Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ontario's new license plates have a problem: you can't read them

npr.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 172 posts

Re: Ontario's new license plates have a problem: you can't read them

#91

Post by chooseaname »

MrStonedOne wrote: post #87

>In an emailed statement, Ontario's government says it "consulted with key stakeholders to test the readability, reflectivity and functionality of the new high definition plate design. Ontario's new high definition licence plates were tested using advanced plate reader technology under multiple visibility conditions, and plates were successfully read under those conditions." >But it acknowledged that "some Ontarians…

> Not to mention that I can almost guarantee there is some scientific research into visibility and colors that would have predicted this just based off of color palette alone.

Well, blue is the harder color for the human eye to see; night makes it worse.

Re: Ontario's new license plates have a problem: you can't read them

#92

Post by theluketaylor »

dangus wrote: post #67

Things I can’t understand: - Why North America doesn’t adopt European-style plates instead of the tiny, squished ones they have - Why license plates are allowed to act as regional advertisements for local states and provinces rather than identifiers - Why Canadians keep the Ford family in power

I can only answer the 3rd question.

Rob Ford was the king of retail politics. People in his ward loved him because if you called about a pothole he would be there personally with a work crew the next morning. He became mayor due to the amalgamated Toronto. A previous conservative government combined many outlying cities into Toronto proper, completely changing the makeup of the city. Rob was elected by the suburbs surrounding the old city thanks to promises to keep taxes down and find efficiencies. The core of old Toronto voted overwhelmingly against him.

Doug was elected because a tree stump could have beaten the Liberals in the 2018 election. Liberals had been in power for far too long and the province really did need a change. Internal politics and infighting within the PC caucus allowed Doug to extremly narrowly wrest control of leadership. No matter the PC leader was they were going to win the provincial election between a liberal government that did need to go and first past the post voting.

Re: Ontario's new license plates have a problem: you can't read them

#93

Post by aldoushuxley001 »

ttul wrote: post #79
chongli wrote: post #44

Recall that this is the same provincial government that used public money to put stickers on gas pumps in what amounts to a protest on federal carbon taxes. Taxpayer money spent on a brazenly partisan political campaign.

Doug Ford is Canada’s Trump. He is a similar embarrassment to an otherwise great region of the world.

That’s okay, I fully support him. There’s bound to be differences of opinion, but after a decade and half of liberal corruption, Doug Ford is incredibly refreshing. Will vote for him again.

Re: Ontario's new license plates have a problem: you can't read them

#94

Post by aldoushuxley001 »

52-6F-62 wrote: post #89
ttul wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doug Ford is Canada’s Trump. He is a similar embarrassment to an otherwise great region of the world.

If anyone thinks this is hyperbole, there is a CBC interview with Doug where he claims Trump "took a page out of their book" and not the other way around. There are other occasions where he has spoken about his admiration for Trump, and opted to stay at Trump's hotel while on a diplomatic visit. Edit: Since this is drawing some ire I thought I would clarify that this is no remark on either politician in itself. They…

Rob Ford was populist before Trump, so in that sense he’s right.

Re: Ontario's new license plates have a problem: you can't read them

#95

Post by spookthesunset »

dangus wrote: post #67

Things I can’t understand: - Why North America doesn’t adopt European-style plates instead of the tiny, squished ones they have - Why license plates are allowed to act as regional advertisements for local states and provinces rather than identifiers - Why Canadians keep the Ford family in power

> Why license plates are allowed to act as regional advertisements for local states and provinces rather than identifiers

Because they are harmless fun? Many hours of road trips were spent trying to spot a license plate from every state.

And quite frankly, I love that each region has its own plate design. It adds a bit of spice to life.

Re: Ontario's new license plates have a problem: you can't read them

#96

Post by squiggleblaz »

dangus wrote: post #67

Things I can’t understand: - Why North America doesn’t adopt European-style plates instead of the tiny, squished ones they have - Why license plates are allowed to act as regional advertisements for local states and provinces rather than identifiers - Why Canadians keep the Ford family in power

Actually I kinda think the European ones seem quite squished. They're certainly wider, but the letters are smaller to fit the shorter vertical height. A matter of what you're used to? (Incidentally, in Australia, you can get three kinds of local plate shapes, as well as German-style, Japanese-style and American-style plates. I guess shape and size aren't really that important as long as they're legible and all those plate dimensions have been deemed legible.)

