Q: Riverside resident Mark Hansen said he often uses the FasTrak lanes and has noticed that many vehicles in the lanes appear to lack a transponder for a FasTrak account. He wants to know what the fine is for drivers who are pulled over using the lanes with out such an account.
A: It’s not necessary to have a transponder or an account to use the FasTrak lanes (State Routes 73, 133, 241 and 261, which are private highways in Orange County run by The Transportation Corridor Agencies.)
Drivers may pay the tolls using the online one-time toll payment option within five days before or five days after driving on The Toll Roads. You can use the lanes and pay-as-you-go as often as you’d like, as needed, if you are an occasional user.
Drivers can pay the one-time tolls using the free app or pay online at TheTollRoads.com. (You can download the app from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store.) If you don’t pay the toll with in 30 days, you will be charged a $57.50 penalty in addition to the toll amount due, unless you are a first-time user of these lanes.
For first-time users, the $57.50 penalty is waved if you pay the toll within 30 days of receiving the first mailed penalty notice, FasTrak spokeswoman Sarah King said. If you don’t respond to your first violation notice, a second violation notice will be mailed with an additional $42.50 penalty. If you ignore the second notice, the California Department of Motor Vehicles could place a hold on the vehicle’s registration.
All drivers using the 91 Express Lanes, however, must have a transponder and an account or could face a fine.
Q. Tom Voudy asked about the legality of colored headlights and said the law seems vague.
“When it comes to bright lights in oncoming cars, I am literally blinded when traveling on a two-lane road,” he said.
Voudy asked why cars with red, pink, green, violet, and actual blue headlights are allowed to be on the road. Another reader, Raoul Caragao, asked a similar question and emailed us a photo of a car with very bright and distinctly yellow headlights.
A. Green, pink, violet, actual blue or red headlights are not legal.
Yellow lights are legal, however. Section 25950 of the California Vehicle Code says: “The emitted light from all lamps and the reflected light from all reflectors, visible from in front of a vehicle, shall be white or yellow,” with some exceptions spelled out in the section.
Retired California Highway Patrol Lt. Mike Soubirous noted that some very bright headlamps (also called high-intensity discharge lights) may have a white-bluish color, and some of these are legal also.
Pink plates arrive
California drivers can now show their support for breast cancer screenings in a new way: ordering one of the state’s new Pink Ribbon license plates.
Part of the fees collected by the DMV for these new plates will go to a California Department of Health Care Services program called Every Woman Counts, which provides mammograms, breast cancer diagnostic services, breast cancer education, and other breast cancer awareness services to underserved women in the state.
To order the Pink Ribbon license plate, visit www.dmv.ca.gov. Standard plates cost $50; personalized plates are $103. Renewal rates will be $40 and $83, respectively.
Do you commute to work in the Inland Empire? Spend a lot of time in your vehicle? Have questions about driving, freeways, toll roads or parking? If so, write or call On the Road and we’ll try to answer your questions. Please include your question or issue, name, city of residence, phone number and email address. Write ontheroad@pe.com or call 951-368-9670.
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