GPS on the Windshield

[powaybob]

What is the rule on using a suction cup to attach a GPS to a window? I have a full-sized pickup with acres of glass so visibility is not obscured.

Is this enforced routinely?

[Cokebottle]

What is the rule on using a suction cup to attach a GPS to a window? I have a full-sized pickup with acres of glass so visibility is not obscured.

Is this enforced routinely?

I did it (apparently illegally) for 10 years and was never cited for it (45,000 miles a year).
I was never aware that it was illegal until the new law was announced that actually eased the restrictions.

The law apparently used to say "never", but now allows for it to be placed on the lower left corner (same area a transponder or sticker has always been legal) provided it does not obscure visibility.

[tyrist]

You were not allowed to place anything that would block the view from any part of the windshield. You can now place it in the lower left, however most people still put the thing right smack in the middle.

[bohoki]

i thought you are allowed to have it on the dash but not attached to the glass in any way

[Cokebottle]

i thought you are allowed to have it on the dash but not attached to the glass in any way

That's the way it used to be (apparently, like I said, I wasn't aware of it and ran a glass mount for over 10 years without being cited), though even on the dash is not allowed if it interferes with the FOV, which for me being 6'3", I could damned near put a 13" TV on the dash and not have a problem.

Last year, the law was modified to allow for a windshield mount at the lower left side of the driver.

Seems dumb to me... it puts the unit in a location where the passenger can't operate it, which is the only safe way to program it when moving, and IMHO, with the A-pillar already there, there's enough blocking the FOV to present a danger to pedestrians and vehicles crossing from the left.
My assumption is their logic was that with the unit in that corner, the driver is less likely to drift left into oncoming traffic when staring at the screen. In reality, due to target fixation and muscle memory, where you look is where you go... whether you are focused on a near or a far object. Focusing on that lower left corner will cause you to drift left.

Another aspect of the lower left is that is one of the last places that we scan. Window dressers (that know what they are doing) are well aware of these scan patterns, and products displayed in the upper left get the most reaction. Least reaction is lower right. We basically scan the way we read.
The selection of lower left could have been a compromise between traditional and Asian writing systems, with standard Japanese beginning at the upper right and ending at the lower left.

Or I could be giving Sacramento too much credit

[Mr. C]

This new addition, effective 1/1/09, made no substantive change to the basic law contained in 26708(a)(1) VC, which prohibits ANYTHING installed, affixed, or attached to any windows; subsection (b) lists exceptions to the basic prohibition. (b)(3) already allowed signs, stickers, or other materials being installed in the lower corners of the front windshield. The new subsection below simply adds a GPS device as being allowed in the same areas.

26708(b)(12) VC A portable Global Positioning System (GPS), which may be mounted in a 7-inch square in the lower corner of the windshield farthest removed from the driver or in a 5-inch square in the lower corner of the windshield nearest to the driver, if the system is used only for door-to-door navigation while the motor vehicle is being operated and outside of an airbag deployment zone.

A GPS device attached somewhere other than the lower corners of the front windshield constitutes a violation of 26708(a)(1) VC (same section for tinted front side windows). If the GPS device sits on the dash, then the issue becomes obscrument of the driver's vision, a violation of 26708(a)(2) VC, but much more diffucult to establish and/or prove in court. Bottom line, if you don't want to use the GPS in either of the two lower corners of the windshield, attach the GPS to the dash rather than the glass, and you can put it anywhere you want as long as it does not obscure your vision in anyway when looking through the windshield.

cheers!