NavList:

Frank, there is one place where the time "pips" are still used, tho not as they were originally intended.  In the SF and Sillycon Valley area, there is a radio station called KCBS and they have a single hourly pip that is vaguely near the top of the hour.  This area also has highway HOV lanes which come into being or go out of being on the tops of various hours depending on where the highway is.  At least when I was there, the CHP (state police to most other states) are very strict about HOV usage and should a passenger vehicle be passing along without the requisite minimum number of passengers, the CHP will ticket the driver.

Anyone who has been on a highway at 1 minute or so prior to end of HOV hours has seen people diving into the HOV lane to try and get a jump on the other millions of drivers on the highway.  This, of course, creates some chaos as there was no time standard for when the HOV hours have ended other than everyone's individual estimation of the top of the hour.

To decrease the chaos (in theory, not in practice), the rule was amended such that the KCBS time pip was used as the reference.

So, in this instance, the pip is not symbolic for the top of UTC but itself becomes the reference time for HOV usage.