[HN Gopher] All of the vehicle license plates available in America
___________________________________________________________________
All of the vehicle license plates available in America
Author : jonathanmkeegan
Score : 138 points
Date : 2023-08-21 14:19 UTC (8 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.beautifulpublicdata.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.beautifulpublicdata.com)
| nunez wrote:
| > 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, I guess.
| NoMoreNicksLeft wrote:
| 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?
| gambiting wrote:
| 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 inprisonment + "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.
| jdpedrie wrote:
| "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a
| punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly
| convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place
| subject to their jurisdiction."
| SV_BubbleTime wrote:
| "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, _except_ as a
| punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly
| convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place
| subject to their jurisdiction. " 13A
|
| A. I guess I'm confused you ever thought it was dead.
|
| B. The license plate programs are optional, and as I understand
| it most work details are a desirable distraction from the all
| encompassing boredom of prison life.
|
| So I'm not sure it's anything but typing just to type to call
| it slavery, knowing full damn well it is nothing like the
| history you're tying it to.
| msm_ wrote:
| A: Easy mistake to make. Let's take google results for
| "abolished slavery":
|
| > When did slavery end around the world?
|
| > After centuries of struggle, slavery was eventually
| declared illegal at the global level in 1948 under the United
| Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Mauritania
| was the last country to officially abolish slavery, with a
| presidential decree in 1981.
|
| This is also what I was taught at school. Most people in my
| European country probably know that "legal" slavery (for
| example debt bondage) still happens in third world countries,
| but I'm almost sure most don't realise slavery is legal in
| the US too.
| [deleted]
| jedberg wrote:
| When slavery was outlawed, they carved out a special exemption
| for prisoners.
| walthamstow wrote:
| There's a reason Ava DuVernay's documentary is called 13th.
| blamazon wrote:
| 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)
| Mountain_Skies wrote:
| 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.
| MisterBastahrd wrote:
| What I found interesting is that both Louisiana and California
| put out strikingly similar license plates in 1993. Both had red
| script at the top on a white background with dark blue lettering.
| Zanni wrote:
| I'm very much in favor of local governments raising additional
| funds by selling cosmetic upgrades (rather than outsourcing
| enforcement of speed limits to privately owned traffic cameras,
| for instance).
| lapcat wrote:
| I searched for Wisconsin in the table and found that Maryland and
| Pennsylvania have University of Wisconsin alumni plates, which I
| found odd.
| madcaptenor wrote:
| The subset of this data set which is just out-of-state alumni
| plates is interesting. Running through some midwestern
| flagships:
|
| - It looks like the states that have U of Michigan plates are
| New York, New Jersey, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Texas, DC, North
| Carolina, and Delaware. - Nobody has plates for the
| universities of Illinois and Minnesota. - the only states with
| Indiana University plates are New York and Tennessee. - you can
| get Ohio State plates in Georgia, Virginia, Pennsylvania,
| Maryland, South Carolina, Delaware.
|
| My understanding is that states will only make a custom plate
| if there are a certain number of buyers, so this is probably
| some weird function of where alumni tend to live, where alumni
| clubs are more active, and what those limits are in various
| states. But it's very strange that you basically can't get
| plates for those Midwestern flagship universities in the
| Midwest.
|
| Searching for Georgia (because it's where I live): - Alabama,
| Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Texas have
| University of Georgia plates. - Virginia, North Carolina,
| Tennessee, Maryland, and South Carolina have Georgia Tech
| plates.
|
| Virginia and Maryland showing up for Georgia Tech is
| interesting - perhaps engineers are likely to work for the
| federal government or companies that are near DC because they
| want proximity to the government?
| js2 wrote:
| 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.
| madcaptenor wrote:
| That at least makes sense geographically!
| tzs wrote:
| A quick Google search suggests that there are 760 000 living
| University of Indians alumni, 640 000 living University of
| Michigan alumni, around 500 000 living University of
| Wisconsin alumni, 450 000 living University of Florida
| alumni, 350 000 living University of Georgia alumni, and 170
| 000 living Georgia Tech alumni. I think that is all the
| schools people have mentioned so far.
|
| It does seem reasonable that most of those would have some
| states, besides the home state of the university, with enough
| of their alumni that a custom plate would be worthwhile.
|
| My school (Caltech) only has 24 000 living alumni so probably
| no custom plates for us in any state, even California. MIT
| has around 150 000, so maybe there is hope that at one nerd
| school gets a license plate somewhere. :-)
|
| I wonder what the smallest group of people is that gets a
| special plate in every US state?
|
| There are around 780 000 ham radio licensees in the US and
| every state offers ham radio plates, but I'm not sure that
| counts as a special plate because in many states a ham plate
| only differs from an ordinary plate in that the license
| number is your ham radio callsign.
|
| For example here in Washington normal plates are of the form
| ABC1234. A ham callsign in the US is N letters, a single
| digit, and M letters, which is called an NxM callsign. The
| possible NxMs are 1x2, 2x1, 2x2, 1x3, and 2x3.
|
| Someone looking at a ham plate would only know it is a ham
| plate if they recognized it was an NxM that matches one of
| the aforementioned NxMs. Anyone else would probably just
| think the state ran out of ABC1234 numbers and started a new
| format.
