Q A while back, I parked my super-duty crew cab pickup truck in downtown San Mateo. Knowing that these beasts stick out into traffic in the angled parking spots, and more than a few cars have scraped along the bumpers of these trucks, I opted to be nice and park with my right-front wheel up on the curb, almost touching the parking meter. This left plenty of room in the lane for cars to get by.

When I came back to my truck, I had a ticket on it saying that I created a sidewalk hazard by parking up there. As long as I have been alive, I have never seen someone walking between the meter and the street. They would be zigzagging and bonking their knees and shins on bumpers. People just plain don’t walk there.

So, I thought I was doing the world a favor by getting the rear of my truck out of traffic, and I got punished for it. Was this fair?

Jonathan Huddleston

San Mateo

A Fair, probably not. Illegal parking job, definitely so.

Q My car was stolen and I filed a police report. A guy at the gym who’s a cop in another county said the license plate for my stolen car is entered into a database and that traffic cameras at busy intersections, bridges, etc., automatically read license plates and register some kind of note if a stolen car passes the camera.

I was thinking that if my car still has its license plate on, it might be passing through the same intersection every day and we could track it down. Do you know anything about this?

Dave Pacific

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Roadshow: Sneaky carpool cheater tripped up by the CHP A Most traffic cameras are put up by cities to monitor only the flow of traffic. They do not read license plates. The exceptions are red-light cameras and cameras that monitor those who don’t pay bridge tolls.

Added Mike-The-Traffic-Cop: “I can’t say whether or not a police department would have the resources/staffing to investigate stolen vehicle crimes if the plates were captured by the cameras.”

Q You got a little closer with your latest answer about the best way to merge onto an expressway through the carpool lane but still not quite there. Here’s a scenario that just happened to me again:

You’re merging onto the expressway. The carpool lane is open, but the next lane is backed up solid all the way to the next signal, which is red. In the time it takes to drive from the merge to the signal, the light hasn’t changed.

It seems like there are only bad options. You can stop and refuse to merge until the next lane clears (bad). You can stop in the carpool lane and wait until you can merge into the next lane (also bad). You can go through the next intersection (illegal?).

What’s the recommendation?

Gary Bainin

San Jose

A The first option. Wait until the lane to the left of the carpool lane has a gap, then move into the carpool lane, turn your blinker to tell others you want to move left, and ease over when you can.

Join Gary Richards at noon Wednesday at www.mercurynews.com/live-chats. Follow Gary at Twitter.com/mrroadshow, look for him at Facebook.com/mr.roadshow or contact him at mrroadshow@bayareanewsgroup.com or 408-920-5335.