Cruising (driving)
Cruising is distinguished from regular driving by the social and recreational nature of the activity, which is characterized by an impulsively random, often aimless course.
[1] Driving slowly down long, straight streets, preferably with many traffic lights to increase opportunities to talk to other cruisers or pedestrians, was only one part of cruising.
[1] As early as the 1960s, some towns established ordinances to prohibit driving through parking lots without stopping and the police issued tickets for loitering and curfew violations.
[2] However, cruising continued to remain popular, with wildly painted vans and pickup trucks joining hot rods and muscle cars in the 1970s.
[2] During the summer of 1974, Los Angeles police began cracking down on cruising, first by banning parking along Van Nuys Boulevard and then in August making it a one-way street.
Police barricaded portions of Whittier in an attempt to disrupt cruising, but even local adults objected to this practice.
In 1982, the California state legislature passed a law that gave cities express sanction to shut down streets being used for cruising, when driving "for purposes of socializing and assembling interferes with the conduct of businesses, wastes precious energy resources, impedes the progress of general traffic and emergency vehicles, and promotes the generation of local concentrations of air pollution and undesirable noise levels".
[2] Other towns tried creative alternatives, such as Laurel, Mississippi and Princeton, West Virginia, which both channeled cruisers onto routes that would not interfere with local businesses.
The town of Big Stone Gap, Virginia chose to embrace cruising, awarding prizes for the best customized vehicles.
The event is a tribute to the classic Woodward cruisers and attracts approximately 1 million people[4] and 40,000 muscle cars, street rods, and custom, collector, and special interest vehicles.
[11] Some ethnic groups identify with lifestyles related to cruising, such as the Hispanos of New Mexico,[12] Chicanos,[13] and Mexican-Americans of the Southwestern United States along U.S. Route 66.
[14] Meets, like those at lowrider and auto shows, are popular across the United States and worldwide in large part due to these ethnic communities.
[1] In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Crenshaw Boulevard was a popular cruising strip for South Los Angeles' African-American communities.
The most commonly cited reasons for breaking up cruises are breach of the peace, caused by loud exhausts and sound systems disturbing local residents, and dangerous driving (such as street racing, burnouts and doughnuts).
[citation needed] More recently, police have been using ASBO laws which enable them to seize and impound cars if anti-social behaviour is taking place or if a group refuses to disperse from an area.
As a result of increased police powers, legal cruises have been established such as Weston Wheels, although these tend to resemble car shows with camping, music stages and trade stalls.
Many city councils have successfully placed court injunctions to prevent boy racers parking cars in areas that have been popular with them.
In mid-2006, Max Power, the magazine that brought cruises to the forefront, abandoned the scene – preferring to concentrate on "dream" cars such as Nissan Skylines.
Long-time rival Fast Car assumed Max Power's position and now covers multiple cruises across the UK in each edition.