They're allowed to act as regional advertisements since it's the regional government that creates them. Why would they ban themselves? Why do German number plates have symbols of Europe, Germany, the state and the city that issues them? French and Italian plates are similar. There's definitely an unsubtle nationalism in European plates, it's just not as loud and in-your-face as the American ones. More like: "We in europe are important. Become accustomed to our authority. We in germany are important. Become accustomed to our authority." etc.

I think the only real issue is why they're so bloody hard to read. I see nothing wrong with a black-on-white plate that says "How great's Ontario!" but why so much color? It seems that the decentralisation of law enforcement in North America probably has something to answer for here - they can't adequately veto stupid plate designs.

Re: Ontario's new license plates have a problem: you can't read them

#97

Post by dangus »

squiggleblaz wrote: post #96
dangus wrote: post #67

Things I can’t understand: - Why North America doesn’t adopt European-style plates instead of the tiny, squished ones they have - Why license plates are allowed to act as regional advertisements for local states and provinces rather than identifiers - Why Canadians keep the Ford family in power

Actually I kinda think the European ones seem quite squished. They're certainly wider, but the letters are smaller to fit the shorter vertical height. A matter of what you're used to? (Incidentally, in Australia, you can get three kinds of local plate shapes, as well as German-style, Japanese-style and American-style plates. I guess shape and size aren't really that important as long as they're legible and all those…

I guess it’s just my eyeballs, I feel like I can read European plates from further away. Just a subjective perspective.

They’re very high contrast black on white with nice, proportional, thick letters, while the North American plates throw pictures and slogans everywhere.

Re: Ontario's new license plates have a problem: you can't read them

#98

Post by spookthesunset »

chooseaname wrote: post #88

Why do (standard) plates have to be fancy? If you want to sell fancy plates for more money, and people are okay with that, then do it, but make the standard ones cheap, boring and easy to read.

Meh, the marginal cost of having "fancy" plates is a trivially small amount on a per-plate basis.

Re: Ontario's new license plates have a problem: you can't read them

#99

Post by squiggleblaz »

spookthesunset wrote: post #95
dangus wrote: post #67

Things I can’t understand: - Why North America doesn’t adopt European-style plates instead of the tiny, squished ones they have - Why license plates are allowed to act as regional advertisements for local states and provinces rather than identifiers - Why Canadians keep the Ford family in power

> Why license plates are allowed to act as regional advertisements for local states and provinces rather than identifiers Because they are harmless fun? Many hours of road trips were spent trying to spot a license plate from every state. And quite frankly, I love that each region has its own plate design. It adds a bit of spice to life.

> Because they are harmless fun? Many hours of road trips were spent trying to spot a license plate from every state.

In Europe that's possible too. Aside from collecting all the countries, you can collect the cities. For instance, plates in Berlin are of the form "B-AB 124" but plates in Hamburg are of the form "HH-AB 124". Presumably you can't really collect them all - there's too many cities - but you can try to work out what they all are.

Re: Ontario's new license plates have a problem: you can't read them

#100

Post by ghettoCoder »

52-6F-62 wrote: post #83
theluketaylor wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The current conservative government has no organizational process. Dougie makes a decision and then it's implemented at breakneck speed, ignoring all precedent, organizational structure, and institutional learning. He drew the new "Ontario Line" subway with a marker, replacing decades of planning for the Relief Line Toronto needs desperately. The subway is dangerously overcrowded at peak times and these changes will…

> He invented an environmental issues with bats to halt construction on a partially complete windfarm. Even local bat experts have no idea what he's talking about. Worse! They actively started tearing down completed windmills as part of that project to the tune of $100 million!

So what if they did? The people forced to live with the windmills never wanted, gained nothing from them, and were completely sidelined, vilified, and cast as hicks, rednecks, or climate deniers for having the audacity to question the plan. They fought back using the ballot box and now are being rewarded with what they desired. To be heard.

We absolutely need to decarbonize our economy but there's a right way to do it where everyone is heard and involved. Ramming things through by fiat over the objection of the hosts never ends well, even if you believe you know best. This is how you get more Trump, Ford, Scheer, Brexit, etc...

Blows my mind that people never learn this.

Post reply on HN