Noise Complaints Behind Ban on Motorcycle Parking

Dear Street Smart:

I ride a Harley-Davidson motorcycle. On a recent Sunday, I went to Laguna Beach and wanted to park along the bluff near the Las Brisas restaurant. On the parking meters was a notice, “No Motorcycle Parking.” Can they do that?

I am aware that this is done because the neighbors have complained about the noise the motorcycles make. On the other hand, they are legal, properly licensed vehicles. It seems to me very discriminatory and probably illegal to unilaterally restrict motorcycles.

Do I have any recourse?

Roger Conant

Newport Beach

The ban on motorcycle parking near Las Brisas was enacted about a year ago by the City Council in response, as you correctly surmise, to complaints from residents about noise.

“We were having large numbers of motorcycles parked in a specific area and causing all kinds of problems,” said Terry Brandt, Laguna Beach’s director of municipal services.

Mike Hall, head of traffic services for the city’s Police Department, said motorcycles “were lining up there--20 to 30 of them-revving up their engines. We were inundated by complaints, particularly on Sunday afternoons.”

The ban, Brandt said, was an attempt to protect the rights of residents and customers at Las Brisas.

“It was just a way to disperse the parking and mitigate the problem,” he said. “It seems to be working out relatively well.”

You can send a letter of protest to the City Council and/or city manager, Brandt said. But don’t expect them to agree.

“I don’t see this as discriminatory at all,” Brandt said. “Motorcycles can park elsewhere in our city. What we’re trying to do is find a balance between the residents’ ability to enjoy their neighborhood and the rights of the motorcyclists.”

Dear Street Smart:

We just purchased an import that has no place (not even screw holes) for a front license plate. In looking around the parking lot outside my office, I notice that quite a few newer imports do not have front plates because there is no holder for one. I have always been under the impression that a front plate is required in California. Would you set me straight?

George McKelvey

Irvine

You’re right, said Sandra Houston, a spokeswoman for the California Highway Patrol. The California Vehicle Code does indeed require all vehicles, except for trailers, to display license plates both front and rear.

The problem, Houston said, is that “California Vehicle Code standards are not necessarily taken into consideration” by foreign manufacturers.

To avoid being cited for an infraction, she suggests, contact your dealer or an import repair shop to have license plate mounts installed.

Dear Street Smart:

As relative newcomers to California, we at times find it difficult to find our way around, particularly when a major freeway is blocked. We gather, though, that our trials are not that different from others who have been driving here for years.

We listen to the traffic alerts broadcast over a variety of radio stations in an effort to ease our trek, but we have discovered that virtually every freeway has not only a number, but a name as well, and most announcers try to add variety to their reports by using the names rather than the numbers. Good luck to the tourists who try to follow the directions under those circumstances.

Since I am sure we will not get traffic reporters to alter their spiel, can you help? Is there a list of freeway numbers accompanied by their names that can help the driver? If not, could you perhaps create one for Orange County? I would be glad to avoid a “SigAlert” if I realized I was heading into one, but names often do not appear on overhead signs, and numbers seem to be the second choice of most broadcasters.

Bob Dallow

San Clemente

The list you want is in on page VI of the Thomas Guide for Orange County. Here it is:

5--Santa Ana Freeway

22--Garden Grove Freeway

55--Costa Mesa Freeway

57--Orange Freeway

73--Corona del Mar Freeway

90--Richard M. Nixon Freeway

91--Riverside/Artesia Freeway

605--San Gabriel River Freeway

405--San Diego Freeway

133--Laguna Freeway

241--Foothill Transportation Corridor (tollway)

Street Smart appears Mondays in The Times Orange County Edition. Readers are invited to submit comments and questions about traffic, commuting and what makes it difficult to get around in Orange County. Include simple sketches if helpful. Letters may be published in upcoming columns. Please write to David Haldane, c/o Street Smart, The Times Orange County, P.O. Box 2008, Costa Mesa, CA 92626, send faxes to 966-7711 or e-mail him David.Haldane@latimes.com. Include your full name, address and day and evening phone numbers. Letters may be edited, and no anonymous letters will be accepted.