New York

[hotdogPi]

As for why we're changing, making it easier to read plates on toll gantries seems to be a major motivation.

Gov. Cuomo supposedly said as much, in announcing the "contest."  He said the new plates will make for easier image recognition on the ALPR's to be used to enforce congestion pricing in Manhattan.

Looks like a detail is coming up - plates older than 10 years are to be replaced. Which is somewhat meaningful, as 10 years take toll on plates. My set is almost 12, if I remember correctly, and they start to show the age. Saying that worn out plates are not read properly is almost reasonable.

Green Massachusetts plates (30 years!) are still legible.

[kalvado]

As for why we're changing, making it easier to read plates on toll gantries seems to be a major motivation.

Gov. Cuomo supposedly said as much, in announcing the "contest."  He said the new plates will make for easier image recognition on the ALPR's to be used to enforce congestion pricing in Manhattan.

Looks like a detail is coming up - plates older than 10 years are to be replaced. Which is somewhat meaningful, as 10 years take toll on plates. My set is almost 12, if I remember correctly, and they start to show the age. Saying that worn out plates are not read properly is almost reasonable.

Green Massachusetts plates (30 years!) are still legible.

I looked around the parking lot this morning. There are still some A**-**** plates on the lot, and those were issued during first half mandatory replacement, i.e.  in 2001-early 2002. They are still readable, but definitely show the age.

[hotdogPi]

A**-****

You don't have to censor yourself.

[jp the roadgeek]

Let's just name it the Mario Tappan Cuomo Zee Oh Look At The Pretty Hudson River Bridge and call it a day!

What's in a name?  You think many call Washington National Airport as Reagan National?  Does anyone call the RFK Bridge by that name?  Is the Hugh Carey Tunnel yet called by its latest name?

How many still call Denali, Mount McKinley?

Probably a few that still call JFK Idlewild. And how many people call the 59th Street bridge by its official full name?  And of course, there's the whole 128 thing in MA.

[webny99]

A**-****

You don't have to censor yourself.

Ha. It actually happens to be a perfect match for a-hole, but he meant plates in the A- series.

[Beltway]

Let's just name it the Mario Tappan Cuomo Zee Oh Look At The Pretty Hudson River Bridge and call it a day!

What's in a name?  You think many call Washington National Airport as Reagan National?  Does anyone call the RFK Bridge by that name?  Is the Hugh Carey Tunnel yet called by its latest name?
How many still call Denali, Mount McKinley?

Probably a few that still call JFK Idlewild. And how many people call the 59th Street bridge by its official full name?  And of course, there's the whole 128 thing in MA.

I am old enough to remember it being called Idlewild.  Seriously, do you thing anyone still calls it that?

I am fine with the Reagan name, but I still call it Washington National Airport or just National Airport, as do a lot of other people.

Denali, Mount McKinley?  Unofficial, never approved by Congress.

[Sam]

[
He said the new plates will make for easier image recognition on the ALPR's to be used to enforce congestion pricing in Manhattan.

Really? Because easier recognition was the reason they gave for going to the Empire Gold in the first place.

[vdeane]

[
He said the new plates will make for easier image recognition on the ALPR's to be used to enforce congestion pricing in Manhattan.

Really? Because easier recognition was the reason they gave for going to the Empire Gold in the first place.

The transition to Empire Gold did not involve a mandatory replacement.  Even now, close to 10 years after Empire Gold became our plate design, there are still a large number of vehicles with the older Empire Blue plates.  Note that the Empire Gold design was unpopular and NY allows people to hang onto plates when they change vehicles, so many people have done just that.

[SignBridge]

Why is the Empire Gold plate not popular? I think it looks fine. And which plates are the ones not being read properly by toll cameras? The gold or the older blue/white plates?

[vdeane]

Why is the Empire Gold plate not popular? I think it looks fine. And which plates are the ones not being read properly by toll cameras? The gold or the older blue/white plates?

Empire Blue is more aesthetically pleasing than Empire Gold.
https://patch.com/new-york/harrison/not-everyone-happy-with-new-nys-license-plates

[SignBridge]

Well I'm glad that's all the public has to worry about. Interestingly, in neighboring New Jersey, they have had the same dull looking beige license plates with black lettering since at least the 1960's if not longer. Though it does look to be a slightly brighter shade in recent years.

[jp the roadgeek]

A**-****

You don't have to censor yourself.

