A man usually tells you to walk, not a woman, because of frequency not sexism

Q. Where I live they have been changing the crosswalk buttons to these fancy new ones that beep, flash and talk to you. Why are all of the voices men’s voices? Isn’t this the age of equality?

– Patrick Shane, North Tustin

A. Patrick lives in unincorporated county territory, near the city of Tustin. After getting some specifics on the traffic signals, he and Honk agreed the city would be best to ask, as at least some of these new-school devices are in Tustin.

Krys Saldivar, the manager of the Tustin’s Public Works Department, said the city is upgrading all of its pedestrian push buttons tied to traffic signals, with about 40 percent having these newer devices.

“Those who are blind will be able to hear where they are crossing and when to cross, and those who are deaf will feel the vibration when it is safe to cross,” she told Honk in an email. “The first ones that have been installed in the city were actually programmed by the manufacturer.”

That would be Polara, a Texas-based company.

Its president, John McGaffey, said if a city asks, Polara can provide a female voice; it has done so before. But it generally uses a male voice.

“In controlled studies using … accessible pedestrian signals, the majority of the visually impaired participants said they were able to hear a male voice better because it has greater low-range frequencies (under 800 Hz), which people can tend to hear, even with some hearing loss. We also try to keep the voice consistent so the messages sound similar, no matter where you are in the United States.”

 

Q. My license expires on my birthday in June. Should I go ahead and make an appointment with the Department of Motor Vehicles now because of the crowded DMV offices, with the popularity of the REAL ID? Or should I wait until they send me a notice? It’s very confusing! Thank you!

– Linda Wells, Mission Viejo

A. DMV officials and Honk readers have told the wise one, that would be Honk, that wait times have gone way down since the mess in the summer.

Still, appointments are the way to go if you must go into an office to renew your license (Typically every 15 years until you hit age 70, then every five years).

“She can make an appointment before she receives her renewal notice,” Marty Greenstein, a DMV spokesman up in Sacramento, said via email. “In fact, that’s something we encourage. If you know your license is going to expire in a few months, go ahead and make your appointment. We started sending out renewal notices 90 days in advance this summer (up from 60) to give people more time.”

The DMV takes appointments for several months out. Linda noticed that the two DMV offices near her home were completely booked. What about that?

“Appointment availability can change on a daily basis as offices perform daily assessments, or spots open when an appointment is canceled,” Greenstein said.

So keep trying, Linda.

But don’t go too early to a DMV office to renew, or you will be required to take what used to be called a “written” test and is now a “knowledge” test (it is usually done on a touchscreen these days) even if you weren’t scheduled for one. The DMV reasons that if you renew real early, then you are shortening up the time it has to monitor your track record out there on the roads, so the test is meant to ensure you are a safe motorist.

“In instances when a knowledge test is not required, coming in at any time during that 90-day window before your license expires should not trigger that requirement,” Greenstein added.

Honkin’ cool: A dad didn’t want his daughter to be alone on Christmas, so Hal Vaughan took six flights over three days to be with her. Pierce Vaughan is a rookie flight attendant for Delta Air Lines, and Dad shadowed her, able to jump on standby for free, a perk of his daughter’s job. A passenger heard about the journey, put it on Facebook and the cute story went viral. The trip: New Orleans; Detroit; Fort Myers, Fla.; Detroit; Hartford, Conn.; Atlanta; and back to New Orleans (Source: The New York Times).

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.