Sorry Fido, Only Humans Count As Carpool Lane Passengers
Dear Street Smart:
Is it illegal to drive in the carpool lane with a dog?
Nancy Yim
Gardena
Sure, you can take Fido with you. But don’t complain when you get a $271 ticket, unless there’s another person with you too.
“A dog is not considered a person,” says Sandra Houston, a spokeswoman for the CHP. “The vehicle code says person. It has to be a human. We get this question all the time.”
Dear Street Smart:
In May 1995, I sold a vehicle and recorded the change of ownership with the Department of Motor Vehicles. Later the vehicle was involved in a collision and I was reported on the accident report as the owner. Until this April, I was still being harassed by the insurance company of the person hit by my ex-vehicle.
Although the DMV recorded the change of ownership information within a week of being notified, the CHP five weeks later (the time of the accident) reported me as the current owner. I’ve written or spoken to the DMV, CHP, the insurance company involved and several others not involved, as well as the state Department of Insurance. In each of these communications, I requested the proper way I should have handled this problem at the beginning. Not one of these correspondents could help. Can you?
Lou Nothwang
Aliso Viejo
You did everything you were supposed to do. The problem, says Steve Kohler, a spokesman for the CHP, was that the person you sold your car to neglected to register it in his or her name. So when the officer investigating the crash looked at DMV records, your name popped up as the owner.
There’s only one way to avoid the problem, Kohler said, and it’s not particularly convenient.
“If you want to be absolutely sure when you sell your vehicle to a private party,” he said, “go with them to the DMV to submit the paperwork together. That way you can be sure that it’s done.”
Dear Street Smart:
Are cars permitted to use a bike lane as a separate automobile lane? Frequently when I am in the right lane stopped at a light, cars slide up the bike lane on my right and turn right. I understand that I am permitted to move into the bike lane when I am within 100 feet of the intersection in order to turn right, but I understand that to mean that I can occupy the bike lane as well as the right automobile lane. I do not understand that to mean that I can move completely into the bike lane and sidle up past other cars in the right automobile lane. It seems to me that if the authorities wanted there to be an additional right lane there, they would make one--a whole lane, not a bike lane/half-a-car lane.
Advice? What is the law on this? It is very frustrating in view of how common the practice is. It seems to me to be potentially very unsafe.
Bill Wallace
Huntington Beach
A car may drive in the bike lane when it’s within 200 feet of an intersection. The code does not further define what driving in a bicycle lane means; in practice, says the CHP’s Houston, it means just what it says.
“He’s saying he wants to stay in the number 2 and move over, but other drivers behind him can’t be sure if this guy is making a right turn or going straight. It sounds like your reader is not really making a right turn properly,” the CHP’s Houston said.
Her advice: “Basically, he needs to do what the other people are doing who are annoying him.”
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 Edition, P.O. Box 2008, Costa Mesa, CA 92626, send faxes to (714) 966-7711 or e-mail him at 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.
