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All of the vehicle license plates available in America

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191–200 of 289 posts

Re: All of the vehicle license plates available in America

#191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My opinion is that DUI should revoke your license. I know it is common in Europe where first offenders loose their license for a few months, and then it gets progressively longer. The USA has IMO a terrible system which punishes DUI drivers through the justice system regardless of if they caused any harm. This leaves people with pretty shitty lives and prevents people from calling the police on DUI drivers. They can…

I think in Europe you’re a lot less likely to get charged with a DUI. Rare to see random checkpoints, and generally rare to have non-automated “mobile” enforcement of traffic rules in Europe (in my US, Canadian, French, German and Croatian driving experience). Heck, in France most collisions don’t even involve police while they’re generally a mandatory report in US/Canada. If you get a DUI in Europe, you were probabl…

collisions in the US only have a "mandatory" report because your insurance company requires it. And you have like three days to go into the police station and file one, and the police don't really pay attention to them.

Many drivers think that the police will get involved in every car accident, and when two cars have a little bump, people will stop and get out to "preserve the evidence" for the investigation into "who is at fault" that they expect will soon commence, but when the cops get there (because of the traffic jam) they just confirm that nobody is injured and tell the people to get their cars out of the street, and exchange license and insurance information.

Re: All of the vehicle license plates available in America

#192
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The theory is they'll just drive anyway without a license. Plus in many/most parts of the US, a car is effectively required to live, so removing one's ability to drive is a seriously major punishment. The whiskey plate indicates to other drivers that the car could be more dangerous than expected, and yes, I think the shame is supposed to be a component as well. It's harm reduction, not a perfect solution. I don't kno…

>>so removing one's ability to drive is a seriously major punishment. Being caught drunk driving 3(!!!) times is a seriously major crime. I'm a strong advocate for a complete driving ban after a single drunk driving episode, 3 is just crazy to me. I get the argument that in US that basically makes it impossible to get anywhere without a car but I don't know - get a bicycle or something, literally anything is preferab…

This is going to sound maybe insensitive but I've noticed driving drunk is a cultural thing. I've been with certain groups of people and pretty much it seems everyone and their cousin has a DUI and no one regarded it as a major crime.

It sounds crazy but I bet if you were born 40 years earlier, you wouldn't care. Drunk driving wasn't even a thing until Mothers Against Drunk Driving made it a thing in the 80s.

I don't support drunk driving at all but it seems our views on right and wrong are just products of society, lol.

Re: All of the vehicle license plates available in America

#193
post #4

Not sure if it's still this way but it used to be that in Georgia if you got the "save wild dolphins" plate, the first two letters of your plate would be 'EE' which is hilarious. (It's supposed to sound like the noise dolphins make)

The state tries to avoid plate number collisions by using prefixes on specialty plates but pretty much every in-state university president has plate number 1 with their school's design. The governor and leaders of each chamber of the legislature also get their own plate design with assigned number 1.

This is correct, and in this case, the E E is for EarthEcho.

Re: All of the vehicle license plates available in America

#194
post #73

> Yes, license plates are still made by cheap prison labor in most states. 80% of all license plates issued in the U.S. today were made by state prisoners, with only 12 states opting out of the practice. According to a 2022 ACLU report on prison labor in the U.S., many states offer no pay at all to prisoners, while the average hourly wage across the country was between 13 and 52 cents per hour So slavery's not dead,…

If this is "slavery"... why should anyone care? The idea that they can be forced to work without pay bothers you, but that they can be forced to live in a cage doesn't?

It provides a perverse incentive for those running prisons (usually the government but also private owners) to put more people in prison for their slave labor.

Re: All of the vehicle license plates available in America

#195
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The theory is they'll just drive anyway without a license. Plus in many/most parts of the US, a car is effectively required to live, so removing one's ability to drive is a seriously major punishment. The whiskey plate indicates to other drivers that the car could be more dangerous than expected, and yes, I think the shame is supposed to be a component as well. It's harm reduction, not a perfect solution. I don't kno…

>>so removing one's ability to drive is a seriously major punishment. Being caught drunk driving 3(!!!) times is a seriously major crime. I'm a strong advocate for a complete driving ban after a single drunk driving episode, 3 is just crazy to me. I get the argument that in US that basically makes it impossible to get anywhere without a car but I don't know - get a bicycle or something, literally anything is preferab…

Drunk driving is way more common than you might think.

If we’re ready to cut off ~10% (or more) of drivers for life, we should bite the bullet and mandate ignition interlocks.

Driving is a privilege, not a right. But enforcement needs to help people make the right choice, not just be a lottery for ruining lives in car-dependent places (unfortunately most of the US).

Re: All of the vehicle license plates available in America

#198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If this is "slavery"... why should anyone care? The idea that they can be forced to work without pay bothers you, but that they can be forced to live in a cage doesn't?

Because literally no prisoner in the USA has been explicitly sentenced to this. If you are in prison your sentence is almost certainly restriction of your freedom for a period of time, and not imprisonment + "being forced to work". The fact that the prison system can benefit off of that should offend you and you should be outraged that this is happening across the country.

It's not only license plates. It's wildland firefighters protecting California mansions and assemblers of furniture to be sold at Walmart. China points this out as unethical labor practices, and they're exactly right.

Re: All of the vehicle license plates available in America

#199

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…

> 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…

If an unlicensed driver drives a car in Michigan, they remove its plate:

> Unless the vehicle was stolen or used with the permission of a person who did not knowingly permit an unlicensed driver to operate the vehicle, the registration plates of the vehicle shall be canceled by the secretary of state on notification by a peace officer.[1]

Similarly, this follows the car rather than the driver.

[1] https://www.legislature.mi.gov/(S(s5t1ajhoq2c543ccg5zeslmb))...

Re: All of the vehicle license plates available in America

#200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Minnesota drivers recovering from DUI revocation are required to use the "whiskey" plates. (Incidentally the license plate database is incomplete because it does not include the Minnesota "whiskey" plate.) While "whiskey" plates are on the vehicle police officers can legally stop the driver of the vehicle for a impairment check without cause (e.g. without any indications that the driver is under the influence or a…

> While "whiskey" plates are on the vehicle police officers can legally stop the driver of the vehicle Not any more. They changed this part of the law a few years ago. Probably around the same time that they (MN) began to implement breathalyzer interlocks where you can't start or drive the car if you're above a certain threshold. However, I think that if you're pulled over and you have an active DUI but are not drivi…

Being unable to rent a car or borrow a car while having a license seems like a weird combination of outcomes, so I looked it up.

> What happens if I drive a car without whiskey plates?

> It is a misdemeanor to drive a car that should have whiskey plates but doesn't. If you illegally remove whiskey plates from your car and are caught, you will go to jail.

> When you register for whiskey plates, you'll need to disclose all cars that you own or plan to drive and get whiskey plates for each of them.

So, it seems like you could incidentally drive a random car that you didn’t have a reasonable expectation to drive that specific car at a time of being forced to get whiskey plates.

https://www.ssdpa.com/articles/plate-impoundment-understandi...

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