Cruising legal in California?

-
Years ago lowriders were cruising certain streets in eastside San Jose. This caused fear and anger with some. So the city of San Jose officially banned it. Signs were posted and tickets were written. Now after many years city officials have changed their minds and now view the Latino community as friends and cruising as an expression of their heritage. Signs have come down, no more tickets. At recent car shows, those old signs are collector items.
 
That was my interpretation on the article, but does that mean that anyone can cruise? And in any type of car?

Here in Fort Collins, CO they have a anti cruising law that says you can not pass the same point on a given street more that 3 times in some number of hours (or something like that)

It is not dependent on vehicle type or anything else.

I have been googling and only find the same basic story.
 
Multiple passes was part of the old law that has now been tossed. The old law was primarily aimed at lowriders and the well known streets they frequented. Now that they are upstanding citizens, all such laws are gone. The police here have more to worry about than counting how many times you pass a spot.
 
Back in the late 80s, there were laws passed all over that tried to put a stop to cruising. One was an enhancement of the "Loitering" infraction. If you were outside of a business for more than a specified amount, you'd be subject to a citation. The cruising infractions also had guidelines like the amount of times you could drive on the same stretch of road in a 1 hour period.
I was never a drinker so going to bars wasn't my thing. A young guy then would cruise and either look for a race or for a cute woman.
I loved it. I love the cars and the chicks. I had a few one night stands from meeting women while out cruising. I had a lowered Camaro....that was a popular thing back then.
 
Back in the late 80s, there were laws passed all over that tried to put a stop to cruising. One was an enhancement of the "Loitering" infraction. If you were outside of a business for more than a specified amount, you'd be subject to a citation. The cruising infractions also had guidelines like the amount of times you could drive on the same stretch of road in a 1 hour period.
I was never a drinker so going to bars wasn't my thing. A young guy then would cruise and either look for a race or for a cute woman.
I loved it. I love the cars and the chicks. I had a few one night stands from meeting women while out cruising. I had a lowered Camaro....that was a popular thing back then.
One night stands are scary. Lol

i have similar memories from hanging out on our ‘bullshit corner’ until 1 or 2 am every Friday and Saturday night, then off to a secret spot for races…. Good ole days.
 
One night stands are scary. Lol

i have similar memories from hanging out on our ‘bullshit corner’ until 1 or 2 am every Friday and Saturday night, then off to a secret spot for races…. Good ole days.

You got that right, as getting some of those crazy bitches to leave you alone afterwards wasn’t easy.:D
I literally pushed one out of the door of my Roadrunner in a rainstorm once.
Oh wait, that was my first Wife.
 
Long before cruising and "Lowriders" the ride height law was in place, probably in the 50s when the custom Leadsleds (which is what lead to the Lowriders) were popular.

Throughout the 70s cruising was popular not just the low riders. In SoCal cruising Van Nuys Boulevard was so popular that it just became a parking lot and that is why anti-cruising laws were created. This was everybody in all sorts of cars, maybe a lowrider but likely only a few lost in the hundreds of other cars.

In most areas cruising was defined as going by driving by the same place more than once in short period of time. You can't say cruising is illegal without defining cruising.

The laws were not created to combat the Latino community and had nothing to do with them.


What I got from this article was that the two (ride height and cruising) unrelated laws were dropped.

Was the Latino community being targeted? Yes and no. For the most part they are the only ones with lowriders and cruising.


Alan
 
In the 70’s we had a burger/soda place on main street that had a huge parking lot right next to it, and 4 tables out front right next to the sidewalk.

On weekends that place was full of cars with groups of people hanging out talking about cars and whatever, and carloads of girls driving by yelling and waving.

I had my 440 Magnum 69 Roadrunner at the time, and it was normal for the 66 Falcon Futura with 7 colors of metal flake, the Brothers with their 2 Chevelle SS 396 cars, one of my friends 69 Charger RT, a 68 454 Camaro SS a few various Novas and Falcons to be there every night.

The cops would get you if you even barked a tire, but we would set up a race place outside of town, and meet up there.

Yep, good times.
 
Fairfield, Ca. cruise was shut down in 1985-86.

Traffic congestion, sub-woofer/loud stereo thing was getting popular and the guns started showing up...
 
Last edited:
the ride height law was in place,
In Pennsylvania ride height often was a ticket. That and bumper height.
My brother got a ticket for no front bumper on his 55 Chevy back in 67.
 
I meet my first two wives while cruising Whittier Blvd in the 60s/70s and 80s
in my 1967 Hemi GTX and 1966 Hemi Satellite among with several of the 40+
Corvettes that I have owned the last 60 years.
Also a lot of other women that I did not marry.............

However, that was when I had a 52 inch chest and 19 inch arms back then.


Sadly, in my old age I have contracted the dreaded "Furniture Disease" =
My Chest has fallen into my damn Drawers. My popularity with the Ladies
seemed to drop simultaneously!

Cruising became Illegal in the 80s on Whittier Blvd. and Van Nuys Blvd and most
other popular areas in So Cal! I still miss it a whole lot!
 
Last edited:
In the town I currently live (Prescott Valley AZ) the local Safeway store was having issues with the lowriders coming up from Phoenix and hanging out on weekends, so they put 4 inch high speed bumps in.
 
We in modesto banned cruising back in 1990. That ban was just lifted this year. Despite what Newsome did most laws were city ordinances. Ours followed a different time line because of our connection to the movie american graffiti. Which led to a near 5 mile cruise on McHenry Ave. Ours was banned because of outsiders converging on our town from all over the S/W of the country. When people started dieing. I remember one night I was returning to town, not realizing what night it was. All I was trying to do was cross McHenry on , it took me 2 hrs just to cross the road LOL.
 
-
Back
Top