California tint law sucks! bye bye tints >_<

Let me correct you from a proffesional standpoint as I used to install film and I did so on my own prius.

The reflection property is significant, maybe 30% more efficient with a mettalic film vs. non mettalic film. The darkness, however, has EVERYTHING to do with a films efficiency. A 'LIMO' film 5% will block out nearly half of the solar energy, while a 50% darkness only blocks out about 20% heat.

 

Too cold for the good stuff these days. Still Spandex, but everything is covered! (Oops, the jersey is wool, sorry). I'm the smart one on the green bike with my legs covered.

 

Is that in the Vacaville/Winters area?

 

Not sure what your are looking for here, but driving over the speed limit is against the law. Sure, everyone does it every day, but it *is* illegal. Just don't get caught!

CA law says no tint at all on the windshield and front windows (beyond what is standard from the factory).

 

Just a slight clarification - you can have a 4" strip across the top of your windshield as long as it's non-reflective.

 

See post #24

http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-iii...fications/74676-winow-tint-3.html#post1047674

 

my beautiful daughter, who has a very light after market tint on her front windows, got pulled over by a peeping-tom copper. i'm convinced he wanted to get an up-close and personal encounter.
anywho...he wrote her up only for that.

now...get this:

the ticket reads "pay a $165 fine (basically saying she can keep the tint on)" or take off tint and pay $35 fix-it ticket.

so, she went to a tint guy who charged her $40 to take the tint off (it's a mess to take off all the residue), she then paid $35 fix-it ticket for a total of $75.

then, after she got the sign-off from the police station, she went back to the tint guy who re-tinted the two fronts for $50.

bottom line... with all of the effort of running around it cost her a grand total of $125.

however, she could have just paid the fine of $165 and left it as-is.

the cops are just peeping-tom, money collecting bastards, as simple as that!

 

Hang on a second, Darelldd, you're a cyclist and you "support" this window tinting junk? WTH? Us riders gotta stick together. Free Tibet and all.

Maybe it's a big Southern California thing, but way too many drivers do this to their three front windows. Most motorists' eyes understandably gravitate toward our spandex clad physiques - probably out of revulsion. It's the ones we DON'T see that should worry us. I'd say this issue extends to pedestrians and other motorists, as well.

Others here surely share my distaste for window tinting. I'm the one with the biggest mouth. :cheer2: I'm going on a fifty-miler Saturday morning. I better not encounter any more dopes on the road than necessary.

 

Giving someone a ticket is not a good way to meet a girl. Sometimes it sucks to be attractive. Was your daughter driving a Prius by any chance? How old is she?

 

We started that ride out near Anguin (past Lake Berryessa) and headed to Middletown. So most (all?) of the ride was in Napa. Here is the map and stats:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/22433798
We were scouting out Espresso stops for some bigger rides coming up in the early spring.

Yup. When I heard you were a cyclist, it screwed up my whole mojo. I ride more miles than I drive any car. I don't "support" window tinting. I just think it is a great way to solve a lot of problems that I have when driving in the 4-wheeled greenhouse. I'm sorry that you think tint is such a bad idea. I personally love it, and won't own a car without it.

Maybe. I'm in NorCal.

Your complaint should be with the people who break the law then, not with people who tint legally. I'll say it again - my tint is 100% CA legal. My front three are not tinted beyond how they came from the factory.

I guess they're just being too polite.

I love riding this time of year. FAR fewer of anything out on the road. Of course it actually gets cold and wet here. If you're in So.Cal, then maybe the roads are always clogged.

 

That looks like a route filled with great scenery.

 

California car tint law does really suck, I just got stopped by a motorcycle-riding CHP 3 days ago and was told that tinting the 2 front side windows is illegal and I need to get the tint stripped altogether. He said that ANY tint is not allowed, the thing is I have the exact same tint on my Honda Accord for 8 years and never once got pulled over for that. I was even stopped twice before for forgetting to place the new registration stickers on my license plate but neither of those officers mentioned anything about my car window tint. This law needs to be REPEALED, it doesn't make any sense! Take the case of the big rig trucks, is the CHP going to see who's driving when they stopped them given the height of the truck? What about those limousines? This is just another revenue ploy of the CHP, it's a totally stupid law!

 

Further, when I told the cop that I get bad rash on my face and skin from the sun, he said that I can put a removable shade on my window. This is more dangerous because shades would not allow the driver to check the blind spot from the side when changing lanes! This law really makes me very angry, REPEAL, REPEAL, REPEAL this STUPID LAW!

 

Oh brother Don't tell me you don't know why a driver's side window should not be tinted. Seriously, you don't know???

It's because a driver (let's up the ante and say it's a motorcyclist with his A$$ on the line) approaching your little breaking the law tinted car at stop sign, waiting to pull across their path, cannot see the driver's face, whether or not they are looking at the approaching car.

I friggen HATE approaching cars whose driver's face I cannot see because of dark tinted windows. I know it's illegal as it should be. Public roads are no place to play games.

Put sunscreen on your face. Tell me you're not just interested in putting on some image with tinted driver's windows of something you saw in a movie or the like.

One more thing, I also don't like approaching cars whose driver's face I can see and they are staring the other way. You know, staring right, but want to turn left.

One more thing, it's amazing the crap drivers will do in front of you that they wouldn't dare do in front of a cop.

 

Quoted for truth.

 

Don't forget bicyclists. The lack of any possible eye contact, or the ability to see whether or not they are giving hand signals for us to proceed, is becoming a serious problem for us as over-tinted windows are suddenly becoming common.

One particular stopped driver with nearly blacked out windows was obviously moving his/her hand in the air to indicate something, but the narrow pencil of sunlight through the sunroof was not enough to illuminate enough of the hand's path to give me a clue whether it was a signal to me, or merely illustrating a conversation with a passenger. I didn't dare proceed.

 

Try being a cop or CHP sometime then tell us how you feel about the law...

 

IMHO, police officers stopping any vehicle with vision-obstructing full window tinting would be justified in using high-risk (formerly known as felony stop) tactics. This involves taking the driver and passengers out of the vehicle and down-on-knees or proned-out at gunpoint, until the vehicle is cleared and officer safety is assured. (Picture the procedures followed at the end of a televised highspeed pursuit). This would probably put most of the tint shops in So Calif out of business.

 

Even blacking out the back windows presents visibility problems for 2 primary reasons:

Limits view into vehicle cabin to front half of vehicle: The police officer's visibility as he approaches the vehicle is obscured as he approaches the vehicle.


Limits the overall ambient light in the car: the only source of light would be from the front window and any interior lights. If it is anything less than full daylight, this effect would be even worse during a stop because of the police officer's spotlights, casting deep shadows in the cabin of the car.


Both of these factors work into driving safety issues as well. Not only at 4 way stops but in lane changes, various turn areas, roundabouts, passing--- not being able to see the driver of a vehicle increases the danger to other drivers because they cannot see what that driver is looking at or doing.

 

I spent 24+ yrs in the Navy and I went all over the world but, I've only been to one Communist country and that was California.