Barefooters are well-aware that it is not illegal to drive barefoot. Yet, I regularly hear of people getting ticketed for doing so.
But who says the cops know what they are talking about?
I am prompted to write this entry from a rather strange story I came across: Unicycling teen gets sidewalk summons tossed.
It took place in NYC. In it, the teen was given a ticket for riding a “bicycle” on the sidewalk. Of course, a “unicycle” is not a “bicycle”. In fact, here’s the definition of a “bicycle” in the New York City Administrative Code, §19-176:
The term “bicycle” shall mean a two or three wheeled device upon which a person or persons may ride, propelled by human power through a belt, a chain or gears, with such wheels in a tandem or tricycle, except that it shall not include such a device having solid tires and intended for use only on a sidewalk by a child.
OK, so “tricycles” are “bicycles”, but unicycles sure aren’t. The law is the law.
But not for the judge. The first time the teen appeared before the judge, she offered him a plea deal. He refused to take it—the law is the law. So after a continuance for a trial, the teen showed up again.
This time the judge actually looked at the law (imagine that!). Case dismissed.
We’ve seen that before. In Drivin’ Down the Road I mentioned a case of somebody having to go to court and having the judge allow the cop an hour to search through the statues trying to find the law. There wasn’t one, and the case was dismissed.
Fellow barefooter Myranya spends some time on Twitter debunking the people who keep tweeting about how driving barefoot is illegal. And every now and then the person replies with something like this:
@Myranya what a lie… Bc I got a ticket for it…
Well, there is nothing preventing a traffic cop from giving you a ticket for something that’s not illegal. If you don’t pursue it in court, like our unicycling teen, you might end up being sure it is illegal.
But I also sometimes wonder if these folks just aren’t making up crap.
Here’s another set of tweets that Myranya responded to. It was a longer conversation.
how is driving with no shoes illegal ? they would never know #idrivewithnoshoesallthetime #criminal
@Myranya jersey it is
@Myranya no new jersey USA
@Myranya that was 18 years ago it’s a new law that was just passed within the past month
@Myranya it’s been on the news the past few days it is illegal
Funny, but Google News never heard of any of these news stories. In addition, it is possible to see the legislative action going on in New Jersey here.
Nope. No such law.
What we have here, I suspect, is somebody just out-and-out lying (I’ve seen that before, too).
It’s no wonder we have such a hard time fighting this myth.
Bob, did you happen to run across the BS?
http://shar.es/vTngl
Of course, this myth probably started during the hippie era as well. Reminds me of a story my parents told me. One of their friend’s kids took his driving test in New York. This was around 1969 or 1970. He passed the actual test, but was told he failed after going through the whole thing because he was barefoot. It was not mentioned as being illegal, just that the instructor, already disliking the young man for his long hair, found something to pick on as being “unsafe”, and failed him. My parents would tell that story every time some of their friends kids were ready to take their driving tests.
Quite possibly. I took driver’s ed back in around 1971. My instructor then brought up the myth, and debunked it. I have no idea how long the myth had been around at that point, though.
Who knows, others said the myth may date back pretty far, when car gas and brake pedals were metal and would get too hot. What’s that – 1920s or 1930s?? It’s hard to find out how such myths start. But it may have escalated during the hippie era, as much of this kind of stuff did.
As far as that twitter “conversation”, (I use the term very loosely), I looked at all that in disbelief. She keeps debunking the myth over and over, provides links, and almost no one pays any attention to that, and the myth just keeps getting repeated. It does not appear that anyone but a very small number of people actually go back and read any response to the wrong info they tweeted – they just move on the the next topic and learn absolutely nothing. One guy that did stay for a few more tweets was so dumb that he did not know the difference between “is permitted” and “is prohibited”. Add did you see that woman’s last tweet to Myranya? “My source is the news”. Huh? Is she that dumb? What news? Date? Who wrote the article? Were there sources in that so-called news as well? She just had to stop it at that, could not possibly be seen as being wrong in front of all these people.
Because I always check when anyone insists that my info is outdated, I mailed the NJ MVC. Their reply:
“Thank you for your email.
There has been no change. One may drive without shoes in New Jersey.
Sincerely,
Shari
MVC Customer Advocacy Office”
Apparently Jennifer knows better than Shari, she still refused to believe me, but perhaps someone else likes to see it confirmed π