This holiday season Honk is thankful for his readers, who are the smartest, prettiest, handsomest, funniest, most creative and happiest people, and the sharpest dressers, too. Because of their questions during the past year, he has learned:
When truckers drop something substantial from their beds or lose oil on freeways, they are responsible for cleaning up the mess – if they don’t, the state will send them a bill. …
You can’t get personalized license-plate numbers on disabled-person plates, probably because the special icon and the “DP” take up too much space. …
It is legal to drive barefoot, although there is a myth out there that you can’t. …
Tollways in California use the same transponders but can offer different discounts, or none at all, for those with passengers or certain license plates. …
Disabled Veteran license plates do not get solo drivers the perk of cruising along in a carpool lane (But they should). …
You can renew your driver’s license online up to three months before it expires, in general, and in person at a Department of Motor Vehicles office up to two months prior. …
After taking the test on paper for a driver’s license, you can ask a clerk which questions you missed and get them and the page number with the answers in the Driver’s Handbook. On a DMV computer, the missed questions and page numbers will appear at the bottom. …
You can’t alter your vehicle’s registration card, say to block out an address should crooks break into the vehicle. But you can carry it with you after parking, or see if the DMV will let you use a P.O. box. …
License plates with a red “A” in front of two numbers and then a smaller “R1” means the vehicle is registered to someone who was in the state Assembly and retired from it; and that it is the second plate issued to that office. It is not a free perk (surprisingly) – it costs an extra 53 bucks to register and an extra $43 each subsequent year. …
O’s and not zeros are used on personalized plates – so the cops can properly run the number. On standard-issue plates, both can be used because officers can tell what the figure is by where it appears in the sequence. …
Even if railroad tracks have been defunct for years and there’s a sign saying they are out of service, buses and some other vehicles must stop before crossing them and check both ways – unless there is a special sign posted that is difficult to get approved for some reason by state officials. …
The DMV must send out renewal notices for vehicle registrations at least two months before they expire. But under state law the vehicle owner is responsible for keeping the registration current, even if the notice didn’t land. …
It costs more to put in concrete freeway lanes than asphalt ones, but they last longer. Concrete can hold up for 40 or more years, with asphalt maybe going for a decade or two. …
Honk wishes everyone in Honkland (and everywhere else, too) a wonderful holiday season and a lifetime of safe travels. …
To ask Honk questions, reach him at honk@ocregister.com. He only answers those that are published. To see Honk online: ocregister.com/tag/honk. To see him on the social media platform X: @OCRegisterHonk
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