Excluding states that border yours, what out of state plates do you mostly see?

[hotdogPi]

I would say Maine (not just trucks), New Jersey, and Florida.

Interestingly, over 90% of Georgia plates are from Atlanta or its inner suburbs (mainly Fulton, DeKalb, Cobb, Gwinnett), while Florida's counties are spread all over the place.

Vehicles without a front plate fall into one of four categories:
1. From Florida, Pennsylvania, or much more rarely another state that doesn't require front plates.
2. A green (pre-1990) MA plate. My mom still has one.
3. Standard plate in violation of the law.
4. Dealer plate. Both MA and NH don't require front plates for dealers.

On my walks (so this applies to surface roads, not freeways), the first three are all about equally common. The frequency of the fourth varies wildly depending on which road I'm on.

[bwana39]

Here (NE Texas)  it is Florida , followed by Illinois.

[MATraveler128]

I always notice Illinois plates popping up more frequently around here. Really every state on the east coast has a lot of representation except Delaware. Delaware is surprisingly uncommon for only being about 300 miles from my location as the crow flies. Though I saw a Delaware plate yesterday.

[1995hoo]

We see a lot of out-of-state plates here given our proximity both to DC and to various military installations. I think Florida, Pennsylvania, and New York seem to be the most common, although lately I've been seeing a lot more Texas plates than usual.

I see a surprising number of Alaska and Hawaii plates. In terms of East Coast states, I see very few from Maine or Rhode Island and surprisingly few from Connecticut.

The thing I wonder in this area with tags from states like Florida and maybe Texas and Georgia is how many of those are rental cars.  It wouldn't surprise me that the results of this inquiry are tainted by that.

....

Hard to know. Good chance it's a combination of both. I note that there are several Florida and Texas plates in my neighborhood, including two Texas plates belonging to people living on my street (one a renter we assume is in the Armed Forces because he's renting from a military owner, the other a homeowner we know to be in the Armed Forces).

The most unusual plate I see on a regular basis is that in a nearby condo development, there's a Suburban parked with "EDOMEX" plates—i.e., the State of Mexico (the area around Mexico City). It's one of only two Mexican plates I've ever seen in the DC area and it's been there for several months. I have no idea whether it's someone living here long-term, which would be mildly odd because I'd normally expect a "Diplomat" plate in that situation, or whether it's someone who drove up here for a long-term visit. Either way, I'm not inclined to report the person as a tax evader the way I might if someone who was clearly not in the military and not a college student maintained out-of-state plates for a long time. (I'm sure I have mentioned at some point how a guy who used to live across the street pissed me off one day, so to get back at him I reported a non-mobile car in his driveway with expired New Jersey plates as a potential tax evader. The county not only added the car to the tax rolls, they dunned him $100 more for not getting a Virginia plate within 30 days of moving in.)

Being in that metro DC area, do you see a lot of Consulate plates?

I certainly did when I lived in the DC area.  Those "D" plates caused a lot of grumbling because they were perceived to be worse drivers, partially due to an assumption of diplomatic immunity.

I frequently see them, though perhaps not as frequently as in past years (no doubt part of that is that I don't drive as much as I used to because I telecommute).

I've posted a couple of times about the jerk with "Diplomat" plates who used to live up the block. See below. This still annoys me when I think of it. The one day when everyone in our neighborhood had to parallel park around the corner and this jerk pulled this stunt. The picture below is of a VDOT-maintained street around the corner from my street, which is owned and maintained by our HOA. The HOA's contractor was sealcoating the street and if you wanted to be able to drive your car, you had to park around the corner. As noted below, two cars were parked there when I left (mine was one of them) and when I came back, I found the guy with the "Diplomat" plates had parked like this to take up two spaces. So I knew it wasn't a situation where he was parked and then the cars around him left. I really wanted to get a couple of neighbors and roll his minivan over onto the passenger side so that the space could be used properly, but of course I didn't. I also didn't leave a note on his windshield because I didn't want to leave fingerprints on the piece of paper.

