399 Starting July 1st!
06-24-05, 07:48 PM
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399 Starting July 1st!
Now you can dial 399 on your cellphone for roadside assistance in Los Angeles county!
The #399 solution
Commuters' hotline could have statewide application
Starting July 1, Los Angeles County residents will get another quick-dial phone number -- like 411 and 911 -- to memorize: #399.
The number, part of a pilot program the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is sponsoring, will allow motorists to make nonemergency calls from their cell phones. This way, reports for roadside assistance won't continue to tie up 911 emergency operators.
In a way, #399 is meant as a replacement for old-fashioned call boxes, which, in this day of ubiquitous cell phones, go largely unused.
The California Highway Patrol is monitoring the system cautiously, concerned that some true emergencies -- like freeway debris -- that should go to 911 might instead only go to #399.
Maybe, but those calls can always be forwarded, and Californians, living in the land of innumerable area codes, have proved pretty adept at mastering new numbers and their purposes.
CHP officials have also expressed concern that, because #399 will only work in L.A. County, it could confuse some motorists. But that's a good argument for expanding the system statewide. And if it works in L.A., that's exactly what should happen.
The #399 solution
Commuters' hotline could have statewide application
Starting July 1, Los Angeles County residents will get another quick-dial phone number -- like 411 and 911 -- to memorize: #399.
The number, part of a pilot program the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is sponsoring, will allow motorists to make nonemergency calls from their cell phones. This way, reports for roadside assistance won't continue to tie up 911 emergency operators.
In a way, #399 is meant as a replacement for old-fashioned call boxes, which, in this day of ubiquitous cell phones, go largely unused.
The California Highway Patrol is monitoring the system cautiously, concerned that some true emergencies -- like freeway debris -- that should go to 911 might instead only go to #399.
Maybe, but those calls can always be forwarded, and Californians, living in the land of innumerable area codes, have proved pretty adept at mastering new numbers and their purposes.
CHP officials have also expressed concern that, because #399 will only work in L.A. County, it could confuse some motorists. But that's a good argument for expanding the system statewide. And if it works in L.A., that's exactly what should happen.
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