Behavior Encountered in Car-Pool Lane Not Only Rude but Illegal

Dear Street Smart:

I car-pool to work on the San Diego Freeway, beginning at the San Gabriel River Freeway and exiting at Euclid Street in Fountain Valley. There are two problems I encounter almost daily.

There are drivers that will drive close behind me and some that will tailgate and flash their lights for me to either speed up or get out of their way. I can assure you that I am driving at or above the posted speed limit and due to traffic conditions (outside the car-pool lane) cannot safely or easily exit and re-enter the car-pool lane.

The other problem is, when I do need to exit the car-pool lane, traffic conditions are sometimes such that I must slow down, in some cases stop, and subsequently block the drivers behind me in the car-pool lane. On occasion, a driver will sound their horn, flash their lights, and yell even though they can clearly see I am attempting to exit and get out of their way, but traffic is hindering a swift exit from the car-pool lane.

Does Caltrans and/or the California Highway Patrol have any suggestions or recommendations as to handling these issues?

Donald Yaffee, Cypress

Parts is parts and speeding is speeding, no matter if you are in the sanctity of a car-pool lane or in one of the all-purpose lanes traveled by the huddled masses. Besides being poor form, the business of motorists tailgating, honking their horns or flashing their high beams to intimidate another motorist is against all kinds of laws. If a CHP officer witnesses this behavior, someone is going to be in trouble.

“A lot of people have the misconception that the No. 1 lane or the car-pool lane is the fast lane and that you have to drive fast,” said Officer Linda Sanders of the CHP office in Santa Ana. “Everyone has the right to go 55 m.p.h. on the freeway.”

Caltrans addressed your concern about exiting a car-pool lane when the mixed flow traffic has stopped. It’s just another symptom of the severe congestion problem in Southern California, said Joe El Harake, the high-occupancy vehicle coordinator for Caltrans.

Caltrans is working to alleviate the problem by adding two new design features that will allow vehicles to exit the freeway from the car-pool lane without having to merge across other freeway lanes, El Harake said. These design features are called “direct connectors” and “drop ramps.”

Direct connectors will allow motorists to change freeways directly from the car-pool lane and drop ramps will provide car-poolers access to surface streets from the median of the freeway.

The first drop ramp in Orange County is already being used at Barranca Parkway on the Santa Ana Freeway. Other drop ramp locations in the county are nearing the construction phase, El Harake said.

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Dear Street Smart:

I am confused about dealer license plates. I was told, and believed, that they were for the purpose of transporting new cars. Now I see dealer plates obviously being used for other purposes.

I have seen them at the beach, at the golf course, at shopping centers and I recently saw one at Disneyland. I have seen one with a restricted access permit and another with a cellular phone. A person I know has had a dealer plate on his personal sports car for several years and he has no intention of selling his car.

Why do I see dealer plates on cars that are being used for personal reasons? Are they avoiding the fees the rest of us pay? Who is entitled to dealer plates and for what reason? Are they beating the system?

Roger Conant, Newport Beach

Dealer license plates are those cute little jobs that usually have “dealer” or “DLR” embossed on the bottom left-hand side, have five numbers across, and a two- or four-digit alphanumeric code on the right-hand side. In every other respect, they look like regular license plates, and yes, they can be found almost anywhere.

These special plates can be legally used for business, pleasure or travel by authorized car dealers and the sales staff of a car dealership, said Bill Madison, a spokesman for the California Department of Motor Vehicles in Sacramento. This privilege does not extend to family members or friends, he said.

Owners of a dealer license plate still have to pay the annual registration fees that all vehicle owners must pay, but they do not have to pay the annual vehicle license fee that is also required, Madison said. Considering that a vehicle license fee on a new car is 2% of the value of the car, it could mean hundreds of dollars for the fee.

Madison agrees with you that a lot of people have dealer license plates who probably shouldn’t. Unfortunately, police departments and the California Highway Patrol don’t have the time or resources to check to see if every dealer plate on the road belongs to an authorized person, he said.

The DMV does investigate misuse of dealer plates, Madison said. If you suspect someone has a license plate they shouldn’t have, you can call your local DMV office and they will connect you with an investigations officer.

Violators would get their plates taken away and would have to pay any missed vehicle licensing fees from years past, Madison said. A cumulative penalty is also tacked on--40% of the vehicle licensing fee for the first year missed, 80% for the second year missed, 160% for the third year, and so on.