Schwarzenegger signs GPS bill

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GPS users in California can breathe a little easier. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed legislation that makes it legal in the Golden State to mount a navigation device on your windshield.

California was one of only two states -- Minnesota is the other -- that made it a crime to mount navi screens on your windshield. Violators faced a $108 fine.

A bill authored by Sen. Jenny Oropeza (D-Long Beach) easily passed both houses of the Legislature in mid-summer. But it stalled when the governor stopped signing new legislation as part of the impasse over the state budget, which Schwarzenegger finally endorsed last week. (Read more about SB 1567 in a related story.)

Under the new law, a GPS device can be mounted on the windshield within tightly defined areas: in a seven-inch square in the lower corner of the windshield farthest from the driver, or in a five-inch zone in the lower corner nearest the driver. The device also must be outside the vehicle’s air bag deployment zones.

The law takes effect Jan. 1.

-- Martin Zimmerman