Ha. It actually happens to be a perfect match for a-hole, but he meant plates in the A- series.

Kramer had the best plate in the A series.

[jeffandnicole]

Well I'm glad that's all the public has to worry about. Interestingly, in neighboring New Jersey, they have had the same dull looking beige license plates with black lettering since at least the 1960's if not longer. Though it does look to be a slightly brighter shade in recent years.

Wrong on all acounts.

There was a blue plate for many years between the original beige plate and the current yellow plate. The current plate has been in existence for over 25 years.

[SignBridge]

Thanks J&N. I had completely forgotten about the blue plates. Do you remember what years they were used? And yes I guess the new plate is a light-yellow as compared to the original beige. But still a very no-frills design compared to New York's various plates over the years. (chuckle)

[froggie]

Denali, Mount McKinley?  Unofficial, never approved by Congress.

Doesn't need to be approved by Congress.  The Board of Geographic Names has that authority and, barring any action by the Board, the Secretary of the Interior also has authority.

[Beltway]

Denali, Mount McKinley?  Unofficial, never approved by Congress.

Doesn't need to be approved by Congress.  The Board of Geographic Names has that authority and, barring any action by the Board, the Secretary of the Interior also has authority.

Not.  They did an end run around the legitimate process.

Name-change efforts led by Alaskan politicians continued to be thwarted by Congress until President 0bama and Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell took action in 2015 to restore the name Denali to the mountain.   Jewell cited a 1947 law that empowers the Secretary of Interior to use authority when the USBGN "does not act within a reasonable time"  (yeah sure uh-huh) as a justification to make the change.

[froggie]

The legitimate process still does not require Congressional approval.

Meanwhile, if that's what Alaskans want to name it (a state, mind you, that has generally voted the same as your party), let them.  Would you want Alaskans to rename Richmond to something else?

[Beltway]

The legitimate process still does not require Congressional approval.

It was an illegitimate way to change the name of a nationally known location.

[machias]

I'm surprised about the 10 year replacement expectation of the NY plates, as I recall during my lifetime:
Gold on Blue: ???-1973
Blue on Gold: 1973-1986 (13 years)
Liberty Plates: 1986-2001 (14 years)
Empire Blue: 2001-2009 (8 years, originally mandatory replacement but rescinded)
Empire Gold: 2009-present (10 years)

If I still lived in New York I'd still have my Empire Blue plates and they were holding up just fine. The Empire Gold plates were to replace the Empire Blue due to them "too illegible" , but the Empire Blue plates held up much better than the Empire Gold plates. Some "E"  series blue plates and plenty of Empire Gold plates are peeling, something that rarely happened before the "E"  series Empire Blue plates.

[Alps]

As for why we're changing, making it easier to read plates on toll gantries seems to be a major motivation.

Gov. Cuomo supposedly said as much, in announcing the "contest."  He said the new plates will make for easier image recognition on the ALPR's to be used to enforce congestion pricing in Manhattan.

Looks like a detail is coming up - plates older than 10 years are to be replaced. Which is somewhat meaningful, as 10 years take toll on plates. My set is almost 12, if I remember correctly, and they start to show the age. Saying that worn out plates are not read properly is almost reasonable.

Green Massachusetts plates (30 years!) are still legible.

I dispute that.

[signalman]

Thanks J&N. I had completely forgotten about the blue plates. Do you remember what years they were used? And yes I guess the new plate is a light-yellow as compared to the original beige. But still a very no-frills design compared to New York's various plates over the years. (chuckle)

The blue plates were issued from 1979-1992.

[bemybear]

The legitimate process still does not require Congressional approval.

It was an illegitimate way to change the name of a nationally known location.

I worked a summer in Denali National Park back in about 1996 and believe me, the Denali name was overwhelmingly dominant already.  I worked at the 'Parks Hotel Denali' not 'Parks Hotel McKinley' etc.  One of the few times when a name change is embraced more quickly by much of the public than by the bureaucracy. 

[bemybear]

Vdeane, I recall that there are technical differences between an old-style traffic-circle and a roundabout. Could you briefly summarize the differences in layman's terms?

I was surprised there wasn't another response answering your question yet so here goes...

