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Posting County Names on Licence Plates

Started by webny99, April 10, 2019, 10:18:07 PM

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1995hoo

Quote from: oscar on April 13, 2019, 08:36:42 AM
Quote from: 1995hoo on April 11, 2019, 01:02:13 PM
What Virginia does have instead is the county or city decal. Many, but not all, jurisdictions have done away with those stupid things. Alexandria still has them. If there has to be something indicating county or city, to me the idea of a decal makes more sense than a license plate because it's easy to change the decal if you move.

AIUI, Alexandria city has followed Fairfax County in doing away with the PITA windshield decal. I wish Arlington County would do same.

I'll take your word for it because I don't know. I've seen Alexandria city decals on several vehicles just in the past week, but I didn't look closely enough to see the year. (I knew they were Alexandria because I recognized the city seal.)
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commenting on the Capitals clinching a playoff spot.

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oscar

#51
Quote from: 1995hoo on April 13, 2019, 11:16:03 AM
Quote from: oscar on April 13, 2019, 08:36:42 AM
Quote from: 1995hoo on April 11, 2019, 01:02:13 PM
What Virginia does have instead is the county or city decal. Many, but not all, jurisdictions have done away with those stupid things. Alexandria still has them. If there has to be something indicating county or city, to me the idea of a decal makes more sense than a license plate because it's easy to change the decal if you move.

AIUI, Alexandria city has followed Fairfax County in doing away with the PITA windshield decal. I wish Arlington County would do same.

I'll take your word for it because I don't know. I've seen Alexandria city decals on several vehicles just in the past week, but I didn't look closely enough to see the year. (I knew they were Alexandria because I recognized the city seal.)

This was a new policy adopted just a few weeks ago. No new decals, and existing decals can be removed, but most people probably won't remove their stickers until they expire.
my Hot Springs and Highways pages, with links to my roads sites:
http://www.alaskaroads.com/home.html

stwoodbury

Quote from: corco on April 12, 2019, 05:19:26 PM
Quote from: pdx-wanderer on April 12, 2019, 03:31:05 PM
Quote from: 1 on April 12, 2019, 02:41:21 PM
In how many states does no county = rental?

Rentals from Idaho definitely have a county code. I thought that most states did away with labeling rentals on license plates to deter criminals from targeting them. I know that Florida especially had problems with cars saying "Lease" instead of a county name being targeted. I've seen a few red Colorado plates around here, apparently those are exclusively for rentals.



Yep- most rentals in Idaho have Bonneville County/Idaho Falls plates.

Montana and Wyoming also have county codes on their rental car plates. Most Montana rental cars are Billings/Yellowstone county.

It varies in Wyoming because there aren't many Wyoming plated rental cars, due to the lack of any major airports and high vehicle registration fees. I've rented six or seven cars in Wyoming and they always had Colorado or Utah plates.

I've rented a lot of cars with red Colorado plates but notably I did rent a car from Hertz in Boise once that had normal green Colorado plates. No idea how that happened.
Rentals with Idaho plates at the Spokane Airport either had Kootenai or Benewah County plates, both which are adjacent to Spokane County.




iPhone

stwoodbury

Countries in Europe issue national plates but many of them show local areas on them:

French plates show the two digit number for a department, which also corresponds with the postal code

Italy shows a two character provincial code (FI for Firenze/Florence) or ROMA for Rome

Germany shows a 1-3 alpha character code for the Landkreis or county I.e B for Berlin, S for Stuttgart, BB for Böblingen, GAP for Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

Switzerland follows a similar system.



iPhone

mgk920

Quote from: oscar on April 13, 2019, 11:33:43 AM
Quote from: 1995hoo on April 13, 2019, 11:16:03 AM
Quote from: oscar on April 13, 2019, 08:36:42 AM
Quote from: 1995hoo on April 11, 2019, 01:02:13 PM
What Virginia does have instead is the county or city decal. Many, but not all, jurisdictions have done away with those stupid things. Alexandria still has them. If there has to be something indicating county or city, to me the idea of a decal makes more sense than a license plate because it’s easy to change the decal if you move.

