License and registration, Sir!

W hy, as Boston drivers, are we in a constant rush to get where we're going? Is there ever a time where we drive leisurely from Point A (Costco ) to Point B (Dunkin' Donuts ) to Point C (the Little League game)? No -- we race through intersections and carom around rotaries as if our very lives depended on getting there as fast as possible.

I pose that our behavior is deeply grounded in our region's history. After all, one of our greatest patriots was a guy who went speeding crazily through Boston's streets in the middle of the night, blowing past the police on Massachusetts Avenue until he eventually got pulled over and had his ride confiscated. Yeah, Paul Revere sure was one of us.

But what if our favorite silversmith had to undertake his historic ride on our modern-day, SUV-filled streets? Could he hack the congestion on Warren Street in Charlestown? Would he go insane waiting for a green light on Route 60 in Arlington? Or how about this quandary: According to our modern traffic laws, could Revere ride his horse on the street at all?

The National Lancers , a ceremonial mounted division of the Massachusetts National Guard , reenact Revere and William Dawes 's rides every Patriots Day, riding horses from Boston to Lexington along nearly the exact routes as the original alarm sounders. But the Lancers have police escorts to buffer or even stop traffic to allow the steeds to pass. Were the real Revere transported through time to 2007, he wouldn't have such luxuries.

He'd be on his own, dodging state laws, city ordinances, town bylaws and, naturally, other Boston drivers in his quest to warn all that the British are coming. Would he be pulled over for slowing down traffic? Nabbed for riding without a license? Fined for failing to clean up after Brown Beauty?

As we celebrate the birth of our nation this week, it seems appropriate to lend our galloping forefather some help. We start by asking whether Revere could legally ride a horse through the North End and Charlestown, and repeat the question for each leg of his route through Somerville, Medford, Arlington, Lexington, and Lincoln. Revere never made it to Concord, but we'll inquire there, too -- for the sake of fellow rider Samuel Prescott, who actually made it through.

As history -- and Longfellow's famous poem -- tells us, Revere rowed across the Charles River from his home in the North End before beginning his ride. With no North Washington Street Bridge to cross, he had no other choice.

The Lancers, though, start their reenactments from the Paul Revere Mall on Hanover Street , and ride through the North End on their way to Charlestown.

"I'm going to be going down Hanover Street in a full gallop," said Richard Reale, a major in the Lancers who will channel Revere next April 19. "Who in the world gets to do that?"

Our question, of course, is who else could do that?

First, we went to Massachusetts General Laws and the Code of Massachusetts Regulations , which together contain every statewide traffic code. If either banned horse riding on public ways, the remainder of our exercise would be moot.

Fortunately for Revere, our agrarian past lives on in state law. The first sentence of Chapter 90, Section 14 , "Precautions for safety of other travelers ," reads thus:

"Every person operating a motor vehicle shall bring the vehicle and the motor propelling it immediately to a stop when approaching a cow, horse or other draft animal being led, ridden or driven, if such animal appears to be frightened and if the person in charge thereof shall signal so to do."

Not only are horses allowed on streets, they have the right of way!

The only exceptions to the rule we could find were for the Massachusetts Turnpike , the Big Dig , the Tobin Bridge , tunnels, and major interstate highways. Neither horses nor bicyclists are allowed on those ways.

Revere wouldn't be in the clear just yet, though. Individual communities along his ride might not be so accommodating to horses in their local regulations. Plus, he'd have plenty of other traffic rules to tangle with.

Which brings us back to his first leg through the North End and Warren Street in Charlestown.

It's worth remembering, said National Lancers historian Leonid Kondratiuk, that horses haven't been absent from Boston as long as one might think. In the years leading up to World War II, mounted National Guard members routinely patrolled Commonwealth Avenue. As late as the 1960s, horse-drawn fruit wagons hauled fresh produce from the North End to some Boston-area neighborhoods.

"There used to be an old sign near the old Sumner Tunnel that said, 'No pedestrians or horses allowed.' I grew up in East Boston and remember seeing that," said Tracey Ganiatsos, spokeswoman for the Boston Transportation Department .

