Q. Hi Honk: Thank you for the recent update on the I-5 Freeway! Do you know if there is a plan to widen the I-5 from the I-605 to the East L.A. Interchange? Once the section from the Orange County line to the I-605 is done, the section north of it will be the pinch point with only three lanes.
– Rich Schaefer, North Tustin
A. Well, Rich, for years and years Honk has dreamed of a hot tub for his back yard, and he even has a nifty spot picked out for it. Yet, no such paradise exists.
Likewise, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority had wanted to widen the I-5 just north of the I-605 freeway. But nothing has come of it so far, with the plan getting shelved.
“There are no (active) plans,” said Marc Bischoff, a Caltrans spokesman.
Right now, going north, the I-5 is five lanes in each direction in Orange County and goes to three at the Los Angeles County border. But next month, a fourth lane will mostly be available for the six miles in each direction to the I-605, and then in summer 2022 a fifth lane, for carpoolers, is to open.
But in the roughly 10-mile stretch Rich mentions, from the I-605 to the East L.A. Interchange – where the I-5, the I-10, the 101 and the 60 all meet up in Boyle Heights – is frozen for now at three lanes each way.
Q. Do the emergency vehicle sirens for a fire or police department each have their own identifiable pattern?
– C. Kruse, North Tustin
A. Kind of.
A police or fire department indeed might have a particular sound, but it isn’t like a college’s fight song – where officers and firefighters regularly recognize other agencies’ emergency tunes.
Sgt. Shane Carringer, a spokesman for Anaheim’s fire and police departments, said what the vehicle’s vendor offers plays a large part into an agency’s sound.
Most, if not all, Anaheim squad cars have sirens that start up with a long pitch. But when officers reach an intersection, they can hit a button to put pedestrians and other drivers on high alert with a “Whip! Whip! Whip!” sound.
Some agencies have more of an electronic sound than Anaheim’s, he said.
About a decade ago, the sergeant said, Anaheim’s officers called their squad cars sirens “rumblers” – they made a deep, vibrating sound.
Capt. Thanh Nguyen said the Orange County Fire Authority’s trucks and engines all have electronic sounding sirens, which are always on when they are running with lights and sirens, and another siren with more of a mechanical sound that is deployed in spots with heavier traffic.
Honkin’ update: The Department of Motor Vehicles suspended its online ordering system for personalized plates in April, it turns out, but put it back in service at the beginning of summer and then took it down again in September.
The pandemic has impacted production of all licences plates, Nicholas Filipas, a DMV spokesman, said. “We anticipate enabling the online ordering feature as soon as the capacity to produce all license plates increases.”
Until then, the public must send in actual paperwork and, if the desired license-plate sequence is available, wait four to six months to get the personalized plates. Getting standard-issue plates doesn’t seem to be a problem.
As Honk has mentioned before, Folsom State Prison inmates have made California’s plates for 73 years and counting.
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
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