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License Plate News

Started by Alex, February 04, 2010, 10:38:53 AM

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roadfro

Quote from: gonealookin on June 11, 2015, 12:14:41 PM
Both bills relating to license plates which came up in the 2015 Nevada Legislature passed and have now been signed by the governor:  SB 229, creating a new specialty plate which allows the vehicle owner to express a "Protect the Second Amendment" sentiment via the license plate, and AB 484, which provides that a set of plates has a lifespan of eight years and must be turned into the DMV for reissuance at the end of that period.

I haven't seen any urgent need for the second one.  If my plates still look fine after eight years, it irritates me that I need an interaction with the DMV and payment of some reissuance fee to boot just because an arbitrary time period has expired.  I guess it does eliminate the stacked-decal problem discussed above.

Gonealookin, thanks for posting this. I haven't read through this thread in a while, and hadn't heard anything about these bills during the session or in the other Nevada transportation venues I frequent. In many cases, plate reflectivity/degradation appears to be a non-issue. But I have seen some badly faded plates out there. So perhaps this is a good thing...?


I had to read up on this. The last plate re-issue dictated by the legislature started around 2001 for the 2002 registration year–that coincided with the transition from the silver "Bighorn Sheep" plate to the current "Sunset" standard plate. But that re-issue only affected people with standard license plates on the bighorn sheep design; all specialty plate designs and any simple blue plates issued prior to 1/1/1982 were exempt.

Reading up on AB 484, the new law appears to apply to ALL active plates with a few narrowly-defined exceptions. (Redesigned plates are prohibited from being reissued, without the plateholder's consent, to registrants with: plates issued prior to 1/1/1982 [blue plates], plates commemorating Nevada's 125th & 150th anniversary as a state, and [surprisingly] the UNR & UNLV collegiate plates–although the collegiate plates may be explained by the fact that both of these have been redesigned since 2010.) I interpreted the law to mean that special plates that are no longer issued by the DMV (due to not enough registrations) are required to be reissued every 8 years...wonder how that will work.


My only hope with this is, hopefully the standard Nevada plate will get a redesign soon to go along with the reissue. I hate the current Sunset plate. Maybe a reintroduction of the Bighorn Sheep design, colorized–actually, the current look of Nevada's driver's licenses is very similar to the old bighorn sheep plate and looks quite awesome (hint, hint, DMV...).


One other thing I found interesting while reading up on this: According to a statement from the DMV (listed as an exhibit on the AB 484 information page), this rolling reissue of license plates is apparently in the interest of "public safety". That document also lists another change coming (possibly concurrently), also in the interest of public safety: a return to embossed license plates!  :clap: :clap: :clap:
Roadfro - AARoads Pacific Southwest moderator since 2010, Nevada roadgeek since 1983.


Quillz

How does an embossed license plate improve public safety?

SP Cook

Quote from: Quillz on July 07, 2015, 02:34:56 AM
How does an embossed license plate improve public safety?

I think the theory is that a flat plate can be more easily changed.  You could turn a 3 to an 8 with a Sharpie marker, for example.  For that matter, a nice color printer could probably produce a serviceable replica of the entire plate.   An embossed plate, not so much.


Purgatory On Wheels

After seeing more and more states moving to flat plates, it's good to see a state considering a return to embossed,  Flat plates have never looked right to me.

oscar

Quote from: Quillz on July 07, 2015, 02:34:56 AM
How does an embossed license plate improve public safety?

In addition to the better reason SP Cook cited, there's the secondary advantage that at least the numbers on an embossed plate are somewhat legible to a cop, if the plate is covered in mud or heavy dust (as my rear plate was a few days ago after a few hundred miles of driving on wet, unpaved secondary roads). Of course, the cop would still have to get one finger dirty to uncover the state/province name; or he could look at the front plate if there is one.
my Hot Springs and Highways pages, with links to my roads sites:
http://www.alaskaroads.com/home.html

SP Cook

Quote from: oscar on July 08, 2015, 12:47:18 AM
..., if the plate is covered in mud or heavy dust

I think that is why the Mexicans do what they do.  Mexico has US sized plates, but the renewal sticker is a replica of the plate, about the size of a motorcycle plate, which they stick to the back window.  Even if the plate is totally dirty, the sticker can still be read.


