Drivers

When Matt Vaughn was pulled over for speeding on Interstate 5 in Northern California early on a Sunday morning, he had a bag of marijuana on the passenger seat. The California Highway Patrol officer smelled the weed, searched the car, took the marijuana and pipe and gave Vaughn a sobriety test, which he passed. An angry Vaughn showed the officer his doctor's recommendation to use marijuana for glaucoma. The officer was unimpressed.

Over the last three years, police in Dallas have ticketed 39 drivers for not speaking English, even though there is no law requiring drivers be able to do so. Amid growing public anger, Police Chief David Kunkle announced last week that the citations would be thrown out and that the officers who issued them would be investigated. The cases came to light when a Mexican immigrant, Ernestina Mondragon, went to the media saying that she had been cited for being a "non-English-speaking driver" during a routine traffic stop.

Sun Valley legal secretary James Eric Freedner got fed up with high gasoline prices. He put his 2003 Toyota Tacoma truck in the garage and switched to a Honda Nighthawk motorcycle for weekday commutes to Beverly Hills. He stopped driving to the beach on weekends and cut back on trips to Hanford and Fresno to check on properties he manages. He began grouping errands into one trip each Saturday.

As of July 1, a police officer can pull you over and give you a ticket for DWT -- Driving While Talking. On a cellphone, that is, if it's held up to your ear. Talking on cellphones in cars will still be allowed (otherwise, life as we know it in Southern California would come to a halt), but drivers must use a hands-free device while gabbing, according to a California law ratified in 2006 and finally about to take effect. The law applies to drivers 18 and older.

YOU KNOW the shot: Seen from above, the hero (or villain) is hurtling down the freeway, top down, one hand on the wheel and the other clutching a cellphone to his ear. It's Hollywood's image of how deals are made, dates are broken and gossip is shared, at 65 miles per hour. On Tuesday, that shot will be history. California motorists -- as well as those in Washington state, where a similar law was recently passed -- will be prohibited from talking on hand-held cellular phones while driving.

At heart, Chris Hundley is a race car fan. The self-styled speed demon doesn't drink or smoke. He claims his only vices are horsepower and adrenaline. Hundley talks lovingly of the Pacific F2000 series and other races he's driven in. In 2006, he nearly died on the racetrack in a crash that left him with a broken collarbone. But Hundley, 50, said he was unwilling to "sacrifice everything to become a starving race car driver."

California drivers chafing at the ban on holding cellphones can soon forget about texting, too: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has banned motorists from sending, writing or reading messages on electronic devices starting Jan. 1. Schwarzenegger signed legislation Wednesday that imposes a $20 fine for a first offense of texting while driving and a $50 fine for any subsequent violation.

On Thursday, Dan Hawes got into his car in Pasadena and braced himself for the drive to his job in Santa Monica. Hoping to avoid the dreaded Santa Monica Freeway, he instead headed west on the 134, which was bad, to the 101, which was worse. The 405, too, was hideous, leading to an unplanned and, in hindsight, unfortunate decision to span the mountains on Sepulveda Boulevard.

On my 16th birthday, my parents escorted me to the Department of Motor Vehicles for my driving test. When I passed, it came as a relief to all of us. I rejoiced in my new independence, and my parents celebrated the fact that they no longer had to act as my chauffeur. Within days, my parents presented me with the keys to the brown Chevy Malibu my brother had driven before leaving for college -- and off I went.

Two years of record-high gasoline prices have forced auto-crazed Americans to do something they haven't done in more than two decades: Drive less. Auto designer Jack Chen is one of them. Pricey gas made living in Pasadena and working in Ontario a $400-a-month grind. "I started to reexamine my life overall," said Chen, 35, who loves muscle cars and drives a Saab 9-2x sports wagon. "I summed up how much I spent on gas and I started having this idea of moving inland."