The NJ traffic circles (such as Somerville and Flemington and others) generally are very large diameter sort of round traffic islands.  ONE direction of one of the roads (usually the dominant road and only in one direction of it) gets to come flying into the circle with nothing more restrictive than ad advisory speed.  In fact, the posting of the advisory speed is usually the best before you get there clue that you are on the leg of the circle that doesn't yield. 

No matter how you get into the circle (from the no stop dominant road or you dart out into a gap from one of the other yielding roads), you don't yield or stop for anything until and unless you make it back around to the dominant road.  I believe the circle has stops at that point but in practice you'd have to stop almost all the time anyway because these are busy places even off hours.

In my opinion (was a NJ resident for 3 years) the circles aren't such a terrible thing but they are VERY intimidating to the uninitiated.  Really though the main stress with them comes from them being so large and busy with multiple lanes, some of which often are forced to exit at a certain leg.  That one direction doesn't stop isn't that challenging to deal with and keeps at least that one leg from almost ever backing up too much.  Some circles (Somerville being one) have a stop light about 500 feet from one of the non favored legs of the circle which helps to create gaps in the onslaught of people coming from that leg and that helps keep the circle moving. 

Really, the circles are an industrial strength intersection that are nothing anybody would choose to build unless they had a 6 way intersection and a crap load of traffic.  But for those unfortunate intersections with NJ's unfortunate volume of traffic, they are about the only way to do what they do that allow all roads to connect to all others at that point.

Some of them have been modified recently to allow the dominant road to go around or even completely over the circle making the circle more of an 'exit to the circle' option for non-through traffic on the dominant road...

[PHLBOS]

Green Massachusetts plates (30 years!) are still legible.

I dispute that.

The green-on-white MA plate on my mother's 2001 Escort that she had since 1992 was still legible through 2016... when she totaled it hitting a tree (she was 79 at the time).  Her driving days ended after that & the plate was since turned in to the RMV.

[storm2k]

Vdeane, I recall that there are technical differences between an old-style traffic-circle and a roundabout. Could you briefly summarize the differences in layman's terms?

I was surprised there wasn't another response answering your question yet so here goes...

The NJ traffic circles (such as Somerville and Flemington and others) generally are very large diameter sort of round traffic islands.  ONE direction of one of the roads (usually the dominant road and only in one direction of it) gets to come flying into the circle with nothing more restrictive than ad advisory speed.  In fact, the posting of the advisory speed is usually the best before you get there clue that you are on the leg of the circle that doesn't yield. 

No matter how you get into the circle (from the no stop dominant road or you dart out into a gap from one of the other yielding roads), you don't yield or stop for anything until and unless you make it back around to the dominant road.  I believe the circle has stops at that point but in practice you'd have to stop almost all the time anyway because these are busy places even off hours.

In my opinion (was a NJ resident for 3 years) the circles aren't such a terrible thing but they are VERY intimidating to the uninitiated.  Really though the main stress with them comes from them being so large and busy with multiple lanes, some of which often are forced to exit at a certain leg.  That one direction doesn't stop isn't that challenging to deal with and keeps at least that one leg from almost ever backing up too much.  Some circles (Somerville being one) have a stop light about 500 feet from one of the non favored legs of the circle which helps to create gaps in the onslaught of people coming from that leg and that helps keep the circle moving. 

Really, the circles are an industrial strength intersection that are nothing anybody would choose to build unless they had a 6 way intersection and a crap load of traffic.  But for those unfortunate intersections with NJ's unfortunate volume of traffic, they are about the only way to do what they do that allow all roads to connect to all others at that point.

Some of them have been modified recently to allow the dominant road to go around or even completely over the circle making the circle more of an 'exit to the circle' option for non-through traffic on the dominant road...

Traffic circles are perfectly fine traffic control devices when the volume isn't too severe. This is why circles lasted in a lot of areas of NJ that were much more suburban or rural until the mid to late 80s in most places. However, it does bear pointing out that there's also a reason NJDOT has invested in either eliminating or updating so many of them in the past 30-40 years. Once traffic volumes get much higher, they become much more dangerous and cause more problems than they solve. Somerville is probably the worst example of a traffic circle that one could ever give these days. The best option would be for it to finally be completely eliminated, but geometry, the need for land, and other factors make that impractical at best. Flemington should probably be eliminated as well, but they have done the work over there to move a lot of thru traffic on 202 out of the circle itself with the bypass roads.

Roundabouts are designed for smaller intersections to not need a traffic light and can better manage traffic than stop signs and the like.