| Kon-Peki wrote:
| > I wonder what the smallest group of people is that gets a
| special plate in every US state?
|
| If I had to guess, it would be military in nature. Perhaps
| the Congressional Medal of Honor? Less than 4000 have ever
| been awarded.
|
| But I just checked 3 different states and only 2 of them
| offer a special plate for that. So you need something
| _more_ common to have such a plate in every state.
| madcaptenor wrote:
| MIT is hard to search for because lots of states have a
| "ducks unlimited" plate, but Maryland (which we've already
| seen is plate-happy) has plates described as "Maryland -
| MIT Club of Washington".
|
| Re "nerd schools", there are five schools with "Technology"
| in the name that have plates in their own states: Rochester
| Institute of Technology (New York), Georgia Institute of
| Technology, Florida Institute of Technology, Missouri
| University of Science and Technology, Indiana Institute of
| Technology. (Before doing this search I'd only heard of the
| first two.)
| singleshot_ wrote:
| Governors?
| lapcat wrote:
| Well, Maryland is clearly just out of control with the
| plates: https://www.beautifulpublicdata.com/content/images/si
| ze/w160...
|
| By the way, the majority of out-of-staters at UW are from
| neighboring Minnesota (with tuition reciprocity) and Illinois
| (the FIBs).
| madcaptenor wrote:
| I've never heard of FIBs but I just Googled it and see that
| I correctly guessed what it means.
| lapcat wrote:
| ;-)
| Kon-Peki wrote:
| One of the top results in a web search (apparently FIP
| and FIB are interchangeable):
|
| > the Chicago Reader observed in a 1988 article titled
| "Invasion of the FIPs: boom time in southwestern
| Michigan." "One local newspaper estimates that Chicago-
| area residents, all of them nonvoters, make up more than
| half the area's taxpayers and pay more than 60 percent of
| its local tax load.
|
| Those inconsiderate jerks should stay home (or go
| somewhere else). The locals really want to experience the
| full cost of their town services.
|
| [1] https://www.chicagomag.com/city-life/how-illinios-
| became-fip...
| ComputerGuru wrote:
| So Illinois has St Louis Cardinals MLB plates, presumably for
| downstate residents that relate to STL more than Chicago... I
| guess in addition to being a question of state pride it's
| probably also a matter of public safety that they _don't_ have
| Green Bay Packers NFL plates for Lake and McHenry residents,
| though!
| madcaptenor wrote:
| The other out-of-state MLB plates, if I've searched properly,
| all make similar geographic sense: - Red Sox in CT and RI -
| Mets, Yankees, Phillies in NJ (you can get Mets and Yankees
| plates in New York but you can't get Phillies plates in
| Pennsylvania) - Nationals in MD and VA
|
| Also you can get Brooklyn Dodgers plates in New York but you
| can't get Los Angeles Dodgers plates in California.
| dhosek wrote:
| I recently saw a car with an antique license plate on it.
|
| It was a model that was popular among my high school classmates.
|
| Time is a bitch, man.
| bradleyjg wrote:
| 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.
| limitedfrom wrote:
| Here's a good read about NYC's temporary license plate black
| market: https://www.streetsblogprojects.org/ghost-tags-
| part-1-the-de...
| bradleyjg wrote:
| I think they should civil forfeiture the cars.
| reaperducer wrote:
| 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.
| [deleted]
| nickt wrote:
| The geekiest book I own (according to my wife) is "Registration
| Plates of the World" by Neil Parker [1] - there's an older
| version on the IA [2].
|
| Respect to the collectors club - the Automobile License Plate
| Collectors Association [3].
|
| Projects like this and the book are great at seeing a tiny slice
| of another part of the country/world which you may never see.
| Nice job!
|
| [1] https://www.alpca.org/halloffame/neilparker/
|
| [2] https://archive.org/details/registrationplat0000neil
|
| [3] https://www.alpca.org/
| jeron wrote:
| I have the California Historic Vehicle plate on my NA Miata and I
| love the way it looks on the car
| aimor wrote:
| Don't forget the Diplomatic plates
|
| https://diplomacy.state.gov/items/diplomatic-license-plates/
| https://i.etsystatic.com/12654735/r/il/dd7fb3/1754142363/il_...
|
| Or Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, Northern Mariana, and the
| Virgin Islands
|
| Or the Native American Nations
| omoikane wrote:
| Wikipedia has those:
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registration_plates_of...
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registration_plates_of...
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registration_plates_of...
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registration_plates_of...
