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All of the vehicle license plates available in America

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Re: All of the vehicle license plates available in America

#41

Post by reaperducer »

bradleyjg wrote: post #36

Currently a good 5% of license plates I see parked on the streets of nyc are out of state paper licenses. Somehow I don’t think they are all newly purchased vehicles.

A few times in my life, I've lived near U.S. military bases. That gives you a chance to see all kinds of license plates from all around the world as people who live off-base are transferred in and out.

Once when I lived in the desert, I had neighbors with plates from Hawaii and Guam.

One neighbor had a German plate. Not on the front like some chav adornment. But on the back as his legal plate.

Re: All of the vehicle license plates available in America

#42

Post by jefftk »

mikhailfranco wrote: post #19
andyjohnson0 wrote: post #2

Ah so this is the plates not the numbers . Just for moment I was kind of confused... I've always been surprised that there are so many licence plate number formats in use across the US. And some of the plate designs are pretty elaborate: I wonder to what extent they affect readability at a distance?

Traffic cameras usually have to recalibrate for every single one (e.g. for AI, retrain with new designs in the training set). In the future, I might expect designs (and fonts) to converge towards AI legibility, but these plates raise money for states, so that will provide a dampening effect. I know at least one other country that has recently initiated a program to redesign plates for AI legibility.

> I might expect designs (and fonts) to converge towards AI legibility

Why would you expect that? AI is getting more capable faster than our legislative systems are likely to address something like this.

Re: All of the vehicle license plates available in America

#43

Post by js2 »

lapcat wrote: post #20

I searched for Wisconsin in the table and found that Maryland and Pennsylvania have University of Wisconsin alumni plates, which I found odd.

Large universities have large alumni associations with local chapters throughout the US. In states where custom plates are easy to get, those associates will often ensure their universities have their own plate designs.

It looks like the University of Florida has plates in at least six different states besides its home state: FL, VA, TX, GA, NC, MD, SC.

Re: All of the vehicle license plates available in America

#44

Post by causality0 »

travisgriggs wrote: post #10
Scoundreller wrote: post #3

A relative had an immigrant colleague that was intrigued by different US license plates. One day their manager had one that had a new colour scheme that he never saw before. The intrigue overtook him and in a big group he had to ask how he got this new beautiful plate. And how could he get one themself? Turns out the state required you to “wear” this license plate after your third DUI or something. Oops. Edit: looks…

I'm curious what others think of this? My own thoughts, is that after one DUI you should just not get any plates at all. Period. It seems almost darkly comical that there would be a second and then a third time, and that the punishment would be an altered plate color?? Why not just put local graffiti artists to work, and give them a free pass to keep the offenders car in a constant state of "DUI" in scarlet letters.

Yes, if I took out my gun and fired randomly at a crowd I'm never getting my carry permit back regardless of whether I actually kill anyone. Fuck drunk drivers.

Re: All of the vehicle license plates available in America

#45

Post by arethuza »

calpaterson wrote: post #38
spiderice wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m just wondering why they’re allowed to drive at all after 3 DUIs.

I don't know about America but in the UK people don't get their driving licence taken away that often, even if they have hit 12 points (ie: racked up enough offences to theoretically lose it). There is a lot of consideration as to whether removing the driving licence will cause hardship and defendants obviously usually argue that it will (with some truth) so judges sometimes don't remove the licence. Anecdotally, I f…

I think there has been a huge cultural change in how people regard drink driving - I'm old enough (50s) when i was almost regarded as a subject for humour. Now I don't know anyone who doesn't take it very seriously indeed - particularly here in Scotland where the blood-alcohol limits are quite a bit lower for driving than in the rest of the UK.

Re: All of the vehicle license plates available in America

#46

Post by mistrial9 »

mikhailfranco wrote: post #26
mistrial9 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

manufacturers of red-light cameras do not wonder, they have quietly made fortunes in the past 20 years.. more recently "mandatory license plate scanners at major bridges and toll roads" it seems. edit

Most US states do not have red-light cameras, and some that did, have withdrawn them. For example, see the Redflex bribery case, and other legal challenges. YMMV in other countries: some are packed full of red-light and speed cameras, with phone-use detection expanding rapidly. Most toll systems use different tech (e.g RFID), reinforced by plate readers to identify violators. However, plate readers will always be a p…

rapidly multiplying red-light cameras at every major city intersection here in California -- see San Diego County technology plan and others. Zero discussion of withdrawing any of them, quite the opposite -- "no public debate evident." Roughly one-in-ten residents of the USA live in California. Secondly, a trend of physical restriction for entry, exit and travel of whole portions of counties, via declaration of disaster from Sacramento.

Re: All of the vehicle license plates available in America

#47

Post by WkndTriathlete »

Ekaros wrote: post #27
fps wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's to notify police to stop the car if they see it on the road. The US has a lot of infrequently used or unused cars that gradually transition to a sedentary life in a garage or yard. It's not illegal to let your registration or inspection lapse if the car isn't being driven. If you drive a car with a lapsed registration or safety inspection sticker, police will notice, stop you, and issue a ticket.

Nothing prevents DMV and police having interconnected database. Which would allow automatically communicating vehicles removed from use or with lapsed MOT.

The tag is to indicate that the vehicle has paid the appropriate taxes for using the roads. If the tax on the vehicle is not paid then it should not be used on the roads.

Without the tag there is no way to enforce that without the police having to manually enter the plate number for every vehicle they see. Hence the tag: if the police see a vehicle without an up-to-date tag applied it is not legally allowed to use the roads since the owner hasn't paid to keep the roads maintained from the wear incurred by the vehicle while driving on them.

There is an argument to be made that the police could simply use a system that reads license plates up and checks the information automatically, but there are so many 4th amendment abuses/workarounds that the police already use it's hard to imagine much public support for such a system.

Re: All of the vehicle license plates available in America

#49

Post by ComputerGuru »

some_random wrote: post #35
ryandrake wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Turns out the state required you to “wear” this license plate after your third DUI or something. This doesn't make much sense because the license plate is attached to the car, not the driver. Couldn't the manager just drive his wife's or friend's car or something? What purpose does the plate serve? "Warning everyone! A serial drink driver might be in this car, but might not be, and if he's in it he might be driving…

People usually drive their own car, and taking away someone's license can be life destroying in most parts of the country.

Driving drunk can be life destroying in most parts of the country.

Re: All of the vehicle license plates available in America

#50

Post by hnbear »

Finally a reason for a custom plate:

The explosion of full color images on special plates has also created some concerns for law enforcement’s use of Automated License Plate Readers (ALPRs), which automatically scan the plates of cars as they drive down the road or through tolls. Many police cars are equipped with ALPRs that scoop up all of the plates that drive by. A report by the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators warned that high contrast backgrounds in these special plates can cause readability issues for ALPRs.

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