Wrong-way driver…

Dear Ma:

I recently took an online traffic school course. Is it true that newer vehicles must have their lights on in the daytime? And our local recycling guy objects to my bare feet. He said it's illegal to drive without shoes. True?

-- Barefoot in Lakeside

So Bare, does the recycling guy say what kind of shoes the state makes us wear? Can we get away with some 99-cent-store flip-flops? Anything in the law about socks? No, no. It's called the Vehicle Code, not the Dress Code. Recycling guy is just worried about litigation. You step on some stray recyclables and sue him, he'll be shoeless, shirtless, pantsless, and in eternal debt to his lawyer. It's not illegal to drive barefoot. But before I got out of my car and walked around a business that deals mainly in broken glass and scrap metal, I might consider putting on foot protection of some kind. We gotta give the recycling guy that one.

As for that online driving school, you're now officially a less-informed driver than you were before you signed up. Only new cars have to turn on their lights? How new is new? And do we have this law because a '72 Buick is so hard to see? One feature of many newish cars is driving lights that come on automatically when you fire up the engine. It is a safety feature, but not one required by law.