If you drive by yourself in car-pool lanes in your hybrid car during commute hours, enjoy it while you can. The DMV is mailing out 85,000 letters to hybrid car owners who have yellow stickers on their cars allowing them to use car-pool lanes, warning them that that privilege ends [...]
Think there's a lot of cars and trucks on the road in Sonoma County? You're right. As of Dec. 31, 306,556 cars were registered in Sonoma County, according to the DMV. There also were 107,071 commercial vehicles -- from pickups to big rigs -- and 17,066 motorcycles, for a total [...]
Question from a Road Warrior reader: On Arnold Drive in Sonoma near Juanita Juanita's Restaurant, there's a posted speed sign of "Ending 50" or something to the effect that 50 mph is now ending (ahem). Well, you're left trying to figure out what speed you're supposed to be driving at [...]
Although the DMV keeps promising that its continuing delay in issuing new driver's licenses is getting shorter, it's latest actions aren't reassuring. This week, the DMV set up an information web page for Californians who haven't received their new or renewed license even though its been weeks since they applied. [...]
California's license plates are made by the thousands each year at Folsom State Prison. And the inmates make all kinds, considering that, as of a year ago, there were 31,916,865 registered vehicles in the state. There's the basic plate for cars, which now starts with the number 6 followed by [...]
If you're waiting for your new, counterfeit-proof driver's license, the DMV says the wait is getting shorter. Apply today and you'll have one in a month. Really, it insists. But it's hard not to be skeptical about that promise, especially when last fall DMV officials insisted the problem was just [...]
Here's a traffic arrest from the CHP filed under "It's the little things that get you caught": CHP Officer Jonathan Todd was patrolling Highway 101 on Monday in downtown Santa Rosa when he spotted a motorcycle with a torn or altered 2011 registration sticker. A check on the license plate [...]
Several new laws take effect that affect a variety of drivers, including motorcyclists. Here are summaries of those laws, courtesy of the DMV: --Motorcycle instruction permit (Assembly Bill 1952): This new law requires a person under age 21 to complete an approved motorcycle safety course before being issued an instruction [...]
The DMV is experiencing a few "kinks" in issuing its spiffy newly designed driver's licenses and doesn't expect to work them out for a couple of months, a spokesman says. The DMV's Mike Marando in Sacramento said a switch to a new processing system to handle the new [...]
The DMV this week began issuing a redesigned driver's license with the latest security technology to protect against fraud, tampering and counterfeiting. Perhaps the biggest change is for drivers younger than 21. The information on their licenses will be printed vertically so that it is easier for bars, [...]