Driving laws were not as strict years ago, because people depended on intuition rather than regulations. Chances are, your grandparents’ driving style would get them pulled over in a heartbeat these days.
Cars were less complex back then, and roads were less busy, so safety awareness wasn’t a big deal. With more data on accidents and pollution surfacing, more regulations were enacted.
Habits you thought were harmless are now illegal according to traffic laws. Here are 9 antiquated car habits grandparents followed that would get you fined today.
Coasting downhill in neutral to save fuel
While this may sound innocent enough, coasting in neutral is illegal throughout most of the country. Many drivers believe that this technique saves gas and allows the car to go faster.
When your vehicle is in neutral, your engine is completely disconnected from your wheels. This decreases your vehicle’s ability to accelerate or maneuver quickly in an emergency.
Current safety standards require you to keep your vehicle in gear at all times, so you are able to handle any situation.
Letting the engine idle for long periods
Back in the day, I remember winter mornings being filled with the sight of cars idling and spewing fumes. Back then, we were led to believe that letting the engine warm up was actually good for it.
Honestly, cars today don’t need that. Idling is just wasting money these days and risking a ticket too, since many cities have made ordinances against unnecessary emissions.
Piling extra people onto bench seats
Do you remember those vintage land yachts, with bench seats so wide you could stretch out like a couch? If we had an extra friend or cousin along for the ride, we’d say, “Squeeze in!” Someone piled on a lap or sat on the middle hump.
We thought the more the merrier. Nobody cared that half of us weren’t wearing seat belts.
Driving with obstructed license plates
Years ago, if your plate numbers could be read, you were OK. Now that automated plate readers are everywhere, “close enough” is no longer acceptable.
If any part of your plate is covered by a dealership frame, or even a smudge of road grime, chances are you’ll get pulled over.
Eating full meals while driving
On family road trips of yesteryear, your car was your mobile dining room. Parents would hand back burgers and tear open ketchup packets at 70 mph. Nobody thought twice. That was how you drive fast and get somewhere, like Grandma’s house.
Back then we didn’t call it distracted driving. It was multitasking. Nowadays, you’re practically asking for trouble if you try to juggle a burger while driving.
Smoking with children in the car
Smoking in the car used to be normal like buckling the seatbelt or turning on the radio, even when there were kids in the backseat.
However, once the data on secondhand smoke surfaced, a seemingly harmless practice transformed into a serious health concern. We understood cars are small enclosed spaces, and holding children in there while you smoked was damaging.
Many states now consider it socially inappropriate and illegal.
Letting pets roam freely inside the car
Remember back when your dog rode shotgun so proudly, with his head on your lap or on the console in between your legs, like he was assisting you with directions?
Cute, but we were lucky not to witness countless accidents caused by a tail sweeping the blinkers or a paw reaching for that shiny gear shift knob.
Times have changed, and free-range pets are no longer acceptable. If an officer spots your poodle riding alongside you, there is a high chance that you are going to get pulled over.
Letting kids ride in the back of pickup trucks
Years ago, tossing the children in the back of the pickup was the way everyone took families to picnics and the beach. It was great.
No one ever considered it dangerous, it was just the normal way to travel with your family. Now that we realize how easily someone can fall out when you hit the brakes suddenly or drive over a bump, laws have changed.
That fun-packed ride is now considered unsafe by cops everywhere, and they will pull you over for it in a second.
Skipping seat belts, especially in the back seat
At one time, riding in the back seat of your family car was like an extension of the family room. Children reclined, stretched across the bench seat, or stood up to talk with parents in the front seat.
Seat belts, when present, were often buried somewhere inside the car seats themselves. The practice of buckling up, if done at all, was mostly reserved for lengthy road trips.
The truth about the risks of riding without restraints didn’t fully surface until the crash statistics of the ’80s and ’90s.
Nowadays, a child’s experience in a car is far from the unsupervised journeys of yesteryear. That liberty has been swapped for a far better shot at making it through.
Sources: Please see here for a complete listing of all sources that were consulted in the preparation of this article.
12 old-school cooking habits that would raise eyebrows today
There’s a real magic in how our grandparents cooked, though their methods were born of necessity rather than safety manuals. From perpetual stews to sun-brewed tea, they relied on tradition and gut feeling over thermometers. It was a time when intuition ruled the kitchen, but those charming habits often hid risks that modern science has only recently helped us understand.
12 old-school cooking habits that would raise eyebrows today
