I have noticed that some states and Quebec only have a rear license plate. What is the original thinking behind this?
It doesn’t make and cents.
If someone wanted to avoid deseption all they do is back away from a crime or accident and no-one would know their license plate number.
Was this created by criminals?
I have an odd roundabout association with a Z3 club.
They like the look of the cars without the front plate. A number of them take it off. It’s illegal to go without a front plate in WA, so if they’re caught they put it back on for the policeman, and then take it off afterwards. Some states, as you noted, don’t require it - probably because of a lobbying group of just such folk.
Mebbe, too, they were thinking that when a car drives away, or when you’re chasing it, the butt is in view. You only get a good look at the front plate if it’s standing still - in which case you can walk around to the back - or if it’s behind you, in which case it’s backwards in your rearview mirror.
I just don’t see how the front plate is terribly useful.
This has been discussed before.
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=9631
There are also some states that require the little current year tag both front and back. Michigan, I believe, and perhaps OK? That makes sense to me, since little stickers are so cheap, so I wonder why all states/provinces don’t do that.
I’m also amazed that some states allow new cars to go without any plate. Maybe there’s a tiny window sticker or something I can’t see, but how am I to report a hit-and-run done by a new car?
Nope. No front plates here in Michigan to stick those little tags onto. Haven’t had front plates here since, what, 1980 or so? The ugly black plates were the last front and back here.
For everybody saying it makes more sense to have the front plate, you seem to make it seem that EVERYBODY’s guilty, and the police NEED these front plates. Geesh, I probably won’t hit you or runaway backwards from the police, so what’s the point in my having the front plate?
How much does life really change for anybody by getting rid of the eyesore on the front of the car?
In Michigan, though, the front plate was eliminated as a cost-savings initiative.
However cheap a license plate is to make, it would cost half as much to only make one rather than two of each. In Alberta, we used to have 2 plates, now it’s only one. I never concerned myself with the exact reasoning since it is rather hotly debated at times, whoever knows the real answer either guards it jealously (or no one beleives it), and most of all since it beyond my control; if I even cared that is ;).
Cool thing is if you are waiting for your plates and have the sign in your window you can crash the I-Pass lanes.
In these days of “road rage” i’m pretty glad to be in Ohio with front plates. So if the dipsh*t behind me in the freeway pulls out a gun and then speeds off, I can report him/her.
Front plates are also good for reporting DUI’s, although technically you’re supposed to get behind a weaving car and let it pass you.
I don’t know if this is a trend, but the one, single time that I’ve ever called the police from my car to report a very dangerous driver, the state police only wanted a description of the vehicle, the freeway number, and the direction. I had the plate number in my head, but they wouldn’t let me tell them. Michigan State Police, by the way.
I imagine its a cost-saving thing. I’m from Quebec and only have the one license plate, and no registration sticker. I think that’s likely a cost-saving thing, too. I think with computer systems getting better,t hey were able to eliminate the sticker, because they have your car on record and whether or not you paid for your registration that year. I remember sitting in a friend’s car when he got pulled over for speeding, and the cop asked for his license and proof of insurance and made a comment about going to check in his car to look to see if the license was paid for. After about 5 mins, he siad all was good, and just issued the ticket. The sticker thing isn’t all that logical anyways, since I have heard of people peeling them off of other cars to try and cheat the system. It’s the actual plate thats listed in the computers.
[slight hijack]
Concerning the single license plate, now that I’m in Ontario for school, I have noticed a large amount of police cars pulling out behind me, getting around other cars to get up close, and then turning away. I don’t think its my imagination - I think they see a missing plate on the front of my car and come check to see where I’m from 
[/slight hijack]
Here in Ann Arbor a number of metered parking structures/lots forbid your backing into spaces, because the parking authority cannot see your plate to write the ticket if you do.
An interesting artifact of the single-plate system.
Usually there’s a window sticker indicating that it’s awaiting a plate. They probably feel that having the car run around for 30 days or so with no plate is no big deal. It’s not as if people buy new cars to go commit hit-and-run’s with them. If it’s a NEW car, and you noted the make, it’s likely that you could find it through the local auto dealerships.
If it’s a “plate-with-car” state like CA, used cars will usually have plates already, and in “plate-with-owner” states the consideration only applies if the buyer is not selling/trading another vehicle to transfer the plate(s) from. In either case, the volume of “plateless” cars is going to be small.
In some states, dealers can issue cardboard temporary plates. They did that in CO. But they didn’t make them in the reduced “motorcycle” size like regular plates came in. You had to ride a new bike around with a full-sized cardboard plate screwed on the back, which looked kind of funny.
I’ve had plates in 4 states - CA, CO, MT and PA. 3 “plate with owner” states, CA is “plate with car”. When I first moved there, it struck me as odd to see used car lots full of cars with plates on them. PA had only front plates, at least when I lived there. CO and PA dealers issued cardboard temporaries, CA and MT put a notice in the window.
Make that “PA had NO front plates” or “had only rear plates”, of course. Of course, if any state would be screwy enough to decide to issue ONLY front plates, it would be the Commonwealth of Pa.
<<There are also some states that require the little current year tag both front and back. Michigan, I believe, and perhaps OK? >>
Nope, OK is a one-plate state, too. It’s fine by me, as I have a NASTY habit of pulling way too far forward at curbs…and my front plate would be terribly bent by now.
Corr
RE: Why cars in some states have only one license plate
For some small states, like Rhode Island, there simply isn’t room for all those extra plates.
(sorry, Rasa! You know I love you, right?)
Like what mnemosyne said, when I’m in BC (they have 2 plates) and go through a checkstop, the cops only see the front of my vehicle sans plate, and ask me where the car is registered. I say Alberta, they say fine… sometimes they don’t even check as I drive away. It seems that the reasons for only having one plate or two vary from region to region, and depend on the people, crime rate, tradition, and lots of other things. I don’t think there is one RIGHT reason for or against the number of plates, otherwise there wouldn’t be such ambiguity between states/provinces on the subject.
If you have two license plates there’s nowhere to put your airburshed, neon-framed, “Foxy Grandma” plate!
I live in Alabama (no chuckling out there, now), a rear-only state.
I always wanted to put an old plate from another state on the front, but never had the guts. Would that be illegal?
Maybe. You’d need to check with the DMV. I live in TN (another one plate state) and I see enough cars with some other state’s plate on the front and a TN plate on the rear to believe that its not a crime here.
I think that Georgia doesn’t issue a temporary tag (or at least it didn’t use to), which I don’t quite understand. It seems to me that if you wanted to steal a car in GA, you could just remove the plate before you hot-wired it and the cops would have a hard time figuring out that you were driving a stolen car.