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registration_plates_of...
| beardyw wrote:
| Do they do NPR, number plate recognition, in the US. There is a
| lot of it in the UK, in fact I think average speed checks are
| based on them. I would have thought it would be hard with all
| that decoration.
| blamazon wrote:
| We call it ALPR - Automatic License Plate Recognition and it is
| both controversial and omnipresent. Average speed checks are
| not a thing here, ALPR is used primarily for toll collection
| ("pay by plate") and secondarily for law enforcement and asset
| reposession. (If you drive with a suspended license or don't
| pay a car loan, a mobile ALPR may bust you) Most plates are
| still legible to these systems despite the decorations - the
| remainder are verified by hand for applications such as toll
| processing.
|
| People do stuff like obscuring the plate with a bike rack, a
| magnetic leaf, tinted license plate cover, etc, but it's a
| risky game to tempt the toll collector like that.
| error503 wrote:
| Parking enforcement too.
| arethuza wrote:
| There are average speed cameras on the A9 here in Scotland -
| which I think have been a good thing given the reduction in
| insane driving I've seen on what was already a very dangerous
| road.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A9_road_(Scotland)
| blamazon wrote:
| I personally am a huge fan of average speed cameras and
| think we should adopt them but that is a hugely unpopular
| opinion here in the states... it would be career suicide
| for a politician to campaign on that, quite possibly even
| for the deadliest roads with the most insane drivers. (For
| me, instantly thinking of the 'Robert Moses style' New York
| state parkways [1])
|
| [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkways_in_New_York
| reaperducer wrote:
| It's easier to just use the beacons from the tires,
| anyway. Doing it from cameras seems like going the hard
| way.
|
| When I lived in Texas, toll roads were just starting to
| become fashionable. People worried that the toll tags
| would be used to give speeding tickets, so a law was
| written preventing police from using that data for that
| purpose.
| [deleted]
| MagaMuffin wrote:
| [dead]
| draw_down wrote:
| [dead]
| Julesman wrote:
| I saw a e-ink license place last week in LA. Anyone know what's
| up with that? Seems kind of hackable.
| Rebelgecko wrote:
| Probably a reviver plate (https://reviver.com)
|
| They're semicommon as a dealer add on to jack up car prices.
| IIRC the hardwired version is on the CAN bus and both versions
| let you set the slogan text from a list of preapproved phrases
| in the app over Bluetooth. It would be fun to reverse engineer,
| but not fun enough that I want to pay $400/year for it.
| Ekaros wrote:
| As coming from country with actually working IT, I always
| wondered about those year and month tags... I get my yearly tax
| directly as bill to my bank...
| fps wrote:
| 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.
| [deleted]
| Ekaros wrote:
| Nothing prevents DMV and police having interconnected
| database. Which would allow automatically communicating
| vehicles removed from use or with lapsed MOT.
| reaperducer wrote:
| That works fine if you live in a tiny country. But in the
| United States there are tens of thousands of law
| enforcement agencies authorized to write tickets. Some of
| them are massive organizations like state highway patrols.
| Others are towns of 200 people, or even individual schools
| that don't have the time, money, or infrastructure to
| integrate with a national system.
| Ekaros wrote:
| Sounds like perfect market for some SaaS. Pull relevant
| information from everywhere and automate showing
| failures.
| jcrawfordor wrote:
| Sure, but do we really want to encourage ubiquitous LPR
| on every police vehicle? It's already becoming the norm
| in some cities but that's not exactly an unmitigated
| good.
| fps wrote:
| The US's anti-surveillance laws and sentiment keep
| ubiquitous camera systems from existing in many places, and
| keep the ones that do exist, quiet. In my state,
| Massachusetts, traffic cameras legally cannot be used to
| issue citations. Automated toll collection, which uses
| highway mounted plate scanners, faced substantial backlash
| from people for privacy reasons. And Massachusetts is one
| of the least anti-government states in the country. If it
| got out that the police were monitoring which cars were on
| the road and how often they were driven, there would be
| literal riots.
| jcrawfordor wrote:
| They do, the stickers are mostly to make it easier for cops
| to see expired reg without having to type in every license
| plate or have a vehicle fitted with LPR. They can also look
| up the vehicle status in the DMV database, and via an
| interstate compact.
| WkndTriathlete wrote:
| 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.
| ezfe wrote:
| While I have no problem with the tag, your claim is
| false:
|
| > 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.
|
| Police have automatic systems that scan vehicles. I was
| pulled over once due to an inconsistency in my vehicle
| registration data (not anything visible on the
| plate/exterior) because the computer in the police
| vehicle flagged my car and they decided to follow up on
| it.
|
| In my case, it was just a quirk of the vehicle owner
| being unlicensed to drive and there was no violation -
| but the system correlated the DMV registration details
| and license status of the owner and flagged the car.
| fps wrote:
| fast accurate plate scanners are relatively new. At most,
| only on police cars for the past 10 or so years. Many
| police cars still don't have them, only dedicated highway
| patrol cars. The sticker system has been in place for
| over 80 years. Systems that work, that are are generally
| not difficult to implement stick around past when they're
| technologically outdated.
| ezfe wrote:
| In Massachusetts they do, but we still use those stickers
| as another form of labeling.
| dmckeon wrote:
| > It's not illegal to let your registration or inspection
| lapse if the car isn't being driven.
|
| True in many states, but California wants vehicles to have
| valid registration even if the vehicle is not at all
| operational. The owner gets a break on the cost, but
| Sacramento still wants their due.
|
| https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/vehicle-
| registration/vehicle-r...
| Scoundreller wrote:
| Ontario Canada _finally_ did away with them.
|
| Lots of people decry the loss of government revenue, but I'm
| happy to see some red tape/bureaucracy cut down for the
| consumer. I thought governments only did that for big business.
