Shedding Some Light on Legality of Brightness in Car

Dear Street Smart:

On long drives I will often read while my husband drives. Is it legal to drive for an extended period with the interior dome light on at night? How about the interior overhead map lights on my minivan?

Diana Gold Costa Mesa

Don’t fret. Having a light on in the car is legal.

“Some people find it distracting to try to drive while the inside vehicle light is on, and my general recommendation is not to do it,” said Sam Haynes, a California Highway Patrol spokesman in Sacramento. “But there is nothing in state law that prohibits it.”

So turn on that overhead light, pull out the latest bestseller and have at it. But make sure the light isn’t putting so much glare on the window that your husband rear-ends a semi.

Dear Street Smart:

We’re all looking forward to the opening of the “new” John Wayne Airport.

I use the airport on a regular basis. Coming from south Irvine, it would be convenient to take Michelson Boulevard rather than the San Diego Freeway (405).

But at MacArthur Boulevard, one cannot keep going straight into the airport entrance. At MacArthur, the three lanes on Michelson are required to turn--two are left turns and one is for right turns only.

It would seem to me that having one of the lanes from Michelson go directly into the airport would not only be a convenience, but would not adversely affect MacArthur Boulevard traffic.

Neil Morchower, Newport Beach

Certainly it would be convenient to be able to use Michelson Boulevard to get into the airport. Unfortunately, traffic planning doesn’t always work that way.

Transportation engineers have purposely installed those “turn only” lanes in an effort to ensure that airport-bound traffic doesn’t clog the nearby Irvine business park, according to officials at the airport and the city of Irvine. Such tactics are often used in residential neighborhoods, but this is one of the few examples of its being employed to keep traffic out of a business district.

It won’t get any better on Michelson when the airport’s new terminal opens later this year. All those turn lanes will remain. But access to the airport should be easier with the opening of the new airport-bound off-ramps from southbound Costa Mesa Freeway.

The new exit ramps will not only allow motorists using the Costa Mesa Freeway to get to the airport much quicker but will also remove a lot of airport traffic from MacArthur Boulevard, making it easier on motorists trying to get into John Wayne from the San Diego Freeway.

Dear Street Smart:

I am a pedestrian. I’ve got no automobile, no insurance and get no respect.

The state of driving in this area is desperate. I have been bumped and brushed by vehicles making their turn in front of me while I’m crossing the street in a crosswalk with the “walk” light; beeped at and bruised in parking lots by autos driven like they were maneuvering on city streets; overridden and assaulted while walking on the sidewalk because I was in the way of someone making a turn into a driveway.

This sad state of affairs has come about from a variety of factors: ignorance by most drivers of obscure concepts such as right of way, courtesy, the rules of the road; by insufficient training, a faulty understanding of requirements such as signaling before changing lanes, and speed limits; a lack of testing and ongoing monitoring by the Department of Motor Vehicles, and, perhaps most telling, an insufficient enforcement on the part of police because they are targeting “glory” busts like drunk driving.

We need to correct this woeful circumstance and reinstate the days of rigorous applicant testing, enforcement of basic rules and a reduction of the role of the insurance industry in the automotive field as a dictator of policy.

Steve Weir Santa Ana

Indeed, hoofing it on the sidewalks and streets around town is tough these days. As the song goes, “Nobody Walks in L.A.” And when someone actually does try to walk in L.A., or Orange County for that matter, most motorists are hardly on the lookout for them.

I would welcome readers’ comments on your suggestions. In the meantime, the best tack to take in an effort to change the status quo is to contact the agencies that regulate the various matters you address. Better yet, try talking to your local state legislator and see if you can spark some interest in the changes you desire.