Ganiatsos said Boston has several traffic regulations regarding the operation of horse-drawn carriages, like the ones tourists ride. But riding just a horse? "We looked, and we can't find anything on the books prohibiting it," she said. "You can ride a horse on Congress or Tremont street . It sounds kind of funny, but you can."

Somerville, where Revere rode down Broadway, then over Winter Hill and beyond Tufts University , has several laws pertaining to horses, however.

Revere, for instance, could not fasten his horse to a tree, lest the horse gnaw at it. (City ordinances, Section 3-1.) Nor could he wash his horse in a street, or feed it on a street (Section 12-2 & 3-3.) And of course, he certainly couldn't let it loose to eat the public grass. (Sec. 3-4.)

"But would he be able to saddle up and send the alarm through Somerville today?" asked Tom Champion, the mayor's spokesman. "Yes, he would."

Our patriotic jockey would need to traverse Route 60 in Medford next. City Solicitor Mark Rumley pondered the idea.

"Let's say we had an Amish couple or group move into the city. I doubt very much we could stop them from moving in by horse," he said. "You don't have to choose technology. We do because of convenience."

Still, Revere would need to keep his horse from eating the public grass and gnawing on trees. (Medford's regulations are nearly identical to Somerville's. Apparently, tree gnawing was a Colonial-day crisis.) Rumley suggested that Brown Beauty , the purported name of Revere's horse, would also need proper shoes to hack modern, asphalt streets.

Revere would also be allowed on horse today in Arlington, said a police spokesman, Captain John Serson. But he'd have to keep off the sidewalk if he wanted to avoid a ticket, according to town bylaws.

At Arlington Center, Revere would turn right onto Massachusetts Avenue -- just as he did in 1775 -- and follow the road into Lexington. It was arguably the most important stretch of his journey, as he met there with Dawes and Prescott. Of the three, only Prescott -- a local doctor who ran into the alarm sounders by chance after leaving his girlfriend's home at 1 a.m., ahem -- would make it to Concord to warn that the British were on the march, according to Lou Sideris, spokesman for the Minute Man National Historical Park .

Lieutenant Joe O'Leary, a Lexington Police detective, had much to say about Revere's chances of making it through his town unscathed.

"I'm not sure that there are any traffic laws that would prohibit him from riding a horse from Charlestown to Lincoln, other than a disturbance of the peace," he began. "Close your eyes and think of someone yelling, as they ride down the street on a horse, 'The British are coming!' He'd be locked up for disturbing the peace, disorderly conduct, or animal cruelty. They'd probably want to take a look at him in the psych ward. But break any traffic laws? I don't think so."

I asked O'Leary whether police could pull over Revere for holding up the flow of traffic. He pointed to the state law allowing draft animals the right of way, but added that Revere would have to stay in the right-hand lane if vehicular traffic was moving faster.

Reale, the Revere reenactor, said he reaches Lexington Center at a fairly good speed. "We canter in at 25-30 m.p.h. When that animal gets moving, he takes off."

Instead of moving too slowly, could Revere actually be cited for speeding, I asked O'Leary?

"Well, a horse is not a motor vehicle. Speed limits apply to motor vehicles," he answered, reciting chapter and verse ( Mass. General Laws Chapter 90, Section 17 ) to back it up. In the same vein, only someone driving a car at night would be required to have a light, he said.

There was, however, one Lexington bylaw that Revere would have to pay extra attention to, the lieutenant said: Article 100-8 , dumping and littering, otherwise known as the pooper-scooper law.

"If your horse drops a load, you're required to pick it up," he said matter-of-factly. If Revere left his trash bag at home, he could be fined $50.

Revere would be encouraged to clean up after his steed in Lincoln, too, said Assistant Town Administrator Anita Scheipers.

I questioned whether he'd have time, considering the importance of his mission. "Let's not go there," she said. A rule's a rule, I guess.

Our hero's ride, of course, came to an end when he was captured by the British not far beyond where Route 128 exists today. (A monument marks the spot.) Were he or Prescott to finish the journey to Concord today, they could ride their horses into that town as well, officials said.

And the rest, as they say, would be history.

What drives you crazy about local drivers? is there a traffic rule you've always wondered about, or a pet peeve that never fails to annoy you? Send us a message about it: ciweek@globe.com. We'll check it out.