Decriminalizing the GPS
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You may be a GPS scofflaw and not even know it.
California is one of only two states — Minnesota is the other — where a driver can be fined for mounting a GPS navigation device on the windshield of his or her car. That’s because state law prohibits mounting anything on the windshield that can block a driver’s view, save for a few, very specific exceptions (including rearview mirrors, toll-payment transponders and stickers such as parking passes, oil-change reminders etc.)
The penalty for violating this draconian statute is a $108 fine.
A bill on its way to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s desk would decriminalize such behavior, and not just for medical purposes.
Authored by Sen. Jenny Oropeza (D-Long Beach), SB 1567 adds portable GPS devices to the list of permitted windshield obstructions, providing they’re placed within very specific parameters.
How specific? The bill says the device can be mounted “in the 7-inch square in the lower corner farthest removed from the driver or in the 5-inch square in the lower corner nearest the driver.”
Such precision led columnist Gordon Dillow of the libertarian Orange County Register to opine that if the law passes, GPS users shouldn’t “leave home without [a] tape measure.”
Oropeza contends her bill, which passed the Assembly this week without a dissenting vote, would make driving safer by allowing motorists who can’t afford factory-installed GPS devices to avoid getting lost without taking their eyes too far off the road. The bill, written in cooperation with the California Highway Patrol, says a windshield-mounted GPS can only be used to provide directions — not to watch videos, read streaming news or, presumably, view slide shows of your vacation photos.
The CHP, by the way, officially has no position on the legislation. The bill is backed by the state’s car dealers, according to Oropeza, as well as the watchdog group Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety and the California Space Authority, which represents satellite makers and other aerospace companies.
The governor also hasn’t revealed where he stands on the bill, which would take effect Jan 1 if it becomes law.
-- Martin Zimmerman