Some Folks Go Halfway When It Comes to License Plates

Dear Street Smart:

A few years back, my daughter got a fix-it ticket because she didn’t have a license plate on the front of her car. Yet you see cars that don’t have a place for a license in front, such as the Mazda Miata or the new Corvette. There seem to be quite a few cars that don’t have front plates.

Ben G. Roberts, Los Alamitos

There are obviously a number of cars out there lacking front license plates, in violation of the state vehicle code. The code requires that front and rear plates be displayed if two plates are issued to a vehicle.

Police officers generally ticket offenders only when they’ve stopped a car for some other reason, according to the Department of Motor Vehicles. Sgt. Tom Hume of the Irvine Police Department agrees. “It’s not something, for the most part, that our officers use as a primary reason to stop someone,” he said.

Why leave off the front plate? Hume said that some car owners feel it spoils a vehicle’s “look.” That might explain why you’ve seen some sporty cars such as the Miata without front plates. But the Miata is equipped so that front plates can be mounted, a company spokesman said. Perhaps the mounting places are well disguised on some of the cars you’ve seen.

Still, getting caught without a plate can be inconvenient and even expensive. Some police agencies charge a small fee to sign a fix-it ticket. There’s also a $10 court fee to pay, according to Orange County West Municipal Court.

Beyond that, there’s the cost of getting a new plate. It’s not too bad for regular plates--only $8. That gets you a front and rear plate with a new license number. But the charge is a whopping $41 if you want the department to make you a new personalized plate, according to DMV spokesman Bill Madison.

If you need a new plate, call your local DMV office for an application. You can mail the application in, but you’ll have to go to the DMV office and surrender your old plate or plates when the new ones arrive in a few weeks, Madison said.

Dear Street Smart:

I have been wondering why there has not been a second left turn lane added to Alicia Parkway southbound at Moulton Parkway in Laguna Hills. Turning left from Alicia onto Moulton can be a horrendous ordeal because it can take two or even three lights before you can turn.

It is like this every day of the week, not only during rush hour. It is not surprising to see three or four cars enter this intersection after the left-turn arrow has turned red. Many drivers are frustrated and do not want to wait another 90 seconds or so.

The situation definitely demands a second left-turn lane or a substantial increase in the time allotted for vehicles to turn left onto Moulton. This has been a problem for years now. I wonder why the city or county hasn’t done anything about it.

Sameer Grover, Laguna Niguel

Construction will begin in about a year to add second left-turn lanes to all parts of that intersection, according to Laguna Hills traffic engineer Ken Rosenfield. In the meantime, Rosenfield promises that someone will check the signal timing out there to see whether the problem you describe could be corrected.

Dear Street Smart:

Traveling southbound on Santiago Canyon Road just past Gertner Estate Road in the unincorporated area north of Mission Viejo, there is a sheer drop off to the right. There is no guardrail, and I don’t believe that there has ever been one there. After driving this road twice daily for three years, I’ve decided that this is the most dangerous section of the road. Are there plans to install a guardrail? If not, why not?

Nancy Heuerman, Trabuco Canyon

The county’s traffic engineering department will take a look at that stretch to see whether a guardrail is needed, said Grant Anderson, a county engineer. Anderson said that in some cases, hitting a guardrail could be more dangerous than going over the edge. If the slope is not very steep, he said, engineers may deem it safer to have no railing.