Montana's Plate Codes Based on 2010 Census

[Billy F 1988]

Here is a propsed system that I found interesting from the Billings Gazette:




So you can tell how old our county plate system really is and why it is believed that it should be revised based on the most recent census...like...*ahem* 2010!

[Duke87]

I am assuming the numbers were assigned based on ranking the counties by population at the time the system was created.

Okay.

I can see where OCD reasons might make one want to reorder the list to reflect current statistics, but practically speaking, what benefit would there be? Would that not simply cause confusion?

If you are going to go through the effort of reassigning the numbers, might I propose doing it by something more static, such as say, alphabetical order? This way there won't be a need to change it again after later censi.

[Alps]

I am assuming the numbers were assigned based on ranking the counties by population at the time the system was created.

Okay.

I can see where OCD reasons might make one want to reorder the list to reflect current statistics, but practically speaking, what benefit would there be? Would that not simply cause confusion?

If you are going to go through the effort of reassigning the numbers, might I propose doing it by something more static, such as say, alphabetical order? This way there won't be a need to change it again after later censi.

It's odd that you mention OCD and then end in a grammatically incorrect plural. But I agree, counties should be alphabetical. NJ is that way.


Side note: Our image policy applies to height as well as width. That said, since this is a list, I'll allow it.

[Billy F 1988]

Upon Duke87's proposal (and yes, I do appologize if the images are frickin' huge as heck, I'm trying to illustrate what I'm talking about so that you all have an idea about what I'm ephasizing), I've come up with this system. Now, before you go into uber crazy mode, let me explain how this works. There are multiple counties in Montana with the same starting letter of the alphabet.

To ease your confusion:
First alphabet of the county you reside (ex.: M) / Sequence (ex.: M5) / DOJ registration number (the last three to five digits on the plate)

If my plate currently reads 4C-5000E, the new system will read it as M5-4-500E, thus, M5 indicating that I'm in Missoula County, it is the fifth county with the letter M, and the plate code is 4, plus the DOJ registration number (again, the last 3 to 5 digits).

So, here is Montana's plate codes based on the alphabet:



Again, I do appologize for the images being a bit larger than specified. Any futher images I post on the boards won't end up this large anyway.

[corco]

I am assuming the numbers were assigned based on ranking the counties by population at the time the system was created.

Okay.

I can see where OCD reasons might make one want to reorder the list to reflect current statistics, but practically speaking, what benefit would there be? Would that not simply cause confusion?

If you are going to go through the effort of reassigning the numbers, might I propose doing it by something more static, such as say, alphabetical order? This way there won't be a need to change it again after later censi.

The advantage to doing it by population is that the 9 most populated counties get an extra digit for license plate issuance- if you give Billings (Yellowstone County) the 56 designation, then it has one fewer digit (current standard is four numbers and a letter in two digit counties, five numbers and a letter in  one digit counties), possibly exhausting the system sooner.

Right now, the letter at the end is the last one to increase. Where I live (Powell), we're at roughly 5500A.  I've seen Lake and Ravalli plates as high as 4000B or so. Given that this system has only been around since the beginning of 2012 or so, they're way closer to exhaustion. 

That said, I'd leave it the way it is. I don't know that it's that much of a threat, and they can do like Idaho and just be creative  about letter placement (Ada County, ID where Boise is for instance has issued 1A 00000, 1A A0000, 1A AA000, now they're on 1A 0A000, and they can keep going for a long time at that rate).

I'm more concerned about the fact that Montana doesn't really have a license plate right now- you go to the counter and get five completely different no cost options with none being the default, and then hundreds of cost options. Makes it really hard to identify a Montana plate on the road.

[Billy F 1988]

Yeah. That's true. I was just toying around with what Montana's plate code system would be if it went to a 2010 census base or an alphabetical base. My census proposal and Duke's alphabet proposal that I meshed a sequence into are just some ideas. It's not that they'll end up that way realistically, although you never know until the state says something about it. It isn't the fact that the current system is bothersome or is threatened in any way. I was theorizing what Montana could use. Perhaps a New Jersey or Idaho scheme could work. The example shown was New Jersey-ish where I have the letter, sequence, and county number, though that may end up confusing people if this scheme was used, or if the census scheme was used. The current system works fine. If Montana does decide to change it, it'll need to be as fluent as possible. So, whether these theories come to pass or not doesn't really affect the current system's outcome on a statewide scale.

[Duke87]

It's odd that you mention OCD and then end in a grammatically incorrect plural.

Bah. I pluralized a word that is borrowed directly from Latin according to Latin pluralization rules. That should be correct.

The advantage to doing it by population is that the 9 most populated counties get an extra digit for license plate issuance

How does that work without creating ambiguity? If it's 1 digit + 6 digits for the top nine counties and 2 digits + 5 digits for the rest, would county 1 not overlap numbers with counties 10-19? Is plate 103000D from county 1 or county 10?

[Billy F 1988]

Well, you can't really say unless you split the plate code from the DOJ registration number. That's why you put the dash between them. If it's something like 10-3000D, then it'd be county 10. If it comes from 1, it'd look like 1C-3000D, though I don't know about the suffix letters after single digits. My plate has a C after the 4 and ends with an E. Whatever "4C-xxxxE" means to me, the heck if I know.

[thenetwork]

Montana should just do their plates like Ohio:  The "number" of the county is on it's own bottom-left sticker on the rear license plate.  The bottom right sticker bears both the month and year that the plate expires in.

[corco]

There's really no reason to do that. I think, especially in the more rural areas, people like being able to very clearly see the county code (much easier to see than the little stickers in Ohio) so they know if the person is an "outsider" or not. I know a couple ranchers who will allow people with 28 plates to hunt on their property, because they're locals that can be tracked down if something goes awry. Other numbered plates are trespassing.

But there's no risk of number exhaustion, license plates are issued at the county level here... I just don't see a need to do away with it or change it.