To be fair- some of that is not deliberate and it does sometimes get enforced. I got a ticket for my peeling plates the day before the new ones arrived.
Not around here. Look at all the YouTube chase videos in Wisconsin. Also, in my county, all the cops have to do is radio ahead to raise the drawbridge and there’s nowhere for the scofflaw to abscond to. Unless he has a boat, airplane, or large, feathered wings.
Here in the Boston (close-in suburb) area I’m seeing nothing for enforcement, and it’s resulting in much worse driving behavior. I’ve actually spoken to both the Mayor and the Police Chief, and neither denies that enforcement is way down, but can provide no reason for it. Something, something, budgets and community policing.
The other day I saw a double parked car with no front plate making a mess of traffic on Main St. and had to take a video when a cruiser squeezed past and couldn’t be arsed to get out and make him move his damn car. Naturally, it was an expensive sports car which is what gave him the right to both double park and eschew the aesthetic crime of having a front plate. I shall be emailing that video to the Mayor, but don’t expect much
We also have an epidemic of people driving vehicles like dirt bikes which are not street legal.
I’m fucking tired of it.
I don’t think that would explain a high percentage of the vehicles, maybe a handful. The real reasons are: theft of plates (for the renewal stickers), theft in general (car is stolen, so the cops can’t easily run the plate if it isn’t on the vehicle) and laziness or lack of funds. Cars in poor areas are easy to buy (cheap) but not so cheap to register, especially if you have to pay for repairs to get it through emmissions prior to taking it to the DMV. I live in the Milwaukee area and it’s an epidemic (the no plates on cars…).
Me too. Milwaukee is trying to crack down on reckless driving, but the leaders in this city don’t seem to have the stomach to follow through with any real efforts.
It’s crazy here. Reckless driving and illegally operating vehicles has become the joke of the town. Our former police chief has been known to call Grand Theft Auto “joy riding” which is basically telling criminals it’s OK to keep doing what you’re doing because “we” don’t think it’s even a crime anymore.
The cars I’m seeing that are plateless are new enough, they can afford them if they can afford the car.
In caae you need to drive through Highland Park.
Here, proof of insurance is required to both buy and register a car. My guess is that most of the cars with expired temporary tags have also let their insurance lapse.
In Colorado cars without proper plates is still common, but much less than it was a year ago or so. The DMV here got so backed up in 2020 and 2021 that they let people use temporary tags pretty much indefinitely. Clearly some people abused it, because I’d see temporary tags that had expired a year before, and they weren’t that backed up.
Finally, yeah, a brand new car with temporary plates that expired a month ago is either experiencing a paper work delay or just lazy putting on their plates. A beater used car with temporary plates that expired nearly a year ago is abusing the leniency. I see both.
Pandemic. Having to wait for 6 hours even with an appointment (can’t get anybody to explain that to me) kept lots of folks from putting it off. At least that’s what the news folks are saying around here.
Here we are increasingly seeing cloning of other peoples’ plates to fool the cameras.
One thing I appreciate about a recent policy change by the Conservative government here in Ontario that I otherwise don’t much care for is that they completely abolished license renewal fees and stickers for personal vehicles, and even made it retroactive, issuing refund cheques. From now on renewals are just a matter of proving insurance coverage, which you can do online.
One peculiar thing that occurred to me is what happens if I’m driving somewhere – especially in the US – where they know nothing about this change and see what they think is an expired plate. I suppose I just try to scrape off the multiple layers of stickers that all announce that the plate is expired, and just leave the original blank space. Which will be a plate with no year and no sticker. That ought to be a hoot down someplace like rural Georgia or small-town Alabama!
Cloning is a problem here in the UK as well. The clever ones try to clone a car that is similar in make, model and colour to theirs. On another forum I replied to a guy who had received a charge from The Dartford Toll for failing to pay - he was nowhere near there at the time. I warned him that he may well get a succession of speeding and parking tickets as well.
Having to wait for hours in line to renew these things seems really old-fashioned. Most places do this stuff online these days, surely?
Maybe most by now. Remember that in the U.S. of A. we have at least 50+ local car registration systems.
But there’s also a difference between renewing a registration and the initial registration - my guess is that the waiting hours in line is for the initial registration/plates ( including replacing trampolare paper plates ) and renewals almost always can be done either on line or at least by mail.
Some of these covers are not simply tinted plastic. They are a sandwich of two thin polarized sheets. Quite visible when seen direct on. But when viewed at an angle, especially when using a flash, the polarization renders the plate as a black rectangle to the camera.
Yes, they work, and yes, they are protected under patent, and yes, the company that makes them (and resells under a wide variety of brands) will sue your ass off if you copy them. And yes, they are illegal in most jurisdictions (not allowed to cover your plate with anything)
How can you patent polarization filters? It’s a basic optical/physical phenomenon.
They can be patented for their use in a license plate cover.
The patent (I believe) is on the sandwiching technique and the use to prevent a photograph being taken.
Not on the polarization material itself, or the phenomenon of polarization.
But I don’t know the details. I do know they have a lawyer on retainer, and scour ads for competitors using this technique.
All this talk of people getting away with driving without plates is making me really angry that 5 years ago I forgot something at home after leaving the house, turned around, parked my car “against the stream” with headlights facing opposite direction because I only expected to be there for a few minutes looking, and five minutes later when I left my house I already had a police ticket on my windshield for $150, in a neighborhood that I very rarely see cops drive by.