If a license plate disappears, so does its number — for good

Q. Does the Department of Motor Vehicles recycle old license-plate numbers from junked cars or vehicles that switched to personalized plates?

– Tom Rapport, Orange

A. No.

“Once a plate number becomes inactive, for whatever reason, the DMV does not reuse those numbers again, because they may still be in the department’s database and may still be associated with a vehicle,” Ronald Ongtoaboc, a DMV spokesman, told Honk in an email.

So Honk can’t even get a new personalized license plate with the old number from his beloved first car, a long-gone 1971 Volkswagen, that a brother once put rocks in the hubcaps of so he could rattle his amazing sibling?

Nope.

But there is a bit of an exception.

The DMV is OK with vehicle owners going vintage, if guidelines are met.

“If a customer purchases old plates that are no longer registered, such as at a garage sale, they could register them, but only under the Year of Manufacture program,” Ongtoaboc said. “This program requires the vehicle’s model year to align with the year the plate was originally issued.”

If interested, Google “REG 352” to get the proper DMV form.

Q. Dear Honk: On a recent road trip to Las Vegas with my wife, when we got to the top of the Cajon Pass, we spotted what looks like about 10 miles of paved road behind K-rails in what used to be in the center divider area, which, if memory serves, had been dirt. This looks fairly new, and we did not recall seeing it there at this time last year. Is there a plan to make more lanes?

– Brett Bailey, Newport Beach

A. No.

Your annual ride to Vegas will be smoother, but perhaps not faster.

For five miles of the I-15, from Oak Hill Road in Hesperia to just south of Bear Valley Road in Victorville, Caltrans is spending $149 million to repair and repave the lanes and ramps, in both directions, and improve the drainage.

No additional lanes will be added in this project, which began in November and is scheduled for completion in early 2025, said Kimberly Cherry, a Caltrans spokeswoman.

“K-rails are set up to allow safe work zones for construction crews,” she said.

The new lanes in the median will be temporarily used by the public at times, too.

HONKIN’ FACT: This summer marks the 20th anniversary for the AMBER Alert system, which is overseen by the California Highway Patrol. More than 375 boys, girls or other at-risk individuals have been found via the state’s emergency program that asks for the public’s help in reporting the whereabouts of the missing.

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