....

2. If they have to resurface the roads every 3 years (mill and pave) they are doing something very wrong. A proper pave of a light traffic street should last at least 10-15 years, even in the snowbelt.

They don't do a full milling and paving. I think they call it "sealcoating," though I'm not sure–the contractor comes out and does something and when they're done the street is a nice fresh black color with any cracks and other such stuff filled in. Either way, they tell us in advance and for two days we have to park around the corner.

Actually, that led to its own issue last time when the guy in front of me left at the same time I did, then we came back to find the guy up the street with "Diplomat" plates had parked squarely in the middle of the vacated space, i.e., there was space for two vehicles and he parked so half his vehicle took up each of the two "spaces." That one burned me up because it seemed like a situation where it should be obvious you shouldn't leave excess space because everyone had to park down there (and I did my part by putting the car we weren't going to drive in the garage so as to free up on-street space). I don't know whether he was intentionally being an asshole, whether he was being a dick because he knows his Diplomat plates let him get away with stuff, or whether he doesn't know how to parallel park and he took up too much space because he was afraid he wouldn't be able to get back out. (Doesn't matter anymore, the guy moved away last year.)

See below. I remember this all too clearly. I was parked in front of the Honda to the right and a neighbor was parked between my car and the Toyota to the left. We both left at the same time and I came back 15 minutes later to find the minivan parked like this on a day when all the on-street parking was taken due to the roadwork being done. If we lived in New York or Boston, I doubt it would have gone well for him....

[kphoger]

Texas, easily.

Also Arkansas.

And Maine and Indiana are also common on trucks.

I don't really notice the plates on trucks.

My kids sure do!  On a road trip a few years ago, for which I had made up license plate spotting sheets, and grouped us into two competing teams, my eldest son was super excited to have spotted a license plate that, according to my game, had a very large point value.  It was this one:



He saw a long word that began with 'A', looked down at his sheet, and figured it must have been Aguascalientes.

[7/8]

- Alberta: lots of people have moved there for cheaper housing and good wages (when oil is booming)
- Florida: snowbirds and rental cars?
- Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Ohio*, Pennsylvania*: relatively close and populous states

* Water border with Ontario.

[WhyLifeIs4]

I have seen a lot of Flordia plates and Tennessee plates near my home

[TheHighwayMan3561]

I see a number of Texas plates around MN. One would think it would be Illinois, but I rarely see them.

Even from the states that do border, I almost never see IA or SD. A lot of WI (which makes sense) and a handful of ND.

[mgk920]

NE Wisconsin, I see a lot of Texas plates here.


Mike

[Ted$8roadFan]

Also agree that most out-of-state plates near me are either bordering states or places like Maine, New Jersey, and Florida.

[kphoger]

I see a surprisingly high number of Alaska plates here in Wichita.  My guess is that it has to do with the presence of an Air Force base.

[JayhawkCO]

I wonder if there are many places where you see more plates from a non-bordering state than you do the closest bordering state. I see way more Texas plates than I do Wyoming (obviously partially due to the fact that Wyoming has 15-20% less people than the City and County of Denver itself.)

[1995hoo]

I wonder if there are many places where you see more plates from a non-bordering state than you do the closest bordering state. I see way more Texas plates than I do Wyoming (obviously partially due to the fact that Wyoming has 15-20% less people than the City and County of Denver itself.)

New York City, maybe, given how many people from New Jersey take some form of public transportation to get there? I tend not to pay much attention to license plates when I'm in the city, though.

[kphoger]

I wonder if there are many places where you see more plates from a non-bordering state than you do the closest bordering state. I see way more Texas plates than I do Wyoming (obviously partially due to the fact that Wyoming has 15-20% less people than the City and County of Denver itself.)

Around here, it seems I see approximately the same number of Texas plates as Oklahoma.  I suspect you don't have to go too much farther north before Texas outnumbers Oklahoma.  That's the more interesting phenomenon to me, in that Oklahoma is directly between here and Texas.

