This article is from the California Driving (and Surviving) FAQ, by "George J Wu" georgewu@netcom.com with numerous contributions by others.
from rog@Ingres.COM (Roger Taranto) on 18 Jul 1992:
They are required by CalTrans to clean up their section of the highway at
least quarterly. They are told to park near the highway (on some side
street or something, not on the side of the highway), and they have to give
CalTrans and the CHP notice a certain amount of time before they go out
there. They are given safety instructions before they go. Finally, there
are two types of people you see picking up litter along the side of the
road: those with *white* hats are part of some group doing litter removal;
those with *orange* hats are doing "community service", e.g., someone who
got sentenced to do community service. Alternatively, sponsors can hire
cleanup crews.
 
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