Yellow call boxes marked by blue signs have lined California’s freeways for decades. But with the rise of cellphones, the emergency roadside phones have become a costly relic, and Orange County officials this month decided to retire them.
The Orange County Transportation Authority plans to discontinue service at the call boxes along its freeways by the end of June 2027 as a cost-saving measure. The associated roadside assistance service for stranded drivers, which rolled out in Orange County in 1987, now costs about $1,337 per call.
“While the need for safe, reliable roadside assistance hasn’t changed, the way people access help has,” Transportation Authority spokesperson Eric Carpenter told SFGATE in an email Thursday. “We’re focusing on modern tools like 511 and freeway service patrols to deliver faster service while reducing the need for drivers to leave their vehicles in potentially dangerous conditions.”
Within a year of the 1987 call box rollout in the county, 11,000 calls were being made per month, according to the Orange County Register Tuesday, but by 2015 that number had dropped to 205 calls a month. And as over the years use of the call boxes declined, the county went from a network of 1,200 call boxes in the 1990s to just 175 call boxes now, the outlet reported. According to an April 6 Transportation Authority staff report, Orange County drivers pay for call boxes and other roadside assistance services with a $1 fee tacked on to their vehicle registration.
Today, with widespread cellphone use — according to a 2025 Pew Research Center study, 98% of Americans have a cell phone — some days the operators don’t get a single phone call. Instead, the staff report said, drivers are likely to call 511, a roadside service, which only costs about $7.11 per call.
“At a time when cellular service was limited and not widely accessible, call boxes played a critical role in improving motorist and roadway safety by reducing the amount of time drivers spent stranded on or near active travel lanes while awaiting assistance,” the staff report said.
In the report, the transportation authority said range County’s freeways and highways have full-strength cell phone coverage for all major service providers. Carpenter said more than 6,000 calls were made to the 511 service during the 2024-2025 fiscal year and he pointed to programs like California LifeLine, which provides households with free or discounted cell phones and services.
“We have coverage which we didn’t have in certain places before,” Orange County Transportation Authority CEO Darrell Johnson told the Orange County Register. “While not every single situation can be accommodated, we note that even with the current boxes out there, they can’t accommodate each one. There are some gaps, but we think they are minor.”
Drivers should always have a fully charged cell phone to use to call 511 or AAA for roadside services, Montgomery said. And while waiting for assistance, Carpenter said drivers may need to sit tight.
“In the event of an emergency such as a power outage, drivers should prioritize safety by moving their vehicle out of traffic if possible, turning on hazard lights, and remaining inside the vehicle when it is unsafe to exit,” Carpenter said.