Q: A couple of weeks ago, you wrote about “Van Accessible” disabled-person parking spots. Please let your readers know that just because they have the proper license plate or placard to park in the spot, that doesn’t mean they can park over the crosshatches. They can still get a citation if they are on top of the crosshatches. The crosshatches are there so not only the ramp can be lowered from a van, but for a wheelchair, walker or mobility scooter to get through parked vehicles to the nearby business if the person had to park farther out in the lot.
– Trung Le, Riverside
A: Done.
Q: Hi Honk: So that a disabled-person license plate could have more characters in the sequence, why can’t the plate be made of a certain color, say the same blue as the placard that hangs from the rearview mirror? It would be more visible, too. The disabled-person logo on the current plate takes up space limiting the amount of numbers and letters. Those of us who have the maximum seven letters/numbers on our standard plates cannot have the disabled logo on them due to limited space.
– Carole M. Fanta, El Monte
A: Honk likes to trumpet readers’ thoughts to the world, Carole, but to get this one accomplished would take a pretty big push.
For most specialty license plates — think the whale tail, the 1960s yellow and black version, or the UCLA one — it takes a state agency carrying the flag and then 7,500 people agreeing to purchase the new style.
That is tough enough, but your idea instead would likely take the Legislature pushing it through.
Not only would the style change, but so would the law — and California senators and Assembly members oversee the Vehicle Code.
The California Arts Council license plate, by the way, only allows six characters because of a stand of palm trees off to the side. Other specialty plates also only permit six characters, including the California Museums format with a smiling Snoopy.
Special interest plates are like the Snoopy ones. Personalized plates are what they call it when you come up with your own sequence.
HONKIN’ FACTS: May is Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month, U.S. officials say, so when venturing into the Asphalt Jungle, remember this: Nationwide, 6,335 motorcyclists were killed in 2023, the last year statistics have been made available, and 583 of those were in California, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The agency says 35% of the U.S. total did not have on helmets. In California, which has a helmet law, 94% had on a helmet.
ANOTHER HONKIN’ FACT: There are nearly 900 plastic posts, called “channelizers,” on the northbound 241 Toll Road to keep drivers from cutting into line as they approach the 91 Freeway.
“The channelizers are inspected weekly to monitor missing or damaged ones, and (toll road workers) mobilize to replace damaged channelizers as needed,” said Michelle Kennedy, a spokesperson for the Transportation Corridor Agencies, which manages that toll road and others.
To ask Honk questions, reach him at honk@ocregister.com. He only answers those that are published. To see Honk online: ocregister.com/tag/honk. Twitter: @OCRegisterHonk
