– Dave Lee, Menifee
A: Honk forwarded your question to a California Highway Patrol spokesman for that area, Officer Javier Navarro, and he said you have it down pat.
“Yes, you are correct,” he said in an email. “The times you provided are the carpool monitoring times, which are your typical rush-hour times. The off-hours are for all traffic to use that, including solo drivers.
“This definitely helps with keeping traffic flowing,” Navarro said. “Especially with this stretch of freeway being two regular lanes with one HOV lane. During off-hours, three lanes are being utilized for all traffic.”
Such allowances of single drivers in carpool lanes are fairly rare in Southern California, but more common in Northern California.
Honk asked if many people, perhaps not seeing those signs, believe a throng of solo drivers are violating the law.
“We … don’t get too many complaints, especially once they see the restriction times,” Navarro said.
Q: Hello Honk: This past week I saw a few cars where the license plate was sitting on the dashboard instead of on the front of the vehicle where it normally goes. Is there a law about this?
– Mario Luna, Anaheim
A: Honk chatted with Lt. Matt Gutierrez, based in the California Highway Patrol’s headquarters up in the Sacramento area, about your question, Mario. He said two other people were curious enough to ask him the same thing this week.
(Right now, just outside of Honk Headquarters, there is a license plate plopped on an Audi’s dashboard. And, no, it is not a vehicle in Honk’s fleet.)
Yes, there are laws that not only insist a plate is mounted on the front of the vehicle if two plates were issued, but the California Vehicle Code even spells out how high and how low it can be, and says the plate must be mounted horizontally, the lieutenant said.
Gutierrez said it is important that the public understands why properly displayed front plates are important. Those who steal vehicles, are human traffickers or just want to avoid paying tolls or parking-lot fees are among those who might not have them, he said, adding officers aren’t going to pull you over for lacking a front plate to just “make a mess of your afternoon.”
If that’s the only violation, the lieutenant said he would likely issue a fix-it ticket instead of a citation — or just tell the driver why it’s important to have a front plate and say, “Get it fixed, and have a nice day.”
HONKIN’ FACT: Since 1921, 195 Caltrans workers have been killed while working. On Thursday, April 23, the agency held the annual Workers Memorial ceremony in West Sacramento to remember them; it included a traffic cone placed for each lost employee.
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
