Dear Street Smart:I am seeing more and...

Dear Street Smart:

I am seeing more and more vehicles equipped with an extra set of smaller lamps installed below standard headlights. I find that they often seem not to be properly adjusted and are annoyingly bright.

I question the need for these extra lamps in the city, other than for vanity. The standard halogen lamps on my car give a bright, well-focused illumination of the street on low beam and a brilliant, widespread illumination for a long distance ahead on high beam.

Are there any regulations for these?

Edward Ancona, Hollywood

Dear Reader:

Are there ever. Regulations covering lamps and reflectors fill 27 pages in the California Vehicle Code, governing everything from how high lights must be mounted to how many can be on at once.

California Highway Patrol spokesman Steve Kohler agrees with you that these extra lights are probably not necessary for city driving. “It’s probably done because it’s cool,” he said.

But, so long as lights are mounted correctly, they are permitted.

Headlights must be no less than 22 inches from the ground and no more than 54 inches. Two auxiliary driving lamps are also permitted, but must be mounted at a height no less than 16 inches and no more than 42 inches.

Auxiliary driving lights, however, cannot be turned on with the low beams and can only be used to supplement the high beams. The same is true of auxiliary passing lamps.

Fog lights can be used at all times, but are limited to two and can not be used instead of primary driving lights. All told, a driver can have only four sets of lights on at once while driving on paved roads.

Off-road, the rules change and a driver can use eight sets of lights to illuminate the path ahead. On highways, those lights must be covered and turned off.

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Dear Street Smart:

I would like to know why the repair work on the Sierra Highway off-ramp of the northbound Antelope Valley Freeway in Santa Clarita has not been completed. A sign posted at the off-ramp specifies a reopening date of Jan. 6, 1995?

What’s happening? Have the funds run out or is it just a low priority?

Glen R. Anderson, Santa Clarita

Dear Reader:

The reopening of that off-ramp has indeed been delayed, but not for the reasons--lack of funds, low priority--you might have thought.

The off-ramp reconstruction is part of a $4.6-million project that also includes repairing two bridges that carried diverted traffic on Via Princessa under the freeway. Caltrans spokesman Russell Snyder says that there have been complications with the project as a whole, but that workers expect to reopen the Sierra Highway off-ramp Feb. 28.

When they do, it will mark the completion of Caltrans’ last major Northridge earthquake repair project. More than a year after the earthquake, all shattered freeways and bridges will be restored, at a cost of $250 million.