It's a pretty standard routine for a traffic stop: License, registration and proof of insurance, please.

We published a story today about a renewed push to let low-income motorists know about a low-cost, liability-only auto insurance program. But why now?

Give thanks to Thanksgiving for that. State insurance officials and California Highway Patrol officers say with more drivers hitting the road next week for the long Thanksgiving holiday weekend, there's concern that more drivers will be out there without insurance.

"This is the busiest time of the year, said Steve Badilla, assistant chief for the CHP's Central Division which reaches from Sonora to the Grapevine south of Bakersfield. "We'll be having maximum enforcement starting Wednesday and going all the way through Sunday" (Nov. 29).

What that means is more officers on patrol and on the lookout for possible DUIs, speeders and seat-belt violations -- perhaps as many as 950 officers during the course of the five-day period. And in each traffic stop, drivers will be asked for the three pieces of documentation required under the law: their driver's license, their vehicle registration and their proof of insurance.

"If you don't have insurance, it can be a substantial fine," said Matt Radke, a public information officer for the CHP.

One interesting point -- the CHP has been issuing fewer citations for not having proof of insurance over the past few years.

In 2006, for instance, officers wrote 23,593 tickets for no proof of insurance across the sprawling Central Division. That dropped to 21,126 citations in 2007 and 19,395 in 2008.

Despite those figures, it is widely believed that because of greater unemployment in the San Joaquin Valley than other parts of the state, there are likely more drivers going without insurance because they cannot afford it -- perhaps as much as 20%, said Darrell Ng, the associate deputy commissioner for the state Department of Insurance.

The Department of Insurance hasn't tracked the percentage of uninsured motorists on a county-by-county basis since 2004, but the latest statewide estimate by the Insurance Research Council suggests that in 2007 -- before the California economy began to tank -- 18% of the state's motorists were uninsured.

Michelle Barnett, a Fresno insurance agent who writes policies under the California Low Cost Automobile Insurance Program, said she's seeing more drivers taking advantage of the program in the last couple of years as they learn about the effort. "But there's still quite a bit of work to do to get the word out," she said.

Among people who apply for the program through her office, Barnett said a few are drivers with standard auto insurance who are hoping to save money -- if they qualify -- by dropping to a lower level of coverage. But most, she said, are drivers who don't have any auto insurance at all because of the cost.