SP Cook

NC motorists will now have the choice of the long in the tooth "First In Flight" or the immediate predecessor slogan of "First In Freedom" on the standard plate.

http://www.ncdot.gov/dmv/vehicle/plates/FirstFreedomPlate.html


DandyDan

Just curious, when exactly did Nebraska come out with  license plates that have "THE BEEF STATE" as a slogan?  I know that's an old slogan they used, but they now have a design that is similar to the Union Pacific plates my dad has on his pickup, or the Creighton University plates one of my coworkers has.  I just saw one yesterday when I was out and about.  I suspect they may be more popular in central and western Nebraska.
MORE FUN THAN HUMANLY THOUGHT POSSIBLE

The High Plains Traveler

In Colorado news:

As of about 3-4 months ago, Colorado has finally exhausted the 123-ABC series of plates. The series was extended by issuing every combination with one or more of the previously unused letter "Q" in it, so 001-AAQ to 999-ZZQ were produced in alphabetical sequence. Now the state is issuing plates with the ABC-123 sequence. Except, instead of starting with AAA, for reasons not fully understood, they started with QAA. According to licenseplates.cc, there was apparently a miscommunication between the Department of Revenue (which orders production of and issues the plates) and the Department of Corrections (which produces the plates). So, there are now plates on the road beginning with Q##-nnn and even R##-nnn.

Remains to be seen if they continue on through the alphabet with S, T and so on, or if they revert to the A series as was originally intended. I should note that some of the ABC-123 plates issued from 1983 to 1993 are still in circulation. The new plates are supposed to avoid any existing combinations still out there. Those old plates have worn quite well, compared to the new retroreflective 2000 series plates, which often fade and delaminate after years of sun exposure. Since plates stay with the owner, if you had one issued then, it could still be displayed on a vehicle now.
"Tongue-tied and twisted; just an earth-bound misfit, I."

jakeroot

I'm surprised they didn't jump ship to 7-digit plates.

The High Plains Traveler

Quote from: jakeroot on September 02, 2015, 11:06:05 PM
I'm surprised they didn't jump ship to 7-digit plates.
Two reasons not. First, there are already plates issued 1993-1999 on the road that have the sequence ABC1234. Since the letters were tied to particular counties, a few locations were running out of combinations, so the state switched to the 123ABC pattern where the letters are not itied to any particular county. There may have also been exhaustion of other types of plates which used different letter/number combinations, such as trucks or trailers. Second, all plates are issued from the same combination pool, and so different types of plates are differentiated by a stacked code to the left of the serial. So, a trailer has a vertical TRL on the plate. This takes a space that would be required to accommodate a seventh digit.

After the current plate design was introduced, the old plates were supposed to be called in but never were. So, there are plates on the road that were originally issued as far back as 1977. Some of those very old plates are in surprisingly good condition.
"Tongue-tied and twisted; just an earth-bound misfit, I."

vdeane

Quote from: The High Plains Traveler on September 03, 2015, 04:59:13 AM
Quote from: jakeroot on September 02, 2015, 11:06:05 PM
I'm surprised they didn't jump ship to 7-digit plates.
Two reasons not. First, there are already plates issued 1993-1999 on the road that have the sequence ABC1234. Since the letters were tied to particular counties, a few locations were running out of combinations, so the state switched to the 123ABC pattern where the letters are not itied to any particular county. There may have also been exhaustion of other types of plates which used different letter/number combinations, such as trucks or trailers. Second, all plates are issued from the same combination pool, and so different types of plates are differentiated by a stacked code to the left of the serial. So, a trailer has a vertical TRL on the plate. This takes a space that would be required to accommodate a seventh digit.

