Provisional Decals for Adult Drivers (NJ)

In My Humble Opinion
1

NJ lawmakers, in their infinite wisdom, established a category of drivers license called “provisional licenses”, which are given to drivers below age 21 and in their first year of driving. There are various restrictions on provisional drivers, most notably that they can’t drive past 11 PM and can’t have more than 1 non-family passenger in the car.

To help enforce these rule, they’ve also mandated provisional license decals, which are bright red decals to be mounted on the license plates of cars driven by provisional drivers.

The decals adhere with velcro (similar to EZ Pass) so that they can be removed if another driver in the family wants to drive. But frankly it’s a big pain in the neck to be constantly removing and reapplying the decals, so the question is if it’s worth it, or if the adult drivers should just leave them on all the time. As I see it, there are two possible downsides.

  1. Any adult driver in violation of the provisional rules is likely to be pulled over by a cop, e.g. out after 11 PM. Once the cop sees that you’re not provisional he can’t ticket you for it, but there’s a possibility that the cop will be aggravated at being “tricked” and plus looking to save face in any event, and therefore give a ticket for one of these bogus and subjective categories that cops find so useful (e.g. careless driving, obstructed vision etc.) Plus you’ve been hassled in any event.

  2. There are any number of technical violations that are widely overlooked, e.g. speeding less than 10 miles over the limit (on highways, at least) et al. It’s possible that cops will be tougher on these for provisional drivers, and once a cop pulls you over for these violations, he’s not going to back off just because you’re not provisional.

So the question is how these increased risks stack up against the hassle of removing and reapplying the decals?

2

I wouldn’t really call either of those scenarios ‘risks’, maybe minor annoyances.

There is controversy (profiling, greater risk of predators, etc.) over the decals and a few groups are advocating every driver place them on their vehicles, in effect, making them useless.

Personally, I’d just leave them on.

3

I must say, i don’t understand all the wailing about these things. I got my license in Australia, and we’ve had “P Plates” for years.

If someone in my family had these plates, and i needed to use the car, i’d take the plates off. What would it take? All of 5 seconds?

4

In terms of providing an alert to other drivers on the road, it is probably sufficient for the vehicle to have N.J. license plates.

Replacing the “Garden State” slogan with “Jersey Driver” would also be helpful.

5

Good for New Jersey. Teenage drivers are a danger to everyone on and near the roads*, and the law makes perfect sense (and works just fine in Britain, Australia, Japan and Ireland).

*I know this because I was one not too long ago, and I and everyone my age was an idiot. Either much too confident - and therefore reckless - or totally lacking in confidence, and likely to end up straddling two lanes dragging a toddler while trying to find the turn signal.