Q: Hello Honk: While driving through Anaheim yesterday, a pickup truck had a very loud horn. It was a train horn. Are there rules about such a thing? I found it annoying. He used it twice.
– Mario Luna, Anaheim
A: A bad honk, eh, as opposed to a great Honk?
First, drivers are only to give a toot when it helps warn others, under the California Vehicle Code, although a horn can be deployed as part of an anti-theft system.
A horn is a must on vehicles, the Vehicle Code spells out, and, except on first-responder vehicles, can’t produce an “unreasonably loud or harsh sound.”
Sounds like a judgment call.
Sgt. Matt Sutter, a spokesman for Anaheim’s finest, said if he came across such a horn, he would cite the driver and ask that it be deployed so he could record it on his body-worn camera or city-issued cellphone.
If the citation were disputed:
“You have to prove it in court, and in this case, I would just play it,” he said.
If the motorist refused to honk for him, then the sarge could just offer his assessment to his or her honor.
By the way, such a violation, like many other minor ones, would have to be heard by the citing officer — just the word of another driver or pedestrian doesn’t work.
Q: I have a FasTrak transponder, the sticker version, from the 91 Express Lanes. I see now that I can use it on the new 405 Express Lanes. But when I actually drive in those lanes, I don’t see a special HOV lane. How does FasTrak know how many people are in my vehicle (like it does on the 91 by going in a special lane) to allow me to avoid the toll?
– Noam Arzt, Mission Viejo
A: As you know, Noam, on the 91 Express Lanes you drive in a special lane at one point, signaling to the toll road folks your ride has three or more occupants in it. But on the 405 Express Lanes, a driver must have a switchable transponder, moving the dial to tell the system how many are in the vehicle.
(You can buy one of those switchable transponders from a toll agency, and you wouldn’t need to remove the sticker — the system is to charge you once, for the lowest of the two possible toll amounts.)
Why would the agency that operates both tollways — the Orange County Transportation Authority — use different systems for motorists to say how many are in a vehicle?
Joel Zlotnik, a spokesman for the O.C. agency, said it comes down to entry points.
In Orange County, the 91 Express Lanes tollway has one entry and one exit point in its 10 miles. So putting in one special lane in the middle that carpoolers slid into wasn’t difficult.
But the 405 Express Lanes has many entry and exit points, and adding special lanes throughout its 15 miles would eat up too much real estate, Zlotnik said.
HONKIN’ FACT: There’s a nickname for those airport travelers who needlessly hover around the gate, wanting to get onboard ASAP but perhaps not giving departing passengers enough room to freely scat, or who jump the line, they are called “gate lice” by some, says columnist Jessica Fender in Westways, the Auto Club of Southern California’s magazine. And airlines are trying to eradicate the problem, she says.
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. Twitter: @OCRegisterHonk
