License Plates

It beats the “Stars Fell” motif used for the past half decade.  Via the Alabama Governor’s office:

I’ve written previously about Governor Rell being determined to do something about certain hazards on the state’s roads. One of her ideas is to start using speed-enforcement cameras.

There’s one problem with that idea, which George Gombossy highlighted in a blog post this weekend:

One of the lesser-known facts in the Connecticut Motor Vehicle Department is that there are at least 83,000 vehicles that share the same license plate numbers. The department doesn’t have a clue as to the actual number, so it’s probably much higher.[...]

For instance, Dr. Ahmed Khan, a West Hartford neurosurgeon, received a ticket from New York City’s finance department, billing him $50 for driving through a red light last year. The camera took a picture of the rear of the vehicle, which included the license plate.

There is no question that the license plate number was the same as the one on Khan’s van, but the vehicle that went through the red light — as is clearly shown in the photograph — was a 40-passenger bus. Khan said he has never driven his car in New York City.

That fact, of course, did not stop New York officials from trying to collect the $50. I called New York City officials and told them that the owner of the bus agreed it was his vehicle, but they would not tear up the tickets without more proof.

One of the key underlying assumptions for electronic tolling, urban congestion pricing schemes, and photo traffic law enforcement is the uniqueness of license plates. I’ve read, for example, about the hellish time programmers have been having in training software to recognize the umpteen bazillion different specialty plates and license plate fonts in North America.

But if license plate numbers aren’t unique to begin with, this would seem to be a problem in jurisdictions where local traffic authorities aren’t always known for their attention to detail.

It’s nice to see that the Georgia state legislature is focusing its efforts on important issues of the day. Not only have legislators sought to annex part of a neighboring state to grab water, but they’re also apparently indicating that license plates are a matter of most dire concern. From the AJC:

In a 142 to 10 vote, the chamber voted to stop making out-of-state university mascot tags if neighboring states don’t return the favor.

“Whatever is good for the goose is good for the gander,” said state Rep. Barry Fleming (R-Harlem), speaking with great earnestness on the matter.

Fleming was really talking about Bulldogs. He and the vast majority of his House colleagues think the citizens of the Bulldog nation living in South Carolina, Alabama and Florida, should get mascot tags of their own in those states.

At a time when Georgians are bearing the burden of the worst drought in memory, isn’t it a little odd that lawmakers would place border disputes and license plates up at the top of the agenda?

Georgia voters have to be loving this circus.

Seen in the Biloxi Sun Herald:

An image of the Biloxi Lighthouse against a background of sunrise colors is the state’s new license tag design effective Oct. 1.[...]

This is the first time any symbol except the magnolia, the state flower, has been on Mississippi tags, said Kathy Waterbury of the State Tax Commission.[...]

Using the lighthouse was the idea of state revenue commissioner Joe Blount.

“This tag design is intended to be a reminder to us of all those who lost so much from Katrina,” Blount said, “(and) to serve as a symbol of our citizens’ commitment to recovery as well as a symbol of our gratitude to all Americans for their prayers and generous support.”

Mississippi has traditionally had some very attractive license plates, and judging by the picture posted at the Sun Herald, this one is no exception. Linking it as a memorial to Katrina is an added nice touch.

Having grown up in Memphis, I have a certain…aversion… to most things Elvis. So, I’m somewhat bemused by this story at the Memphis Commercial Appeal:

It took almost two years, but Elvis Presley on Friday joined a number of Tennessee institutions qualifying for production of a specialty license plate.

The Regional Medical Center at Memphis had begun a campaign in October 2005, to come up with a minimum of 1,000 orders for a plate to benefit Elvis Presley Memorial Trauma Center.

Looking at The Med’s website, I was able to scare up a picture of what the new plate will look like:

Oy! It’s not just a tourist trap souvenir anymore!

For this week, I thought I’d feature the back of a car, rather than a simple highway feature:

Walking back to my car after checking out of a hotel during a recent business trip, I encountered this sight. And, since I had a camera handy….

I think someone at the license plate factory fell asleep on the job. That, or Massachusetts is surprisingly tolerant of odd vanity plate requests.

The AJC is running an article on the increasing popularity of college-themed specialty plates in Georgia.

Since the beginning of the year, as of Dec. 2, more than 5,500 Georgians had paid an extra $25 to have an Auburn Club car tag. There were 43,456 UGA tags on the road, and 9,945 Georgia Tech tags, as of Dec. 2. Both schools have had their tags available longer.[...]

The rapid spread of the Auburn tag doesn’t surprise Katie Allen of Sandy Springs, an Auburn alum who sports a school tag on her silver S40.

“It seems like everybody (from Auburn) comes to Atlanta to work,” said Allen, a 1996 undergraduate and 2006 graduate alum. “There are more Auburn alumni in Georgia than there are for some Georgia schools.”

In the northeast/mid-atlantic/midwest there’s a similar phenomenon when it comes to Penn State themed license plates. For example, I could swear that I remember that in Maryland, the #1 college-themed plate was actually Penn State, at least when I lived there.

As seen at Insura nce Journal:

Governor M. Jodi Rell is advising Connecticut motorists that they will soon receive new motor vehicle registration stickers that will be placed inside the windshield rather than on the rear license plate - an effort to thwart thieves who often target the stickers and sell them.[.]

Because the stickers are not easily removed from license plates, thieves often cut off the corner of the plate with the sticker still attached, and then sell them to unscrupulous car dealers or other individuals.

That’s annoying. It’s been a rite of the new year turning for me since I was in elementary school, to keep an eye out for the first new sticker on license plates, to see what the new sticker color was going to be. This could put a crimp in that hobby..as well as rendering the windshield a bit nasty.

Strangely, I haven’t seen too many “partial plates” in Connecticut, at least as compared to how common they were when I was growing up in Memphis