|
| Would have made more sense to just increase gas tax by 0.1
| cents/litre.
|
| Tho you're still supposed to register for free online every
| year or two, which I'm sure 90% of the population is going to
| forget to do.
| Mountain_Skies wrote:
| In lots of states, the annual fee is based on the age and
| value of the vehicle, making it a somewhat progressive tax.
| notatoad wrote:
| >decry the loss of government revenue
|
| you got rid of the registration stickers _and_ the fees?
|
| in alberta they got rid of the stickers, but kept the annual
| fees. and the private contractors who collect those fees.
| Scoundreller wrote:
| > you got rid of the registration stickers and the fees?
|
| Correct.
|
| (Though I always wondered why they just didn't make the
| insurance companies send the stickers, or eu style where
| you put your insurance slip in a little window packet)
| zht wrote:
| increase gas tax? from the government that spent a bunch of
| money printing stickers decrying gas taxes, forcing private
| businesses to use them, and then defending the practice in
| court before having it struck down as unconstitutional?
| Scoundreller wrote:
| They really are many law firms' best friend.
| [deleted]
| reaperducer wrote:
| _As coming from country with actually working IT_
|
| Which one is that?
| ezfe wrote:
| My car's tax is an annual bill, as you describe.
|
| That's not what the tags are for though, the tags are
| registration tags indicating your plate is active. In
| Massachusetts, it's $30/yr for active registration and the
| plate cannot be renewed without active insurance, etc.
|
| So, if you fail to renew your insurance then you won't get a
| new registration sticker and your plate will eventually be
| easily identified as lapsed. The automated systems will see it
| immediately - and they do! But we still apply the sticker for
| manual identification.
| deathanatos wrote:
| > _In Massachusetts, it 's $30/yr for active registration_
|
| ... plus the excise tax. (A variable-rate tax rather loosely
| based on the value of the vehicle.)
| rented_mule wrote:
| On a long road trip last year, we logged all the plates we
| noticed. That included all 50 states plus Guam, Puerto Rico,
| federal government, and diplomatic plates. The article missed
| those not issued by states. What we didn't expect, and what the
| article also misses, is that we saw several distinct plate
| designs issued by Native Americans. We saw them in multiple
| states, but more in Oklahoma than anywhere else.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registration_plates_of...
| manual89 wrote:
| Too bad the plate cost data wasn't presented. Was wondering which
| was the most expensive. In Oregon the cost varies pretty wildly,
| and some don't have a renewal surcharge.
| amatecha wrote:
| Oohh, a lot of states have really cool plates for amateur radio
| operators! Check out Alabama's[0] -- radio symbol and even morse
| code "dits" and "dahs" -- seems they forgot to change the morse
| code to something generic since they say "AL2C" at the top, which
| is Alabama Bicentennial Amateur Radio Club's callsign, and ARL50
| at the bottom, which I just found out apparently means "greetings
| from amateur radio"[1])
|
| [0] https://www.revenue.alabama.gov/wp-
| content/uploads/2022/02/2...
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARRL_Numbered_Radiogram
| geonnave wrote:
| Where are the Mexican, Brazilian, Colombian license plates? I
| mean, it's 2023 and people still talk about America when they
| actually want to mean the US.
| elAhmo wrote:
| If you asked a Mexican or Colombian do they identify as an
| American, what answer would you get?
| mikestew wrote:
| I'll become worried about the issue when my Mexican, Canadian,
| and Brazilian friends stop referring to people in the U. S. as
| "Americans".
| whalesalad wrote:
| Northwest Territories wins best plate every time.
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registration_plates_of...
| blamazon wrote:
| > Awarded inaugural "Plate of the Year" for best new licence
| plate of 1970 by the Automobile License Plate Collectors
| Association.
| reaperducer wrote:
| Second place seems to be missing from the site:
| https://duischoolnv.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Nevada-Au...
| tremon wrote:
| Ouch, that hurts. Did that designer fail to grok the Moebius
| strip?
| B1FF_PSUVM wrote:
| Perhaps it would be hard to paint that with different
| colors on each side ...
| acheron wrote:
| Obvious when you think about it but this is just current plates
| available for order, and lots of states (all?) let you keep old
| plates around as long as you want and they don't fall apart or
| something. Virginia used to have a few different "400th
| anniversary" plates in the mid 00s (Jamestown was founded in
| 1607), which I still see around regularly. I used to still see
| the even older standard 6 character plates around too -- those
| are mostly gone by now but every once in awhile one goes by.
| mr-marbo wrote:
| Didn't see mention of Delaware's (in)famous black plates:
|
| > Delaware is the only state that allows private manufacture of
| plates for legal registration purposes, and the only state to
| have retained the famed porcelain plates in the modern era.
|
| > Delaware ... remains the only state with non-standard size
| plates in current use.
|
| https://www.dmv.de.gov/About/history/index.shtml
|
| Peek into the insanity:
|
| https://www.dhptags.com/
|
| https://www.lowdigittags.com/29.html
|
| https://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/local/2022/10/28/d...
|
| https://www.delmarvanow.com/story/news/2019/06/10/delaware-i...