AIUI, Alexandria city has followed Fairfax County in doing away with the PITA windshield decal. I wish Arlington County would do same.

I'll take your word for it because I don't know. I've seen Alexandria city decals on several vehicles just in the past week, but I didn't look closely enough to see the year. (I knew they were Alexandria because I recognized the city seal.)

This was a new policy adopted just a few weeks ago. No new decals, and existing decals can be removed, but most people probably won't remove their stickers until they expire.

Interesting (ditto municipal vehicle tax stickers in Illinois) in that several munis here in Wisconsin, including my home City of Appleton, also collect an annual vehicle (here called 'wheel') tax - but in Wisconsin, the tax is collected by WisDOT at plate renewal time and it is then remitted by them to the muni in question.  It makes things much easier for the public, IMHO.

Mike

rarnold

Quote from: Road Hog on April 10, 2019, 11:41:38 PM
Kansas at one time had a two-letter county code on a sticker on the plate (JO = Johnson, etc). They may do so still – I haven't seen a Kansas plate up close in a while.


Kansas still does.

SidS1045

Quote from: webny99 on April 10, 2019, 10:18:07 PMNew York doesn't, but I wish they would.

New York used to.  Until the early 1970's, the plate formats were either NL-NNNN or LL-NNNN.  The initial NL or LL were county designations.  I can't recall ever seeing a list of which designations were for which county.
"A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves." - Edward R. Murrow

sparker

With 20M+ drivers, CA DMV has enough on their plate (no pun intended) without adding micromanagement of county-by-county location.  Also, the addition of "throwback" black plates with yellow letters/numbers, which have become increasingly popular, would make delineation by intrastate jurisdiction even more unworkable (as well as detracting from the aesthetics, which was the reason for issuing those plates in the first place!).  Add in the fact that the CA population tends to be more mobile in their residential situations than most states would quickly render county-by-county indicators irrelevant -- or just another bureaucratic hindrance to the relocation process.   

pianocello

I know someone mentioned Florida earlier, but when I got my license plate, I was given the option to have "Sunshine State" or "In God We Trust" placed along the bottom instead of the county name. I'm not sure whether that option is available in all counties.
Davenport, IA -> Valparaiso, IN -> Ames, IA -> Orlando, FL -> Gainesville, FL -> Evansville, IN

kphoger

Quote from: sparker on April 17, 2019, 06:15:31 PM
With 20M+ drivers, CA DMV has enough on their plate (no pun intended) without adding micromanagement of county-by-county location.  Also, the addition of "throwback" black plates with yellow letters/numbers, which have become increasingly popular, would make delineation by intrastate jurisdiction even more unworkable (as well as detracting from the aesthetics, which was the reason for issuing those plates in the first place!).  Add in the fact that the CA population tends to be more mobile in their residential situations than most states would quickly render county-by-county indicators irrelevant -- or just another bureaucratic hindrance to the relocation process.   

Florida is the third most populous state in the union and, as pianocello mentioned, that state's residents have the option of having either the county name or a slogan at the bottom of the plate.  Furthermore, each of those plate types runs through different serial number assignment blocks.

Quote from: pianocello on April 17, 2019, 08:28:01 PM
I know someone mentioned Florida earlier, but when I got my license plate, I was given the option to have "Sunshine State" or "In God We Trust" placed along the bottom instead of the county name. I'm not sure whether that option is available in all counties.

I believe so.  In the early days, only Bay and Dade counties offered the option, but I think all counties do now.  The impetus for such was to cut down on the targeting of rental cars even after the elimination of special "Lease" plates, as the county name was a sort of proxy due to the increased prevalence of rental cars in specific counties.
Keep right except to pass.  Yes.  You.
Visit scenic Orleans County, NY!
Male pronouns, please.

Quote from: Philip K. DickIf you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use them.

frankenroad

Quote from: SidS1045 on April 16, 2019, 01:14:58 PM
Quote from: webny99 on April 10, 2019, 10:18:07 PMNew York doesn't, but I wish they would.

New York used to.  Until the early 1970's, the plate formats were either NL-NNNN or LL-NNNN.  The initial NL or LL were county designations.  I can't recall ever seeing a list of which designations were for which county.

