Why is there a tiny red light on the traffic signal? A camera?

"It's a tool we give the (Orange County) Sheriff's Department to help them to do their jobs," says Brett Canedy, a transportation analyst for the city.

Q. Hey Honk: I noticed this small red light down low on a traffic signal at Crown Valley and Marguerite parkways in Mission Viejo. Looks like a camera. What’s it for?

– Paul DeSimone, Mission Viejo

A. Called an “enforcement light,” it helps the deputies who patrol your town nab red-light runners.

“It’s a tool we give the (Orange County) Sheriff’s Department to help them to do their jobs,” said Brett Canedy, a transportation analyst for the city.

When the signal lights up red, so does the little light lower on what is called the signal head, what the lights are mounted on.

The enforcement light makes it easier for a deputy to see that the light is red.

Traffic lights often have visors circling them, directed at the affected motorists. With this little light, the deputy’s view isn’t blocked off if he or she is stationed a bit out of the line of sight of the signal.

Maybe the motorcycle deputy is off to the side, in a driveway or a bus cutout and not in the driver’s lane.

Mission Viejo has enforcement lights at five intersections. Honk had never seen one before, but Canedy says some other Southern California communities deploy them as well.

Q. Hi Honk: I’m wondering why so many drivers stop a car length behind the white crosswalk line at a red light. I usually pull up to the white line when I stop. Am I doing something that is dangerous? Do they know something I don’t?

– Susan Delaney, Rancho Santa Margarita

A. Nah.

Honk tends to do what you do, Susan. Just makes him feel like he is driving … tidy.

Officer Eddy Lopez, out of the California Highway Patrol’s Westminster station house, says how close motorists get to the crosswalk could be based on all sorts of stuff.

“I think it’s more of a mix of different types of drivers or different types of thoughts,” he said. “There is no rule book that says how much space to leave.”

Maybe some get up close to better see pedestrians. Or hang back because they had been in a bad collision once, or want to give pedestrians more room. Lopez’s partner chipped in that in the far-left lane, maybe some drivers stay back a bit to ensure those making left-hand turns toward them have plenty of room.

HONKIN’ FACT: In the last three years Caltrans, with the help of other agencies, has removed 11,000 encampments from state property, 248,275 cubic yards of debris in all, the Governor’s Office said. The agency gives inhabitants of the encampments prior notice, and stores personal property for at least two months, officials say. Gov. Gavin Newsom recently ordered other state agencies to copy Caltrans’ program and urged local governments to do the same. Caltrans works with service providers to help those who are homeless, officials said.

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. X: @OCRegisterHonk