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I recently drove through Minnesota and was pulled over by an officer who told me that wearing earbuds in both ears while driving was illegal in that state (although apparently one ear is allowed). I had no idea about this, since the majority of US states do not have any such law. The officer kindly let me off with a warning, which I appreciated.

I see that there is value in this particular law and I don't want to debate it, but I'd like to avoid this sort of surprise in the future. Is there any way that I can find out about unique traffic laws in various states that I will be driving through?

To be clear, I'm not specifically asking about wearing earbuds while driving (I have found a list of headphone/earbud traffic laws in various states). I don't want to be surprised to drive through a state and get pulled over for some traffic law I didn't know exists. For instance, if I were to drive through Minnesota again, I'd love to find a list that tells me that having earbuds in while driving, and whatever else I wouldn't necessarily think of, is illegal before I drive through Minnesota.

So is there a way to find out about unique traffic laws in the US states I'm traveling through?

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  • Have you tried those visitor information centers? They would probably have the most updated information. Another law like the earbud one that controls the locations you can place items (such as GPS units) on the windshield; and the level of tinting allowed.
    – Burhan Khalid
    Jul 14, 2016 at 6:39
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    I'm more surprised it's legal to drive with earbuds anywhere else. That's one hell of a distraction.
    – JonathanReez ♦
    Jul 14, 2016 at 9:26
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    @JonathanReez I disagree that this is a duplicate. It's a different question and none of the answers answer this question. The only one that comes close is the one with the lowest score, which is almost entirely struck out, and it only links to unofficial sources (Wikipedia and some guy at MIT) about one particular driving regulation.
    – David Richerby
    Jul 14, 2016 at 10:46
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    @CMaster headphones are a lot better at isolating external noise than the radio. I would personally never drive a car wearing headphones.
    – JonathanReez ♦
    Jul 14, 2016 at 13:14
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    @JonathanReez As I said in the question "I see that there is value in this particular law and I don't want to debate it". I don't think this question is the right place to debate the pros and cons of this law
    – Thunderforge
    Jul 14, 2016 at 15:35

1 Answer 1

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Visit the driving laws digest of the Automobile Association of America:

http://drivinglaws.aaa.com

This site has a list of laws for all 50 US States, Puerto Rico, and all Canadian provinces. For instance, here is part of the list of traffic rules for Minnesota:

Traffic Rules for Minnesota

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