Q: Greetings Honk: I am suspicious this new lane will actually be a tolled lane. Do you have any information?<\/p>\n
\u2013 Andy O\u2019Connor, Lake Forest<\/p>\n
A: Andy kindly sent Honk a website link to the Orange County Transportation Authority\u2019s project<\/a> he is curious about, a $716 million effort on the 5 Freeway, between the 405 and 55.<\/p>\n A regular lane will be added in each direction, new merging lanes are also coming, and some ramps will be reconfigured. Major construction will begin in the next month or so, with the project slated for completion in 2030.<\/p>\n Joel Zlotnik, an OCTA spokesman, said those will not be toll lanes.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are no specific plans on any (express lanes) project at this point,\u201d he said regarding his agency. \u201c(But) long term \u2026 we do envision express lanes throughout the county.\u201d<\/p>\n Caltrans, however, does have a 76-page report eyeballing <\/a>express lanes, to help decongest the 5 Freeway from Red Hill Avenue in Tustin to just north of the Los Angeles County border<\/a>, 15.5 miles away. This possibility has been discussed earnestly since at least 2022.<\/p>\n The tolled lanes, in each direction but perhaps not for the entire length, could be a combination of taking over carpool lanes and adding new lanes. The final environmental report has not been completed.<\/p>\n \u201cAt this time, no final decisions have been made,\u201d said Robert Johnson, a Caltrans spokesman for Orange County.<\/p>\n Q: I remember while growing up my dad carried a box of emergency road flares in his cars. They were still in the 1969 Buick station wagon when I drove it in high school and college in the late \u201970s to early \u201980s. Does anyone still use them? You sure can see them well at night.<\/p>\n \u2013 Brett Franklin, Santa Ana<\/p>\n A: Honk remembers them well, too, Brett \u2014 we are apparently showing our age.<\/p>\n The California Highway Patrol itself is partial to flares, but they don\u2019t seem to otherwise pop up much out there in the asphalt jungle.<\/p>\n \u201cWe do use them,\u201d said Officer Fernando Perez, a CHP spokesman out of the Santa Ana station. \u201cWe utilize the heck out of them.\u201d<\/p>\n But when it comes to the public, there appears to be a clear winner among the type of roadside warning devices deployed.<\/p>\n \u201cI see a lot of the collapsible reflector triangles,\u201d Perez said. \u201cThe flares are obviously brighter; they do come with some danger.\u201d<\/p>\n The good officer wanted to pass along a couple of tips: If you do carry flares, check on them now and then to ensure they are not leaking.<\/p>\n And make sure the caps stay on them. Otherwise, they can rub another surface, such as another flare \u2014 and ignite.<\/p>\n HONKIN\u2019 FACT: A 1998 Prevost LeMirage tour bus, Whoopi Goldberg\u2018s, is on the block. She used it extensively to get to her gigs until December 2024, preferring to sleep on it rather than in a hotel; it has 1.2 million miles on the odometer. Barbra Streisand and Tyler Perry are among those who have visited her on the bus. It is up for auction with other Whoopi stuff with Gardena-based Julien\u2019s<\/a> and is expected to go for $150,000 to $250,000.<\/p>\n 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<\/a>. Twitter: @OCRegisterHonk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Q: Greetings Honk: I am suspicious this new lane will actually be a tolled lane. Do you have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":176597,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,7,138,3159,62821,100,611,136,1967],"class_list":{"0":"post-176681","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-anaheim","8":"tag-anaheim","9":"tag-anaheim-headlines","10":"tag-anaheim-news","11":"tag-california","12":"tag-crime-and-public-safety","13":"tag-driving","14":"tag-honk","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-orange-county","17":"tag-top-stories","18":"tag-transportation"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176681\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}