There was some corellation between the first letter on the license plate and the county name.   For example, most Westchester Co. plates started with W, Oswego and Ontario both had O plates.   The system was not perfect and there were a lot of exceptions (IIRC, Manhattan (New York County) had a lot of Q plates.)
2di's clinched: 44, 66, 68, 71, 72, 74, 78, 83, 84(east), 86(east), 88(east), 96

Highways I've lived on M-43, M-185, US-127

sparker

^^^^^^^^^^
In CA, the only regional delineation is coded into the yearly registration renewal stickers for the plates -- but practically useless for field identification (stickers on rear plates only) unless highly magnified -- the designating letter is only about 1/4" high!

apeman33

A long, long time ago (Yeah, I'm old) the letter codes for Kansas were embossed on the plate and the expiration was another letter code and both were a part of the license number.

My last name being "Nuzum," my tags will always expire in August along with those of people whose last names begin with M and O.

So in the 1970s my dad's plate would have looked like this:

F
    M    234
I

And he would have said his plate was "FIM 234."

There were never leading zeroes, so it was possible to have license plate 1. (FIM 1).

If a county got to a point where it wasn't possible to issue any more numbers, they'd start using the "Z" plates. I don't know if it ever happened anywhere other than Johnson County. So once Johnson County got to JOS 99999, the next person whose last name ended in "S" likely got "JOZ 1".

The current "AAA 000" system was put in place once it was realized that certain counties were getting so big that going past No. 99999 in more than one letter group (S, M, and probably C) was going to become a big problem. The county code was put in the upper left-hand corner. It's the size it is now because people actually wanted to code to be more visible.

roadman

Dumb question here.  What is the necessity of posting county information on a license plate?  Seems to me it just complicates the logistics of making and issuing license plates for the state.
"And ninety-five is the route you were on.  It was not the speed limit sign."  - Jim Croce (from Speedball Tucker)

"My life has been a tapestry
Of years of roads and highway signs" (with apologies to Carole King and Tom Rush)

kphoger

Quote from: roadman on April 19, 2019, 10:46:07 AM
Dumb question here.  What is the necessity of posting county information on a license plate?  Seems to me it just complicates the logistics of making and issuing license plates for the state.

In a country that use a nationwide numbering system–Mexico–what is the necessity of posting the state name on a license plate?
Keep right except to pass.  Yes.  You.
Visit scenic Orleans County, NY!
Male pronouns, please.

Quote from: Philip K. DickIf you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use them.

MNHighwayMan

Quote from: roadman on April 19, 2019, 10:46:07 AM
Dumb question here.  What is the necessity of posting county information on a license plate?  Seems to me it just complicates the logistics of making and issuing license plates for the state.

There isn't. It's great for law enforcement profiling and the fantasies of weirdos, though.

tribar

Quote from: roadman on April 19, 2019, 10:46:07 AM
Dumb question here.  What is the necessity of posting county information on a license plate?  Seems to me it just complicates the logistics of making and issuing license plates for the state.

Not a dumb question at all. It's only purpose seem to be to tip criminals and law enforcement off that the driver is not a local yet people here still think it should be mandatory because "it makes muh roadgeekin more fun" . Thankfully Illinois does not participate in this practice. Once in a while this state gets something right lol.

roadfro

Nevada does not have any county identifiers on its license plates.

From the mid-1950s through early 1980s, there was a system. The first characters of the license number were letters that formed the abbreviation for the county–so a CL-1234 plate would have been issued in Clark County. The population boom in certain counties later required using three letters. Circa 1982-1984, the numbering format switched to 123-ABC and any county mentions were phased out (unless you kept your older plates).
Roadfro - AARoads Pacific Southwest moderator since 2010, Nevada roadgeek since 1983.

catch22

Back when I was a wee lad (and Michigan passenger plates were in the AA-NNNN format), the envelope your new plates came in had a list of which alpha prefixes were assigned to what county printed on the back.  My father made a habit of keeping the list in the car along with the maps so we could "always know where a car came from."

