Front License Plate Rule Helps in Fight Against Crime

Dear Street Smart:

On a recent walk, my husband and I took note of the number of cars with no front license plates. This worked out to approximately one-third of the cars, both moving and parked.

Because this appears to be a law that is so often ignored, and because other states manage quite well with only the rear plate, why can’t California save a few bucks and discontinue this requirement?

Marlene J. Ward

Tustin

Over the years, the California Highway Patrol has staunchly resisted eliminating the state’s front license requirement, although periodically the idea has been proposed as a cost-cutting measure, said Bill Cather, a legislative officer for the Department of Motor Vehicles.

Having a plate attached to the front of a car, CHP field officers say, gives witnesses and police officers an extra chance to identify a stolen or fleeing vehicle, even by looking at it through a rear-view mirror.

“Law enforcement concerns have overridden a small potential [annual] savings of about $4 million,” including production and mailing costs, Cather said.

But the CHP acknowledges that many cars do not bear two plates. Last year the CHP alone wrote 32,000 tickets for that infraction.

“We see it all the time,” said Officer Angel Johnson, CHP spokeswoman in Santa Ana. “Most of the time the person will say, ‘I bought the car used, and it just had one plate on it.’ ”

Another common excuse, she said, is that a lot of cars, especially sporty-looking cars like the Corvette and Firebird, aren’t manufactured with a convenient place on the front bumper for a license plate to be attached.

“But in California, the dealers have special brackets that [car owners] can attach to the bumper,” Johnson said.

Often by the time a traffic officer cites a motorist for failing to use a front license plate, the motorist has lost the plate, Johnson said, and so must obtain a new set.

Citations given for lack of a front license plate are “fix-it” tickets, Johnson said. If the cited motorist attaches a second license plate by the court appearance date and has a police officer sign the ticket to verify compliance, he or she will pay only a $10 court processing fee. Otherwise the court fees and fine amount to about $50.

“There probably is not a day that goes by that we don’t get several [tickets for lack of a front license plate] in our office to be signed off,” Johnson said.

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Dear Street Smart:

For the past several months now, construction of the San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor at MacArthur Boulevard and Newport Coast Drive has caused various lane closures and consequent delays. Personnel (i.e., the construction workers) of the Transportation Corridor Agencies often stop traffic at their convenience, sometimes causing dangerous emergency stops, or they block traffic that has a green light while they cross their trucks against a red light.

I am appalled at the arrogance of the construction workers who are building this tollway. How legal are their unscheduled, and often unsafe, traffic stops? After all, as a private citizen, I have no right to stop traffic at my will. Why does a private agency have that right?

In addition, it certainly cannot be legal for them to cross their trucks against a red light. Or is it?

Arman Afagh

Fountain Valley

Lisa Telles, spokeswoman for the Transportation Corridor Agencies, acknowledges that construction trucks sometimes interfere with traffic on MacArthur Boulevard. Such inconvenience is inevitable, she said, because a tremendous amount of work needs to be done in preparation for the toll road.

“It is a construction zone, and to build the San Joaquin Hills Corridor, traffic will have to be delayed for trucks to cross the road so we can complete the project in a timely manner,” Telles said.

However, Telles denied that the construction workers behave in a cavalier, dangerous or illegal manner. She said that as a condition of a work permit obtained by the contractor from Caltrans, construction trucks are permitted to cross the street between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. to avoid rush hours.

“We stay off the streets as much as possible,” Telles added.

Nonetheless, traffic delays and detours can be expected at Newport Coast Drive and MacArthur Boulevard until the first quarter of 1997, Telles said. When the work is done, she said, there will be ramps to enter and exit the tollway from MacArthur Boulevard, which will be widened.

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Dear Street Smart:

This letter concerns the three-way signal at Stoneglass and Main Street in Tustin. It appears to be primarily for access to a condominium complex and a church. The problem is that it is a long signal that stays green whether it is needed or not. I am guessing there are heavier traffic periods when it is justified, but I’ve never experienced them. Usually, in the middle of the day, one or two cars will be stopped at the red signal on Main Street waiting for the green signal on Stoneglass to change, in spite of the fact there is no traffic from that direction. Couldn’t this be adjusted to a sensor-activated signal to operate as needed?

Lee Fisher

Tustin

Doug Anderson, transportation engineer for Tustin, agreed that the signal you find so frustrating needs retuning. The problem with the signal, Anderson said, stems from reconstruction of the Santa Ana-Costa Mesa freeway interchange.

When the bridge enabling the Costa Mesa Freeway to span Main Street was constructed, Anderson said, Main Street had to be lowered by five feet to accommodate the project and the signal had to be moved. During this process, he said, the underground detector loops in the roadway that control the signal were taken out.

During most of the construction, Anderson said, the signal flashed red. But about a year ago the signal was reactivated again without underground loops.

Now the signal on Main Street turns red on a cycle and stays red for 1 1/2 minutes, whether or not there is any traffic waiting on Stoneglass.

But the signal soon will changed, Anderson promised: “We are working with Caltrans to prepare the final striping plans [on Main Street], and as part of that plan the loops will be reinstalled.”

Don Juge, senior transportation engineer for Caltrans, said the underground loops will be reinstalled in the next month or two.

Street Smart appears Mondays in The Times Orange County Edition.