After the current plate design was introduced, the old plates were supposed to be called in but never were. So, there are plates on the road that were originally issued as far back as 1977. Some of those very old plates are in surprisingly good condition.
When NY switched to 7 digit plates, we did a wholesale plate redesign and made the old plates illegal to use.
Please note: All comments here represent my own personal opinion and do not reflect the official position of NYSDOT or its affiliates.

swbrotha100

How many states use 7 digits or 7 characters on their standard plate? I've found it interesting when certain high-population states go to great lengths to avoid them.

OCGuy81

Off the top of my head:

California
Arizona
Texas
New York
Georgia
North Carolina
Ohio
Pennsylvania
Michigan
Illinois


I know I'm missing a few, but there is a count of 10 to get us started.

Big John

^^

Washington
Virginia
Alabama (uses different mix)
Ontario (uses 4 letters and 3 digits)
Connecticut?  wiki says they just switched to a 2 letter 5 digit format.
Idaho
Montana

elsmere241

Delaware - eight if you count the P over C as two characters.

OCGuy81

Quote from: Big John on September 03, 2015, 04:44:35 PM
^^

Washington
Virginia
Alabama (uses different mix)
Ontario (uses 4 letters and 3 digits)
Connecticut?  wiki says they just switched to a 2 letter 5 digit format.
Idaho
Montana


Ontario should be able to issue plates longer than any other jurisdiction you mentioned.  In the AAAA-000 format, they extend the available combinations by a factor of 26 (roughly).  They can probably issue for a century without running low.

jwolfer

Quote from: OCGuy81 on September 04, 2015, 01:10:21 PM
Quote from: Big John on September 03, 2015, 04:44:35 PM
^^

Washington
Virginia
Alabama (uses different mix)
Ontario (uses 4 letters and 3 digits)
Connecticut?  wiki says they just switched to a 2 letter 5 digit format.
Idaho
Montana


Ontario should be able to issue plates longer than any other jurisdiction you mentioned.  In the AAAA-000 format, they extend the available combinations by a factor of 26 (roughly).  They can probably issue for a century without running low.
Although with 4 letters more words can be spelled. More forbidden combos.  It would be cool to have SHIT 123 as your tag

Scott5114

You could avoid stuff like that by mixing up the letter combination, so it's something like 12SH3IT. Or simply skip over the offensive combos like they do now.
uncontrollable freak sardine salad chef

PHLBOS

Quote from: OCGuy81 on September 03, 2015, 04:18:28 PMPennsylvania
PA switched over to 7 digits sometime circa 1992-93.  The first PA plate I received in January of 1991 still had 6 digits (it had a YNY prefix).  The 2nd plate I received after buying a 2nd car in September of 1993 contained 7 digits (it had an ALH prefix).
GPS does NOT equal GOD

vtk

I think I've noticed a double helix watermark in the retroreflective background of Kansas and Kentucky plates. What's with that?
Wait, it's all Ohio? Always has been.

thenetwork

Quote from: vtk on September 14, 2015, 09:28:38 PM
I think I've noticed a double helix watermark in the retroreflective background of Kansas and Kentucky plates. What's with that?

Not sure, but the more recent Colorado plates have that watermark as well.

Big John

I think the watermarks are there to detect counter-fitting as a proactive move.

catch22


PHLBOS

Quote from: catch22 on September 15, 2015, 09:07:21 AM
Quote from: vtk on September 14, 2015, 09:28:38 PM
I think I've noticed a double helix watermark in the retroreflective background of Kansas and Kentucky plates. What's with that?

It's a security feature provided by the manufacturer (3M).

http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/NA_Motor_Vehicle_Services_Systems/Motor_Vehicle_Industry_Solutions/product_catalog/reflective-license-plate/license-plate-security-feature/?PC_Z7_U00M8B1A00PAD0A0C2MU390MG0000000_nid=90G94ZV31LbeMWDVM6RXWXgl
Massachusetts has had similar watermarks (a circle with the shape of the state inside with the fabrication year enclosed in the state shape) since the Spirit of America plates first rolled out.  Even the final green-on-white plates (my mother's early 90s plate) had such.
GPS does NOT equal GOD



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