A marathon or two could be run while you wait in line at the DMV
Q. My wife’s license expires in early October. On July 20, she felt it was time to make a Department of Motor Vehicles appointment, because she must take the eye test and the written exam. The earliest appointment available at San Clemente and Costa Mesa was Oct. 15 – after her license expired! Now she will have to stand in the no-appointment line and, as a neighbor experienced at San Clemente, take seven hours to get her license renewed. Next time we will start in April to try to get an appointment. I will be going to DMV with her in case she needs me to run out for food during her wait. We also bought fold-up golf chairs so we can at least sit and not stand for hours while waiting in the long lines. A word of advice to others … go for an appointment early!
– John Sims, Dana Point
A. John, a seven-hour wait is a great exaggeration, right?
Oh, that’s right – several months ago Honk endured hours – four, he believes – to get his license renewed. He deserved some pain for not having an appointment, sure, but that penalty seemed excessive.
Even the agency’s director, Jean Shiomoto has said: “Today’s wait times are unacceptable.”
At least part of the problem is the demand for the new REAL ID, which will double as a federal ID for boarding planes in 2020.
The state is expanding hours at DMV offices, hiring 230 employees for them, and moving nearly 300 others from the DMV’s headquarters and elsewhere in the state system to the busiest offices.
Shiomoto wants wait times to reach 15 minutes for those with appointments, and 45 for those of us without them, the Sacramento Bee reported this week.
“You’ve got to put an ambitious goal out there to reach it,” the Bee quoted Shiomoto as saying. “That is what we are definitely working to achieve.”
The wait times are supposed to start going down in September, and get even better by year’s end.
For now, John, golf chairs, spending time together, fast-food runs – solid strategy.
Q. Dear Mr. Honk: I’ve been wanting to write for a while, just too lazy, I guess. First, I would like to thank you for clearing up a lot of confusion as to what the laws are, concerning the Vehicle Codes and safety. My concern is the number of big rigs and vehicles towing something that are in lanes I thought were not designated for them. My understanding is that these vehicles are to be in the far-right lanes. Let’s say there are four lanes on the freeway: I see a lot of big rigs in three of those lanes and occasionally in all four. Is this legal now?
– Pat Broyles, Anaheim
A. Nope.
Most truck drivers seem to follow the law. But Honk gets a little irritated when he visits a sister paper, the Long Beach Press-Telegram, and the truckers towing trailers veer into the left lanes on the I-710.
Not only does it clog the lanes because of their size, but the speed limit for a truck towing a trailer is 55 mph on freeways, not the typical 65 for others.
With three lanes in one direction on the freeway, trucks with trailers must be in the far-right lane, unless passing – then they can slide into the middle lane for the maneuver. If four lanes, they can be in the two far-right lanes.
Now, cops will give them a lot of leeway when approaching interchanges, so they aren’t changing lanes at the last minute.
And there are some spots where posted signs tell trailer-towing truckers it is OK to slide to the left lanes.
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.