At one time or another, you may have witnessed a pickup blowing out thick clouds of black exhaust smoke, apparently on purpose, and wondered if it’s legal.
It’s called “rolling coal,” and it is indeed a thing. Coal rollers are diesel pickup owners who trick out their vehicles in ways that allow them to belch smoke whenever the mood strikes. Often, that means targeting people and things they don’t like, such as Black Lives Matter protesters, bicyclists, or electric cars.
It’s not new — pickup drivers of a particular type have been rolling coal for several years— but the practice has been attracting greater attention of late.