I found this short YouTube video showing the prefix assignments for the 1959 series:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYr0Ml5Iqp0

frankenroad

Quote from: catch22 on April 23, 2019, 07:49:10 AM
Back when I was a wee lad (and Michigan passenger plates were in the AA-NNNN format), the envelope your new plates came in had a list of which alpha prefixes were assigned to what county printed on the back.  My father made a habit of keeping the list in the car along with the maps so we could "always know where a car came from."

I found this short YouTube video showing the prefix assignments for the 1959 series:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYr0Ml5Iqp0

That's interesting in that the sequence started in Detroit and ended in the UP, but when they went to a AAA-NNN format in the early 1970s, the lowest plates (BBn series - A's were not used in the 70s) started in the UP and the Detroit area had plates starting with P R and S.  They did away with the geographic system when the 1979 black plates were introduced.
2di's clinched: 44, 66, 68, 71, 72, 74, 78, 83, 84(east), 86(east), 88(east), 96

Highways I've lived on M-43, M-185, US-127

frankenroad

Quote from: Hot Rod Hootenanny on April 10, 2019, 10:30:47 PM
Ohio has been back n'forth on this topic.
From the late 70s till 2000s, Ohio licence plates had the counties on them
Some point in the last decade, Ohio decided that instead of county names, we all would put county numbers (1-88, based on alphabetical order) on the plates.
FWIW, I have noticed that some Ohio plates are showing the county names again this year.

From the 1930s until the late 70s, the county of issue was evident from the plate number.   The pattern of letters & numbers indicated the region of the state, and the specific letter(s) indicated the county.   

Northeast Ohio had AA-NNNN, eastern and southeastern A-NNNN-A, southwest and west NNNN-AA, northwest NNNNN-A and central Ohio had A-NNNNN and all-numerics.  In my home county of Hamilton we had plates from 51-AA to 9999-FZ.  Leading zeroes were not used and numbers less than 50 (or 75 in some cases) were reserve numbers that you had to order directly from the state, and you could not tell the county from those plates.  In 1940, my grandfather ordered RF-29 and RF-32 for his two cars - my son and I have those numbers to this day.  (My son and grandfather both have/had the initials RF, but I don't - I still use the plate though - not too many people have had the same plate number in the family for 80 years).

A complete listing can be found on David Nicholson's license plate site at http://15q.net/ohco.html
2di's clinched: 44, 66, 68, 71, 72, 74, 78, 83, 84(east), 86(east), 88(east), 96

Highways I've lived on M-43, M-185, US-127

roadman

Quote from: tribar on April 20, 2019, 04:54:06 PM
Quote from: roadman on April 19, 2019, 10:46:07 AM
Dumb question here.  What is the necessity of posting county information on a license plate?  Seems to me it just complicates the logistics of making and issuing license plates for the state.

Not a dumb question at all. It’s only purpose seem to be to tip criminals and law enforcement off that the driver is not a local yet people here still think it should be mandatory because “it makes muh roadgeekin more fun”. Thankfully Illinois does not participate in this practice. Once in a while this state gets something right lol.
Nor does Massachusetts.
"And ninety-five is the route you were on.  It was not the speed limit sign."  - Jim Croce (from Speedball Tucker)

"My life has been a tapestry
Of years of roads and highway signs" (with apologies to Carole King and Tom Rush)

catch22

Quote from: frankenroad on April 24, 2019, 11:00:40 AM
That's interesting in that the sequence started in Detroit and ended in the UP, but when they went to a AAA-NNN format in the early 1970s, the lowest plates (BBn series - A's were not used in the 70s) started in the UP and the Detroit area had plates starting with P R and S.  They did away with the geographic system when the 1979 black plates were introduced.

I was attending Michigan Tech when the 1970 plates came out (first year for the AAA-NNN format).  I renewed my plates there (Houghton County) and received a plate in the BCH series.  Everyone at home (western Wayne County) had L, M, or N.

Pink Jazz

New Mexico discontinued the use of county stickers on their license plates around 1995.

apeman33

At one point, the old system in Kansas meant that each one of the 105 counties could issue the same personalized plate. So if the PA announcer at a KU football game said, "The car with Kansas plate 'KU FAN' is parked in a no-parking zone and needs to move," it was possible that 105 people would have to go check.



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