| clintonb wrote:
| https://freakonomics.com/podcast/delaware-license-plates/
| SV_BubbleTime wrote:
| I work in automotive. It's annoying dealing with US to Europe
| plates. I'm sure there is someone in the design dept that
| really wanted to deal with Delware plates and now just drinks.
| woodruffw wrote:
| They need a new section for paper license plates[1].
|
| [1]: https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/central-
| ny/politics/2022/0...
| alexwasserman wrote:
| 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.
| [deleted]
| cratermoon wrote:
| Also, with hundreds of legal variations, how can the police
| keep track of them all? Counterfeiting a plate wouldn't require
| a very exacting match, just close enough to fly under the
| radar.
| alexwasserman wrote:
| Personally, it's all the other plate readers I care about
| too. I'm more a privacy nut than trying to evade police
| detection.
|
| I'd imagine, as with so much, cops just outsource it to a
| data broker type service. They feed the camera footage to a
| third party API that spits back matched data. Either plate
| info or human info. My data doesn't need to go into so many
| tracking DBs.
|
| No way so many small agencies can do anything themselves.
| Reubachi wrote:
| May I ask why your plate information being out there
| concerns you? If it's 3rd party "plate readers" tracking
| your travel, your vehicle is already sending telemetry data
| outbound regardless, after you give the manufacturer 40
| grand and you don't even get to pick which fancy picture
| goes on your car.
| toast0 wrote:
| > your vehicle is already sending telemetry data outbound
| regardless,
|
| Not anymore, thanks to the 3G cutoff :P
| alexwasserman wrote:
| Nothing especially rational, although generally I like to
| minimize what I can. If I can easily reduce one form of
| data leak I will.
|
| Your point is correct. There are many sources that we
| each hemorrhage data from, and it's likely a lost battle.
|
| Thinking a little more there are aspects of choice and
| consent here. I know I bought a car with telemetry, a
| cell modem in it, and a gps receiver, so it can be
| tracked. I'm not willingly opting into continuous
| surveillance by various third parties. It happens and
| driving is worth more to me then my loss of data tantrum,
| so I have a car and drive.
|
| It's not all rational.
|
| That said, I also have an older car with no electronic
| monitoring and love it too.
| reaperducer wrote:
| They don't care about the design, only the letters/numbers.
|
| I've ported my plate numbers from design to design several
| times in two states.
| Rebelgecko wrote:
| I see fake plates on an almost daily basis IN California (for
| whatever reason the white on black look is pretty popular,and
| not just with the Reviver plates).
|
| Although fun fact - in California you can legally get a wrap
| of your license plate instead of having to physically affix
| one
| Mountain_Skies wrote:
| Georgia reuses plate numbers, both on specialty plates and
| when there's a new general issue of plates. The combination
| of plate design and number/text is what is unique, meaning
| scanners cannot work properly if they don't recognize the
| design. In practice, it's common for violations to be
| assigned to the wrong vehicle because of confusion over plate
| design.
| [deleted]
| andyjohnson0 wrote:
| 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?
| mikhailfranco wrote:
| 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.
| jefftk wrote:
| _> 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.
| mistrial9 wrote:
| 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_
| mikhailfranco wrote:
| 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 part of national
| security, and certain local law enforcement tactics.
| mistrial9 wrote:
| 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.
| Symbiote wrote:
| Plenty of toll roads recognize number plates in Europe, but
| it may well be that it's easier to implement this system
| when there are typically only two or three plate designs
| per country, and they're generally all pretty much the same
| -- black letters on a white or yellow background.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_vehicle_registration
| _...
| dboreham wrote:
| US plates aren't expected to be readable (like they are in
| Europe).
| OJFord wrote:
| It probably is largely familiarity, but I find them all a lot
| harder to read than European numberplates, at any distance. The
| font (family), colouring, spacing, etc.
|
| Sometimes when they're in a film or something and seem
| significant (the shot hovers on it, or zooms in on it or
| something) I've had to pause or go back to read it.
| callumprentice wrote:
| A few years ago, I set out to take a snapshot of a plate from
| every state. My rules were that I had to take it personally, it
| had to be a regular set of numbers and letters for that state -
| no vanities - and I had to be able to clearly see the whole
| thing.
|
| I'm down to 3 left to get - North Dakota, West Virginia and
| Delaware. It's been more than a year since I caught the last one
| (South Dakota) so I'm not sure I'll ever be done.
| f154hfds wrote:
| Go to the parking lot for Niagara Falls on the US side (Goat
| Island I think it's called?). You should see all the plates
| except for Alaska and Hawaii on an average day I think as well
| as a decent number of Canadian provinces.
|
| We were there about a month ago looking at plates and ran into
| another family looking for plates while we were there!
| callumprentice wrote:
| Thank you but that's a bit far from me in SoCal.. I do see a
| lot of out of state plates in shopping malls here for some
| reason so one day, I plan to explore a couple.
| achrono wrote:
| Been to the Canadian side literally dozens of times, holidays
| and weekdays, but by far it's Ontario, New York or New Jersey
| repping most of 'em. A few Texas here and there, but never
| something like Alabama. Always wondered why that's so.
| dboreham wrote:
| Yellowstone is the place to do this. You'll even see some
| European plates (on motorcycles).
