate report can begin to address their problems and get people back on the road safely.

Most of us have heard about, or experienced first hand, traffic light cameras and speed limit enforcement cameras, but now that same technology is being applied at intersections with only a stop sign.

Many states currently limit what sort of automatic traffic enforcement devices which can be used. Most of these states set limits on the use of speed and traffic light cameras. Public safety advocates say the devices save lives and produce much needed revenue for the communities in which they are used. the system is wholly autonomous. A driver runs a red light or exceed the speed limit, the camera captures an image of their license plate and a citation is automatically issued to the registered owner of the vehicle.

But privacy rights advocates say the autonomous devices are a serious encroachment on personal liberties. They say the devices are a clear violation of civil liberties and an encroachment on the right to privacy for the people they are supposed to be serving.

It seems the public safety folks are gaining ground and the privacy rights group are losing it as more and more communities are turning accepting these devices.

One community in Maryland is already petitioning the state legislature (which current limits the use of these electronic devices) to allow it to take the use of these devices one step further and install this same technology at intersections with just a stop sign. Last year the state’s existing network of remote cameras generated more than $55 million in revenue, making it an attractive device for smaller communities.

Until the issue is fully resolved it is difficult to know which way the penny will drop. But you can be sure that if Maryland allows it, more and more states will jump on the band wagon.

If you get a ticket, from an automated device or an actual police officer, consider attending our online traffic school to avoid have points added to your driver’s license.

Taking an online traffic school course is an easy way to keep up on your state’s driving trends and may also provide other benefits to you as well, such as insurance rate discounts.

Maryland Department of Transportation is warning drivers to avoid the area of I-895 near the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel for the entire summer while construction crews enact repairs are the fixture.

The $3.9 million construction project begins on June 20th and traffic delays are expected nearly from the first moment. Specifically, rush-hour and weekend delays of up to an hour will be likely. Construction crews will be replacing the concrete decking on the four-lane bridge located just south of the Interstate 895 tunnel toll plaza. That means hundreds of construction workers, several pieces of heavy equipment; trucks hauling away debris and hauling in construction material.

The situation in Maryland is ideal for traffic delays, frustrated drivers and dangerous situations for everyone who might need to travel in the area. Defensive drivers know they need to slow down when road workers might be present, regardless of whether or not signs are posted telling them to do so and threatening them with increased fines if they don’t. It is simply a matter of common sense that if there is a pedestrian in the area, and you are in a car, you should slow down and yield to their action.

The work will be done in four phases and is expected to be completed in October so the traffic delays and hazardous situation won’t last forever, but department of transportation officials and police are expecting that while it lasts the situation will be dangerous for all involved.

There is no reason to speed or even maintain the posted speed limit any time road workers or pedestrians are in the area. Your three thousand pound car is like a bull in a china shop when pedestrians are about. It is better to be safe than sorry when you are driving in a congested area with construction workers.