[jlam]

I wonder if there are many places where you see more plates from a non-bordering state than you do the closest bordering state. I see way more Texas plates than I do Wyoming (obviously partially due to the fact that Wyoming has 15-20% less people than the City and County of Denver itself.)

In these parts, I see more Wyoming plates than anything else besides Colorado's (though this is probably because I'm closer to Cheyenne than Denver). I might have seen California plates more often than Texas plates, but that statement is from my observations and not the full set of plates in my area. The metrics are probably different in urban areas.

[epzik8]

New Jersey and New York.

[JayhawkCO]

I wonder if there are many places where you see more plates from a non-bordering state than you do the closest bordering state. I see way more Texas plates than I do Wyoming (obviously partially due to the fact that Wyoming has 15-20% less people than the City and County of Denver itself.)

In these parts, I see more Wyoming plates than anything else besides Colorado's (though this is probably because I'm closer to Cheyenne than Denver). I might have seen California plates more often than Texas plates, but that statement is from my observations and not the full set of plates in my area. The metrics are probably different in urban areas.

I figure you'd still have more Texas than California just because of the oil and gas activity up there.

[SEWIGuy]

We see a lot of out-of-state plates here given our proximity both to DC and to various military installations. I think Florida, Pennsylvania, and New York seem to be the most common, although lately I've been seeing a lot more Texas plates than usual.

I see a surprising number of Alaska and Hawaii plates. In terms of East Coast states, I see very few from Maine or Rhode Island and surprisingly few from Connecticut.

The thing I wonder in this area with tags from states like Florida and maybe Texas and Georgia is how many of those are rental cars.  It wouldn't surprise me that the results of this inquiry are tainted by that.

An example that I just googled:
https://www.denver7.com/traffic/driving-you-crazy/driving-you-crazy-why-do-so-many-colorado-rental-cars-have-out-of-state-license-plates

Yeah I was going to say Texas. A ton of rental cars are tagged from there.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

Yeah I was going to say Texas. A ton of rental cars are tagged from there.

This is true, but TX/FL are also popular retirement/wintering states for Midwesterners, so that probably also explains some of it in MN/WI.

[bm7]

Texas, Kansas, Florida, and Colorado, in that order.

[mgk920]

We see a lot of out-of-state plates here given our proximity both to DC and to various military installations. I think Florida, Pennsylvania, and New York seem to be the most common, although lately I've been seeing a lot more Texas plates than usual.

I see a surprising number of Alaska and Hawaii plates. In terms of East Coast states, I see very few from Maine or Rhode Island and surprisingly few from Connecticut.

The thing I wonder in this area with tags from states like Florida and maybe Texas and Georgia is how many of those are rental cars.  It wouldn't surprise me that the results of this inquiry are tainted by that.

An example that I just googled:
https://www.denver7.com/traffic/driving-you-crazy/driving-you-crazy-why-do-so-many-colorado-rental-cars-have-out-of-state-license-plates

Yeah I was going to say Texas. A ton of rental cars are tagged from there.

Especially now that WisDOT offers 'fleet' plates for them.

Mike

[kkt]

My kid and I had a bet once about 4 years ago.  We were in Mt. Rainier National Park and the kid bet that the California plates would outnumber the Oregon plates, and I bet there would be more Oregon plates.  We counted for several hours and it was pretty close - the leader went back and forth a few times.  In the end, California plates were leading by about 3 plates out of 150.

[I-55]

Plenty of metro Nashville plates up here (IN). Close second to NJ particularly on the northeast side of the state.

[DandyDan]

I see Texas the most, at least for states that don't border Iowa. I am inclined to believe some of that is the fact the company that deals with the various wind turbines around here is from Texas. I see some Florida as well.

[Ted$8roadFan]

In Rhode ISland, most of the out-of state plates besides MA and CT are New York, New Jersey, and Florida. The former two have discovered RI as an ideal place for second homes...cheaper than the Hamptons and 2 hours closer to home than the Cape.