| callumprentice wrote:
| Interesting - thank you.
|
| Near the top of my bucket list too.
| dnissley wrote:
| Interesting how many states offer out of state university plates.
| E.g. New York and Tennessee both offer Indiana University plates
| madcaptenor wrote:
| And in that case, _only_ New York and Tennessee.
| dnissley wrote:
| Pennsylvania, Texas, North Carolina, South Carolina,
| Maryland, and Deleware offer Purdue plates -- and that's just
| looking up the universities I know well from growing up in
| Indiana
| Scoundreller wrote:
| 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 like two states have these "whiskey plates" or "party
| plates": https://www.tmj4.com/news/project-drive-sober/ohio-gets-
| toug...
| rootusrootus wrote:
| That's interesting. Ohio's party plates are similar to Oregon's
| old yellow plates (which are still used for some niches,
| including official vehicles). The red font is different, but
| some of those party plates have very dark red numbers.
| petepete wrote:
| I wish we had something like this in the UK.
|
| More than 6 points on your licence and you have to drive a
| yellow car with a 1l engine or smaller.
| Scoundreller wrote:
| Restricting vehicle size after a DUI would make a lot of
| sense. Same for "novice" drivers licenses.
|
| Lawmakers with poor understandings of physics think speed is
| the only factor in energy.
| rootusrootus wrote:
| > Lawmakers with poor understandings of physics think speed
| is the only factor in energy.
|
| Given that v is squared in the equation, their
| understanding of physics seems okay to me.
| Scoundreller wrote:
| Half the mass = half the energy... co-efficient gonna co-
| efficient.
|
| (Tho I know some places do limit highway speeds for
| novice licenses)
| arethuza wrote:
| Probably have to be something a lot smaller than 1l - how
| about a Citroen Ami:
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citro%C3%ABn_Ami_(electric_veh.
| ..
|
| I'm sure Citroen would do them in yellow for a bulk purchase?
| namdnay wrote:
| that's so ... american. the vehicle version of public mugshots
| or perpwalk
| teddyh wrote:
| <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Scarlet_Letter>
| spiderice wrote:
| I'm just wondering why they're allowed to drive at all after
| 3 DUIs.
| calpaterson wrote:
| 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 feel like it's actually gotten less common
| over the years. When I was a teenager I would meet adults
| who were riding the bus because they'd had their licence
| taken away. Often it would be for a 6 month period before
| they could re-apply (without retaking the test). That
| became less frequent at some point.
| arethuza wrote:
| 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.
| runarberg wrote:
| I feel a similar cultural change in Iceland, however in
| USA I feel no such change, quite the contrary. Moving to
| the USA was honestly a bit of a culture shock in
| observing how commonplace the practice is. What was more
| shocking is observing a practice of strategic drinking,
| that is try to drink just the right amount to keep your
| blood alcohol level at the legal limit. I've never seen
| anything like that before I moved here.
| rootusrootus wrote:
| That will obviously vary quite a lot across a country the
| size of America. Local to me, DUI is extremely frowned
| upon.
|
| But yes, it is somewhat common for people to have an idea
| of what it takes to get to a BAC of 0.08%, because that
| is the threshold at which you will be charged with DUI.
| For many regular drinkers, they won't be impaired at
| 0.08% and it takes less alcohol than you think to get
| there. Especially with modern microbrew beers. Getting a
| DUI will completely f*ck over your life, so if you like
| to drink socially, you are very careful.
| jdietrich wrote:
| _> in the UK people don't get their driving licence taken
| away that often_
|
| In England and Wales, a drink-driving offence would
| attract a minimum of a 12 month disqualification unless
| there are very compelling mitigating factors. On a second
| offence (or a serious first offence), you would usually
| have to undergo a medical examination and re-take your
| driving test to get your license back.
|
| https://www.sentencingcouncil.org.uk/offences/magistrates
| -co...
|
| https://www.gov.uk/driving-
| disqualifications/disqualificatio...
| calpaterson wrote:
| One in five continue to drive:
|
| https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/cars/article-10304829
| /Mo...
| gambiting wrote:
| ....illegally. That's a problem of nearly non-existing
| enforcement in the UK, not the toughness of law.
| cosmodisk wrote:
| In Lithuania the rules are fairly simple: fines up to a
| certain level of intoxication.Criminal record, car
| seizure,massive fine and lost licence if it goes above
| certain limit. Also, one needs to take a driving test at
| the end( after 2 or 3 years) if they want to drive again
| and the examiners are known to apply every rule in the
| book so they'd have hard time to pass.
| Ekaros wrote:
| I would expect them to be in prison for 25 years or
| something after 3rd one. You know like 3 strikes...
| xmzx wrote:
| [dead]
| HeyLaughingBoy wrote:
| Good lawyers, basically. Either that or it's a small town
| and they know the right people.
|
| I know someone who was woken up by a State Trooper, fast
| asleep in her vehicle on the side of the road, _with the
| engine running_ so it was obvious that she fell asleep
| while driving.
|
| It was by far not her first DUI. I _assume_ that she lost
| her license after that, but I do know that she kept
| driving.
