Motorists

In Beverly Hills, a DMV agent confiscates a disabled parking placard from a woman leaving a fitness center. In downtown Los Angeles, a motorist launches into a rant about "evil" meter readers after acknowledging that he's using someone else's disabled parking pass. And in neighborhoods near UCLA, 17 students are stopped and questioned as they scurry to class, their cars parked in restricted zones, disabled parking badges dangling from their rear-view mirrors. Fraudulent use of disabled parking placards -- those blue or red badges that allow motorists to park for free or in specially reserved spaces -- has exploded in the last decade, according to state motor vehicle officials.

During his nearly 40 years as a columnist for this newspaper, my late father occasionally tweaked his readers - quite disingenuously - by belittling his cat, knowing the slur would stir invective so passionate and erudite that he could fill another column without having to do much writing of his own. I had no intention of employing that device when I recently wrote - quite sincerely - in defense of motorcyclists who navigate the space between cars...

Last year's infamous incident on Mandeville Canyon Road -- in which a driver braked hard in front of a group of cyclists, causing two of them to be seriously injured -- began as so many anti-cyclist road-rage incidents do: The driver provoked the cyclists into responding to his verbal assault so he could "justify" using his vehicle to teach them a lesson. In fact, the driver, former emergency room doctor Christopher T. Thompson, was accused of previously using his vehicle to teach cyclists a lesson.

Los Angeles motorists beware: If the parking meter won't take your change, find another spot. The Los Angeles City Council voted Wednesday to uphold a policy that makes it illegal to park at spaces with broken meters. City transportation officials said violations issued at non-working meters generate about $5 million a year in revenue for the city. The action exercises an option for cities to override a new state law that greatly limits the practice of issuing tickets to drivers who park at malfunctioning meters.

The often tedious hunt for a parking place soon might become less irritating in at least one part of Los Angeles. At City Hall on Wednesday, officials unveiled an iPhone application ? the first of its type ? to help motorists find vacant parking spots in Hollywood, one of the most-visited places in the world. For an introductory price of $1.99, drivers will be able see which streets have open spots, as well as blocks that are closest to them with the most vacant spaces. The "Parker" application delivers information about parking-space time limits, pricing and whether meters take credit cards or coins.

So the tobacco companies care about the welfare of the people--the insurance companies are the friends of motorists--and George Bush is a friend of the environment. JAVAD HASHTROUDIAN Hacienda Heights

My wife and I are bicyclists who regularly pedal our way around north Orange County. The biggest problem we see is not irate motorists but bike lanes that simply disappear. This is particularly true throughout Fullerton, Placentia and Yorba Linda, where marked lanes suddenly turn into a no man's land with mere inches between the cyclist and passing motorists. BRUCE PRESTON Placentia

WASHINGTON - Bugged by motorists jabbering away on the phone while driving? Perhaps you should look into the car mirror. Though most drivers say cellphone-using motorists pose a danger, more than two-thirds admit to having talked on a hand-held or hands-free phone from behind the wheel at least once within the previous month,  according to a survey by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. Nearly a third said they had done so regularly. The survey shows a “do as I say, not as I do" attitude that underscores the need to better educate motorists on the risks of distracted driving, “especially given that most Americans believe this problem is becoming worse," the foundation said.

Through more than a decade, the Corona del Mar Freeway was proposed, opposed, funded, unfunded, planned, replanned and named for a community that now it probably never will reach. It was supposed to be completed seven years ago, but it was delayed by intergovernmental squabbling, long environmental studies and funding disputes. The state's Little Hoover Commission once said it was one of the state's worst examples of bureaucratic bungling.

Very often you publish letters from persons who complain about the driving habits of their fellow motorists. What very few of these people understand is that about 99% of the persons driving motor vehicles could not pass a driving test, including themselves. Likewise, these persons are completely lacking in common courtesy, insofar as their fellow motorists are concerned. Further, about 50% of the people driving motor vehicles continually violate stop signs, run red lights, etc., ad nauseam.