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Real ID: Members can go to AAA office instead of DMV

Q. Whatever happened to the Real ID project where one would be able to get it taken care of at an AAA office?

– Heiko Peschel, Foothill Ranch

A. It kicked off on July 29, and members can take advantage of the service through the rest of the year. So far, 3,000 members have, instead of heading into a California Department of Motor Vehicles office.

Only some of the offices of the Automobile Club of Southern California (AAA), which does not add a fee onto the cost, help with Real IDs.

“Completing this service at a local AAA branch provides members a potentially closer-to-home venue than the DMV branch, and shorter lines,” AAA spokesman Jeffrey Spring told Honk in an email.

“Currently appointments are about a week out,” he said. “The interaction at the AAA branch with the DMV employee is approximately seven, eight minutes.”

Spring stressed that it is important to go the Auto Club’s website, aaa.com, and carefully follow the instructions, which include uploading documents onto the Department of Motor Vehicles’ site. The link to the AAA’s Real ID page is one-third of the way down the homepage.

Real IDs can be used to board domestic flights beginning May 3, 2023, when a federally accepted ID will be required.

Q. I have a Special Access Account valid only for the 91 Express Lanes that allows me to drive toll free except for a two-hour window Monday through Friday. The Riverside County Transportation Commission does not offer this. If I want to avoid paying a toll on the I-15 when merging to or from the 91, when do I need to enter/exit the FasTrak lanes? The route I travel most often is the eastbound 91 to the southbound I-15, and then I retrace that path. The toll signage is not clear to me, and I’ve tried to look at the agencies’ websites, but I can’t find the info. Most of the tolls aren’t a lot, but one Saturday it was $5.50 going south on the I-15.

– Richard Watkins, Hawthorne

A. That Special Access Account works on the entire 91 Express Lanes, both in Orange and in Riverside counties. Although the two agencies oversee the two different stretches, their policies are the same.

Here is how that Special Access Account works:

Motorcyclists, those always on the 91 Express Lanes with three or more in the vehicle, drivers of zero-emission cars or trucks, and those properly driving with a disabled-person or a disabled-veteran plate can sign up, said Eric Carpenter, a spokesman for Orange County Transportation Authority, which oversees that tollway in Orange County.

All of these motorcyclists and motorists must display a transponder sticker.

For these folks, travel is free except going eastbound, 4-6 p.m. Monday through Friday, when the toll is 50% of the regular charge.

The 15 Express Lanes does not offer a Special Access Account, but, as John Standiford, deputy executive director with the Riverside County Transportation Commission, put it during a chat with Honk, most of those benefits are already “baked” into the system.

“Carpoolers with three or more need a switchable transponder to get the discount, clean-air vehicles need to register as such with their account-holding agency and they will receive a 15% discount, motorcycles travel for free on the 15 Express Lanes with a transponder,” he further explained in an email.

“(But) the 15 Express Lanes does not offer discounts for disabled plate or disabled veteran plate holders,” he added.

But, Richard, using that Special Access Account, you can leave the 91 Express Lanes for the 15 Express Lanes and head south for about a mile, sliding into the non-toll I-15 lanes when first permitted just past Magnolia Avenue to avoid a toll. On the return trip, slide into the FasTrak lanes from the non-toll I-15 lanes just before Magnolia.

Remember: Throughout California there are many toll lanes and toll roads that all share the same transponder, FasTrak, but they are operated by different governments and don’t necessarily offer the same benefits. Eyeball their websites to learn if there are ways to save some cash.

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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