| hiatus wrote:
| > I know someone who was woken up by a State Trooper,
| fast asleep in her vehicle on the side of the road, with
| the engine running so it was obvious that she fell asleep
| while driving.
|
| It doesn't sound obvious to me. If it was cold out, you
| would run the engine for heat for instance.
| rootusrootus wrote:
| It may not be obvious she was in fact driving, but it'll
| get you a DUI charge every time. Hell, even if you're in
| the back seat sleeping it off you're likely to get a
| charge if you have the keys anywhere accessible (and
| sometimes, even if you don't).
| HeyLaughingBoy wrote:
| This is correct.
|
| I also neglected to mention that the car wasn't neatly
| pulled over onto the side of the road but had driven
| itself into the ditch between the road and a field.
| blamazon wrote:
| In Mississippi, one of those two aforementioned states,
| it's perfectly legal to drink and drive (with an open
| container in your hand!) as long as you stay below 0.08
| BAC.
|
| (Nit: it's legal at a state level but municipalities and
| counties are allowed to dictate more rules on drunk driving
| - most don't, but YMMV)
| cosmodisk wrote:
| I suppose it still looks a little bit like this then:
| https://youtu.be/2xcQIoh3FQQ
| kevinventullo wrote:
| So, did he end up getting the plate?
| travisgriggs wrote:
| 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.
| pragma_x wrote:
| As someone who read "The Scarlet Letter" in highschool, the
| lesson I learned is that the state really should avoid
| encouraging and supporting a culture of vigilantism and
| ostrization. I for one don't think that lasting punishment*
| for life are appropriate where addiction is likely the root
| cause. But if the goal is just that, the laws should be
| changed to do so more deliberately, rather than offload the
| dirty work to the public.
|
| Also, I can't decide if "whiskey plates" are useful in any
| real way. As something that is socially stigmatizing, it's
| really unclear what the social response (if anything) is
| supposed to be. That said, I don't know of any PSA or public
| decree what went along with the launch of such programs. Now
| I'm just curious.
|
| Hilariously, in Virginia, there are "Gadsden flag" ("don't
| tread on me") plates that can resemble whiskey plates from
| other states. So, across state lines, you have people
| inadvertently diluting this "DUI driver on board" message all
| while expressing a confused mess of other sentiments.
|
| (* I should clarify this by saying that I'm all for one-time
| penalties for doing the wrong thing, including removing
| privileges. It's where we brush up against a person's rights,
| forever, that I take issue with. To me, revoking a driver's
| license for life is okay, but removing their sense of
| personal safety and autonomy through crowdsourced abuse, is
| not.)
| ComputerGuru wrote:
| > Also, I can't decide if "whiskey plates" are useful in
| any real way
|
| Whiskey plates give police permission to pull over the
| (driver of the) vehicle and perform a sobriety test at any
| time, without (additional) cause.
| causality0 wrote:
| 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.
| cratermoon wrote:
| > never getting my carry permit back
|
| 27 states don't require a permit. At all. Ponder that.
| seanw444 wrote:
| Most permitless carry states still issue permits. And
| like the other commenter said, that doesn't absolve you
| of responsibility for your actions. You're still probably
| going to prison.
|
| I've experienced the same amount of violent crime via
| firearm after permitless carry, as before it: zero.
| paulddraper wrote:
| Dependant on your criminal history.
| hiatus wrote:
| What point are you trying to make here? You think in
| states that don't require permits, the state cannot bar
| that person from owning firearms? Obviously the person
| you are responding to is referring states that issue
| carry permits.
| [deleted]
| causality0 wrote:
| True but not relevant. I'm saying we apply a much more
| lenient standard to people posing a threat to public
| safety with a vehicle than we do to people posing a
| threat to public safety via other means such as reckless
| use of a firearm or a laser pointer.
| runarberg wrote:
| 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 still drive shortly after though.
| Scoundreller wrote:
| 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 probably a bad driver
| on top of being over the limit.
| VK538FY wrote:
| My anecdotal experience is the exact opposite! I'm from
| some unpopular Canadian province and live in Switzerland.
| Lots of random controls in CH. I watch a lot of French
| television where they at least pretend to do the same in
| France, sort of the Gendarmes de Clermont-Ferrand.
| Anyway. I've also been a passenger in a car in Germany
| and the driver was controlled randomly. Now, in my wasted
| youth in a former capital of Canada, I wasn't once
| controlled when I should have been.
| Tarball10 wrote:
| Revoking their license does not stop them from driving.
| runarberg wrote:
| It stops by far most people from driving. The ones who
| are undeterred and keep on driving without a license are
| then fair game for the criminal justice system.
|
| Even if this minority gets away with continue driving
| without a license and wont get punished, you still save
| many lives by taking the vast majority of drunk drivers
| off the road. That alone is worth it.
| cratermoon wrote:
| This is a good argument for having a robust and useful
| public transportation system, as well as designing cities
| to support such a system. Won't happen in the US in my
| lifetime, but one can cream.
| bobbylarrybobby wrote:
| No, but it opens up the path to actual jail time, which
| would get them off the road for good.
| NoMoreNicksLeft wrote:
| I'm concerned with the "in Ohio, first time OWI offenders are
| required to stay in jail 3 days"...
