You Cruise, You Lose

Like a plague, anti-cruising laws are spreading to more and more communities every year (including the town I learned how to drive in). What is cruising? These laws define cruising as passing through a protected intersection or stretch of road a certain number of times within a certain period. They seek to reduce the numbers of people driving noisy cars up and down the same streets over and over again while honking, yelling, showing off their rides, and generally disturbing the peace. However, you can be pulled over for violating this law simply by circling around the same roads looking for a parking space, moving things back and forth between two locations, going back to the place you just left because you forgot something, driving around a scenic area because you like the view, or simply wandering around because you're lost.

Car and Driver has a good feature article discussing these laws, and the various challenges they've seen in the courts over the years. The more compelling cases have argued that anti-cruising laws infringe on a person's constitutional right to travel, and that all the behaviors that anti-cruising laws seek to prevent are, by and large, already illegal.