Going solo in the carpool lane with your motorcycle trike is legal

Q. Hi Honk. As a motorcyclist, I am very happy to be able to legally ride solo in the HOV lanes. I’m betting this privilege also extends to motorcycles with sidecars. But what about trikes?

—  Mike Foy, Westminster

A. For an answer, Honk went to Mitch Smith, an officer and spokesman for the California Highway Patrol based in your town, Mike, at the agency’s Westminster station house.

There are various laws pertaining to this situation, but in the end, both motorcycles with empty sidecars and those three-wheel vehicles are treated as motorcycles here and can use the special lanes.

The trikes sometimes have two wheels up front and other times the pair is in the rear: “You can still use the HOV lane, because it is a motorcycle,” Officer Smith said.

Q. We have a RV that suffered severe front-end damage by a hit-and-run driver while it was parked in a storage lot. It will take several months to repair and is not drivable because of the collision. Our license renewal is in April and a smog certification is required. Since we cannot get it in for a smog check, how should we handle the renewal?

— F. A. Cummings, San Clemente

A. Honk reached out to Angelica Martinez, a spokeswoman for the Department of Motor Vehicles, and here is what she suggested:

“Considering your reader’s circumstances, placing their vehicle in planned non-operation (PNO) status before the registration expiration date is their best option,” she said in an email. “It allows the vehicle owner to delay payment of the registration fees until the vehicle is drivable.”

You can get that non-op status 60 days before your registration will expire, for $23, or within 90 days afterward.

Then, she said, when the RV is back up to speed, you can go to a DMV office — in another vehicle, of course — and get a one-day moving permit so the RV can be driven to the smog shop and back.

That would keep you from getting cited for driving the RV on an expired registration.

Finally, pay the registration renewal fee to get the registration card and sticker. Because you got the non-op, you won’t be penalized for paying the registration well past the deadline, Martinez said.

HONKIN’ FACT: We have smart phones, so why not smart headlights? Thanks to a ruling in the last week by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, manufacturers can now install them on vehicles. As Consumer Reports puts it, adaptive driving-beam headlights “shine more light onto the road ahead without blinding the drivers of oncoming cars.” The technology has been used in Canada and Europe for years. Why not in the U.S.? Well, folks, Honk only has room here for pithy factoids, not long explanations or, perhaps, excuses.

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

Source: Orange County Register