Ever dreamt of a red fuel-injected 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air convertible with fuzzy dice dangling in your peripheral vision as you cruise on a California highway? That's history, and not just in California. In total, there are nine states that explicitly outlaw hanging anything from your car's rearview mirror: Arizona, California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Texas. Drivers in Virginia can't hang anything that obstructs a driver's vision, so go nuts with non-obstructing stuff. Florida drivers can hang items such as parking passes, but like Virginia, mirror hangers can't block their view.
Visibility in general is a concern for lawmakers. Several states regulate the height of hood scoops, usually restricting them to 3 or 4 inches above the hood, meaning you can't just have that giant roots supercharger intake rising over your roofline. Carolina Squats are also increasingly becoming illegal because of their deleterious effect on handling and sightlines. Point being, rearview mirror dangler laws exist to help drivers see what's going on around them. Maximizing visibility protects everyone, from pedestrians to motorcyclists, who are already six times as likely to die in a crash as car passengers.
Read more: These Mods May Look Good, But They'll Just Make Your Car Slower
Let's Talk About Law Enforcement
For some, the subject of rearview mirror laws may seem dull, but there is an important reason why the topic of air fresheners and mirror hangers should be taken seriously: There have been several instances of police pulling people over for "illegal air fresheners" on rearview mirrors, which then led to tragic outcomes. In the case of Phil Colbert in Arizona, the stop ended with a warning, but for Daunte Wright in Minneapolis, the stop ended in his death.
Wright's mother claimed he told her over the phone that he was being pulled over due to the air freshener, while Brooklyn Center police Chief Tim Gannon told reporters (via CNN) that the intial reason for the traffic stop was an expired tag, with the air freshener being noticed later. Either way, the alleged story is that officer Kim Potter accidentally drew her gun instead of her taser and fired a single shot, killing Wright.
Like many lingering issues from early 2020, from supply chain disruptions that hit automakers like Rivian in the gut to fewer people blowing out birthday candles, the pandemic seemingly accelerated the problem. Apparently, people hung masks from their rearview mirrors for convenience, which raised the hackles of safety experts. There were already laws on the books about mirrors and visibility pre-COVID, but it hadn't been a constant issue before, so it wasn't spreading through the public consciousness.
Automakers Know That Car Enthusiasts Like Visibility
Setting aside issues with law enforcement, debates about freedom of what we do in our own cars and property, and whether hanging stuff from your mirror is legal in your state, being able to see what's happening around you as you drive is probably a good idea. Maybe you have the right to suspend that dreamcatcher from your mirror. But whether you get ticketed for it or not, is it helping you drive better?
As car enthusiasts, we all like increasing our ability to see what's around us. Take A-pillars. Thick A-pillars may make roofs strong enough to keep our heads from getting crushed in a rollover, but also make pedestrians harder to see. Fortunately, automakers are continually looking for ways to give us our cake and eat it, too. Volvo conceived of see-through A-pillars in 2001, Toyota toyed with the idea of mirror arrays that would effectively make A-pillars clear, and Jaguar Land Rover tinkered with cameras and projectors to make A-pillars disappear.
To improve forward visibility, the twin-turbo V6-powered 2025 Infiniti QX80 offers Invisible Hood View, which gives drivers Superman's X-ray vision to see through the engine bay. Buick envisioned backup cameras in the 1956 Centurion XP301 show car, and they have been available to the public since the '90s (in Japan, anyway; North America first got them in 2002), while 360-degree cameras have been around since 2007. McLaren put drivers in center seats in the landmark F1 and the Speedtail, which not only gives the cars exceptional balance (unless you bring a passenger), but also allows a wide, panoramic view of the road ahead. The McLaren Elva and Ferrari Monza even gave buyers the option of enjoying a hypercar with no roof or windshield, arguably the most unobstructed view possible.
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