The Method to the Madness of the Mystery Stop Signs

Dear Street Smart:

Over the next few years, the Rancho Santa Margarita Town Center shopping area will be built up and eventually completed. Currently, between Santa Margarita Parkway and Antonio Parkway, a narrow two-lane road has been opened through what will one day be the center of Town Center.

This road--El Paseo--has two stop signs on it, yet there are no cross streets, no construction traffic, nothing. Not even the curb structure for future road crossings has been built.

Is there any point in making traffic stop at these signs for the two years it takes before enough commercial buildings are completed to warrant constructing these cross streets? Many motorists are (rightly, I believe) simply running the stop signs because there is no reason to stop. Can these signs perhaps be covered until they have a purpose to serve?

Bill Armstrong

San Clemente

There is a method to the madness of having those stop signs on El Paseo now, said Ignacio Ochoa, county traffic engineer. The county hopes to get drivers into the habit now of slowing and stopping, he said.

El Paseo is not intended to act as a shortcut to connect Antonio and Santa Margarita parkways. Rather it is a private road that eventually will be heavily trafficked by pedestrians and Town Center shoppers, he said. Eventually, the road will have diagonal parking and pedestrian amenities.

Faster traffic should consider using Alma Aldea as an alternate route or continue on the major arteries of Antonio and Santa Margarita, Ochoa said.

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Dear Street Smart:

I have noted that more and more automobiles lack front license plates. Section 5200 of the California Vehicle Code states that when two plates are issued for a vehicle they must be placed on the front and rear of the vehicle.

I am an instructor in the 55-Alive safe driving program and my students sometimes ask about this. In response to other reader questions on minor offenses, you have responded that police officers don’t have time to enforce the law in such situations.

Generally, we can accept that rationale, but if that is the answer to this problem, my question would be why does the state continue to issue front plates if they really are not that important?

The state of California has been faced with severe budget problems for the last few years. Couldn’t we save both the money and the metal, as many other states do, by simply issuing rear license plates? Why does the state continue with this licensure program if they are not going to enforce it? Why do they feel the front plate is important when other states seemingly have a different view?

Robert Derenthal

Mission Viejo

The California Highway Patrol staunchly maintains the need for two plates, said Bill Madison, a spokesman for the Department of Motor Vehicles. And the CHP does enforce this two-plate law, said CHP spokesman Steve Kohler. Officers will ticket a vehicle if they see it’s missing a front or back plate, he said. In the past two years, the CHP statewide has issued more than 89,000 citations for this offense, he said.

There are no proposals to change the law, Madison said.

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Dear Street Smart:

A few years ago, a law was passed requiring gas stations to have devices on pumps so self-service customers could insert the nozzle, turn on the gas pump, walk away and let the gasoline flow automatically until the tank is filled. That way customers would not have to breathe any escaping gasoline fumes. Now, there are some self-service stations where these devices are broken and they are not being repaired.

They are heedless to complaints. To whom can we report these stations?

David Green

Huntington Beach

The South Coast Air Quality Management District, which issues operating permits to gas stations in Orange County, also is responsible for citing gas stations with malfunctioning vapor recovery equipment.

To report a faulty nozzle, including the gadget that allows hands-free pumping, call the district at 1-800-242-4020. Between 7 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, you can talk to a person, but after business hours you can leave a voice mail message. Provide specific information, including the name and location of the gas station and the pump number.