Q: Hi Honk: I recently saw an Arizona license plate commemorating Route 66, which I really liked. I couldn’t find anything on the California Department of Motor Vehicles website like it. I feel California really missed the boat on this, especially for this centennial year. Do you know if there ever was an effort to offer a Route 66 anniversary plate?
– Jim Sullivan, Redlands
A: Honk gets his kicks on Route 66, too, Jim: When cruising the 40 Freeway on the way to Flagstaff, Arizona, he glances off to the side to try and see the Mother Road, as John Steinbeck called it, and ponders about those who took at least part of it back in the day, from Chicago to Santa Monica.
To get such a license plate, a state agency would need to sponsor the effort and the public must then turn in 7,500 applications within two years, agreeing to pay the fee, to ensure the Department of Motor Vehicles can cover its costs.
That’s why you can get a new yellow-on-black license plate, originally from the 1960s, and not the yellow-on-blue plate from the 1970s. One replica style got the support for a re-issue as a specialty plate, while the other did not.
“The DMV has received no requests for a Route 66 license-plate design,” Geovana Herrera, a spokesperson for the agency, told Honk in an email.
Which is a bummer — although perhaps more of a shocker is the same fate likely awaits the 2028 Summer Olympics that will be, of course, in Los Angeles. Back in ’84, there was a special plate honoring those Games, which were also anchored at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
“To date, the DMV has not been notified that an entity is proposing a specialty license plate for the 2028 Olympics,” Herrera said.
In fact, there is no effort underway to collect applications to get a new specialty license plate out on the roads.
Q: Just wondering why the state can’t continue allowing vehicles with the HOV stickers to drive in the carpool lane. I don’t see how the federal government needs to be involved at all in this state issue. Why won’t the state allow people who have already received the stickers to be allowed to drive in the carpool lane without a passenger?
– Bobby Ray, San Clemente
A: Best Honk can tell, it comes down to greenbacks.
Under the law, Congress had to sign off on extending the Clean Air Vehicle program that allowed drivers in certain, environmentally friendly, vehicles to go solo in carpool lanes. A majority of California lawmakers requested that extension.
“While the federal government gave the DMV the authority to create the (sticker) program, the state must follow federal regulations,” Ronald Ongtoaboc, a DMV spokesman, told Honk in an email. “The federal government oversees the use of HOV-lane access.”
That authority goes back years, and best Honk can tell, it is tied to the feds kicking in money for the interstate highway system.
When Orange County went to continuous-access carpool lanes — where you can enter and leave at any point so long as it is safe — the feds were also involved.
HONKIN’ FACT: The Seattle Mariners will lead the 30 Major League Baseball teams in miles traveled for the 2026 season with 50,308, MLB says. The Pittsburgh Pirates will journey the least, with 26,839 miles. The Dodgers will travel the fifth most, at 43,345. The Angels will be sixth, with 42,876 miles.
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
