Why California Bans Forward-Facing Red Lights On Cars - Jalopnik

People love to pile on California for its restrictions on automotive modification, especially when it comes to the California Air Resources Board (CARB) — the same folks who regulate California's funny-looking gas pumps — legislation pertaining to aftermarket intake, exhaust, and ECU tunes. As long as these parts are homologated to CARB standards, no problem — but if they're not, they could spell trouble when trying to pass emissions testing or potentially earn their owners a ticket from law enforcement. Though, some popular modifications are perfectly acceptable. For example, vehicle lifts are OK as long as they're within reason (a five-inch body lift or less, to be exact), as is tint that lets in at least 70% of light on the front side windows. Then, as long as passenger vehicles' aftermarket exhaust systems are quieter than 95 decibels, all is well.

However, one lesser-known area of regulation pertains to headlight color. People can rock white or yellow in their forward-facing lights — old-school water-cooled Volkswagen scene nerds (like this author) rejoice — but red is a big no-no. So, why does California ban forward-facing red lights on cars? It's not in the name of restricting tackiness (which would frankly be impossible); it actually relates to, in a sense, discerning what kind of vehicle is behind you. California Highway Patrol's Santa Cruz office spells it out in black and white on its official Facebook page. In their words, it's a "violation of the California Vehicle Code (CVC), specifically Section 25950(a), which states that the emitted light from all lamps and the reflected light from reflectors visible from in front of a vehicle must be white or yellow."

A passive way of disallowing tackiness

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California bans forward-facing red lights on cars for good reason and, in-turn, passively cuts down on tackiness. The state has a pretty comprehensive list of what type of vehicle is allowed to use what color of lights, too, which ranges from tow trucks that are allowed to shine amber to emergency vehicles such as fire/EMS/ambulances that have white and red, and volunteer firefighters that can run red if they have the proper permit for it. You can see what we mean by being able to discern who's who. And while the Lexus in CHP's Facebook post photo could have technically been a volunteer firefighter with a permit since its headlights were also tinted, there's no chance this cat is concerned about visibility.

Doubling down on how thorough California Vehicle Code VEH § 25950 is, stop lamps made before January 1, 1979 may be yellow, but all backup lights must be white. However, rear side marker lamps may still show red to the front. Getting back to our main point, headlights and fog lights can only be white or yellow (or within that spectrum), which makes sense and allows for at least some customization. By the way, these are the only road-legal headlight colors across the whole of U.S., and the headlights can't be two different colors. Now, if law enforcement could just go after tinted headlights more, that'd be great. This author sees 'em fairly regularly around Los Angeles.