‘Sanity clearance’ for Japanese drivers

In the 1960s, Japan experimented with two ways of improving road safety.

First, it required that new drivers obtain a "sanity clearance" from a doctor. This was supposed to keep psychotic motorists off the road.

Second, it urged pedestrians to either raise a hand or wave a yellow flag to indicate to drivers that they wanted to cross the road.

Both efforts failed and were quickly scrapped.

The "sanity clearance" was too easy to obtain and people disliked the expense. (Imagine flunking your driving test because you failed a sanity clearance!)

The hand-raising promotion actually increased pedestrian deaths. Apparently pedestrians seemed to believe that, as long as they raised their hand, they had "permission to ignore all traffic rules and boldly march out in to the middle of the road whenever they felt like it."

Sydney Morning Herald - Mar 24, 1968

Posted By: Alex - Tue Sep 17, 2024 - Comments (2)
Category: Regulations, 1960s, Asia, Cars

Think Toy Safety

1974: The Consumer Product Safety Commission had to destroy eighty thousand buttons it had printed urging people to "think toy safety" after the buttons themselves were deemed unsafe.

The problems with the buttons included sharp edges, lead-based paint, and pins that could be swallowed by children.

Digging deeper into the story, the irony lessens somewhat. It turns out that the problems were identified by the Commission itself because it had followed its own advice and tested the buttons before distributing them.

York Daily Record - Nov 16, 1974

Posted By: Alex - Wed Jun 02, 2021 - Comments (3)
Category: Toys, Regulations, 1970s

Constitution of Alabama

Clocking in at 310,296 words, the constitution of Alabama is the longest constitution in the world. By comparison, the U.S. constitution is only 4,543 words (including the signatures).

The bloat of the document is a result of the state government deciding that it needed to micromanage the individual counties. So all kinds of local regulations have been included in the constitution. Wikipedia explains:



You can read the full document here.

Posted By: Alex - Fri Jul 17, 2020 - Comments (6)
Category: Government, Regulations, Law

Cabin Pressure

Cabin Pressure from Matthew Lee on Vimeo.

Posted By: Paul - Sat Apr 20, 2019 - Comments (1)
Category: Antisocial Activities, Bad Habits, Neuroses and Psychoses, Death, Elderly and Seniors, Experts and Authority Figures, Regulations, Stop-motion Animation, Air Travel and Airlines, Alcohol, Goofs and Screw-ups

Hunting Licenses for the Blind

It sounds like it should be a joke, but apparently in the past various states have debated whether they should issue hunting licenses for the blind. And today some states appear to issue such licenses. For instance, on the website of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game a "Resident Hunting License for the Blind" is listed as costing $45.00.

Pittsburgh Post Gazette - Dec 2, 1953

I think the clipping below explains these licenses. They allow blind people to go out hunting with their friends. Someone else (who can see) has to do the actual shooting, but the blind person can claim one of the game animals as their own kill.

Tallahassee Democrat - Apr 15, 1959

A separate issue is whether a blind person can purchase a regular hunting license. I don't know what the current laws are, but in 1963 in Washington state there was nothing to prevent them from doing so, as demonstrated by the stunt below in which blind attorney Arnold Sadler purchased a hunting license for himself.

Staunton News Leader - Jan 31, 1963

Posted By: Alex - Mon Sep 04, 2017 - Comments (6)
Category: Guns, Sports, Regulations, Differently Abled, Handicapped, Challenged, and Otherwise Atypical

Divorcee banned from chess club

1971: 16-year-old Soni Romans was banned from all extracurricular activities at at Channelview High School in Houston. This included school choir, chess club, drama, and the National Honor Society. The reason for the ban was that she had been married and divorced and had a child (which she gave up for adoption). Therefore, the school felt that she shouldn't be allowed to participate in extracurricular activities because, during them, she "might discuss sex with other students."

However, if she had simply had the child without getting married and divorced, the same regulation wouldn't have applied. Unwed mothers were free to participate in the extracurriculars. Romans sued the school and won, so the ban was eventually lifted.

The Cincinnati Enquirer - Nov 14, 1971

The Akron Beacon Journal - Feb 17, 1972

Posted By: Alex - Sun Mar 19, 2017 - Comments (3)
Category: School, Regulations, Divorce, 1970s

Toys R Us Corrected

The logo for Toys R Us typically includes a backwards R. But when a Toys R Us opened in Cerritos, California in 1972, the local city council insisted that the store spell its name with the R the "correct" way around on the front of the building, so that it wouldnt confuse young children who might be struggling to learn the alphabet.

The store had to keep the corrected R until 1981 when the city council finally voted to allow it to switch to the backwards R. Noted a council member: "All the bags, the price tags in the store had the backwards 'R.' It really wasn't accomplishing anything to have it correct on the outside."

Of course, as Steve Harvey noted for the LA Times, if you really want to be grammatically correct, the name should be Toys R We.

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find a single picture of the store with the corrected R.

Los Angeles Times - Mar 3, 1981

The normal logo

The corrected version

Posted By: Alex - Sat Mar 18, 2017 - Comments (3)
Category: Regulations, 1970s

The Tullock Spike

The economic theory of risk compensation suggests that laws intended to increase safety, such as mandating safety belts in cars, can sometimes have the opposite effect by making people feel safer and therefore encouraging them to engage in riskier behavior. This is also known as the Peltzmann Effect.

This concept inspired the economist Gordon Tullock to come up with the idea that instead of mandating safety belts, it would save far more lives if the government required that large spikes were installed in the center of steering columns, because this would make drivers more acutely aware of the danger of driving too fast. This steering-wheel spike is referred to as the Tullock Spike, or Tullock Steering Column.

Image source: reddit

However, economist Sandy Ikeda has noted that a mandatory Tullock Spike might also trigger unintended consequences: "Some might replace the steel dagger with a rubber one. Indeed, a black market in fake steering-column daggers might arise. But that of course could worsen the problem because now some drivers will drive as recklessly as before, while law-abiding drivers will still have daggers aimed at their chests. There maybe fewer accidents but more deaths than before."

Ikeda suggested instead that the best possible safety measure would be to "ban brakes on cars."

Posted By: Alex - Thu Jan 12, 2017 - Comments (2)
Category: Motor Vehicles, Regulations

Proper storage of warheads

A classic example of "officialese," which came to light in 1951. Text from a Royal Navy instruction manual on the proper storage of torpedo warheads:

The Decatur Herald - Aug 30, 1951

Green Bay Press-Gazette - Apr 22, 1962

Posted By: Alex - Thu Oct 27, 2016 - Comments (4)
Category: Government, Regulations, Languages

Banned Singing of Birds

1957: In order to maintain peace and quiet at night, the Long Beach City Council proposed a ban on "singing of birds" between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m.

The Sedalia Democrat - May 9, 1957

Posted By: Alex - Mon Jul 18, 2016 - Comments (4)
Category: Government, Regulations, 1950s