|
| Like, post-conviction? Or are they punishing before conviction
| here? It's sort of fucked, considering that there are several
| medical conditions commonly mistaken for drunk driving.
| ryandrake wrote:
| > 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, or might not!" Totally useless. As someone
| else mentioned, wouldn't it make more sense to permanently
| revoke someone's license after 3 DUIs?
| some_random wrote:
| People usually drive their own car, and taking away someone's
| license can be life destroying in most parts of the country.
| woodruffw wrote:
| This sounds like a good reason to pursue policies that make
| taking away a license _not_ life destroying, rather than
| pursuing policies that allow people to destroy lives by
| continuing to drink-drive.
| oakesm9 wrote:
| Wait, is it not possible to get banned from driving in the
| USA?
|
| For comparison the drink driving penalties are here:
| https://www.gov.uk/drink-driving-penalties
| toast0 wrote:
| Effectively, not really. You can get your license pulled,
| for a limited (but long) time. But just because you're no
| longer permitted to drive doesn't mean you won't.
|
| It's difficult to register your car when you don't have a
| license, so then you usually stop registering your car
| too. And it's hard to get car insurance if you don't have
| an active license or a registered vehicle, so that's
| another thing to skip.
|
| If you get pulled over, and have no license, no
| registration, and no insurance, but that's all that's
| really wrong, you'll most likely get a ticket, probably
| have your license suspended for longer, and might have
| your car taken away, but won't likely be put in jail. So,
| time to buy another cheap car, private party.
| Scoundreller wrote:
| But you have to get caught first. USA is bigger on
| pulling vehicles over for ??? reasons than most other
| places.
|
| I'm figuring in UK if you get a DUI, it's because you
| were driving allll over the place or got into a 3am
| collision.
| msm_ wrote:
| I don't get your point. Are you defending people driving
| drunk in the USA because they are more likely to be
| caught?
|
| In my country it's also common to get caught after being
| stopped for speeding or car malfunction (like missing
| headlight), after a minor crash, by driving in a
| suspicious way, or just during a random check (that
| police is allowed to do). In total, around 450 drivers
| out of 1000 are tested for drunk-driving every year. It's
| one of the higher numbers in EU, so drunk drivers here
| are also (hopefully) likely to be caught.
|
| And the US DUI limit is _insane_ - 0.08% BAC. In my
| country it 's 0.02% BAC and if you get caught you lose a
| driving license for at least 6 months (with progressively
| more severe consequences for higher violations, up to a
| prison sentence, lifetime driving ban and losing your car
| permanently).
| Scoundreller wrote:
| Generally, the more likely you are to get away with an
| offence, the steeper the penalty.
|
| I can't speak for all EU countries, but I get the feeling
| that traffic enforcement is a lower priority by EU police
| than US/Canada.
|
| Several hypothesized factors for this in EU: more
| competency-based licensing, more regular technical
| inspections of vehicles (so fewer missing headlights),
| more automated enforcement (so fewer in-person controls),
| less focus on revenue generation by police (again, fewer
| in-person speed/mechanical controls), and most collisions
| just being a matter of submitting paperwork to insurance
| without police involvement. In Ontario Canada, police
| interaction is mandatory if any injury, >$2k damage or
| public property damage, so 99% of collisions, which is
| far different than France at least.
|
| So unless you have mobile alcohol checkpoints, even if
| drink-driving happens at the same rate as elsewhere,
| you're less likely to be caught in EU. And those that are
| caught probably did something more significant at the
| same time to warrant police attention.
|
| But sounds like your country, testing 45% of drivers per
| year, makes up for those several factors I brought up.
| Doesn't seem to be the norm in my EU experience - I do
| ~25% of my driving there.
|
| 20 year old EU data on this on p. 21 here: https://road-
| safety.transport.ec.europa.eu/system/files/2021...
| 8zah6q7 wrote:
| It is practically impossible unless one is in prison or
| something. In the future it could be enforced with
| biometrics authentication interlocks.
| rascul wrote:
| > Wait, is it not possible to get banned from driving in
| the USA?
|
| Yes, it is. I think the bar tends to be a little higher
| though. Also there are often work exemptions.
| ComputerGuru wrote:
| Driving drunk can be life destroying in most parts of the
| country.
| coldpie wrote:
| 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 know if the theory works in practice.
| gambiting wrote:
| >>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
| preferable to letting these people on the road again.
| haswell wrote:
| Depending on location, a bicycle is not a viable
| alternative. Driving is a condition of living if food is
| 30 minutes of driving into town.
|
| I'm am not advocating for lax DUI laws, but a driving ban
| is the equivalent of house arrest or forced relocation
| for some people/locations unless they have people who can
| help them with transportation.
|
| Moving to a city with public transit would provide the
| most autonomy, but would also mean uprooting one's life,
| leaving family behind, etc.
|
| The total impact is indeed very harsh, even if it is
| necessary for the safety of others.
| mptest wrote:
| You're right! We should make them wear a star or something to
| indicate their specialness!
|
| Joking aside I imagine taking licenses away are a big part of
| it, but that doesn't stop them from driving, at least the
| license plate warns the rest of us not to drive too close to
| the guy.
| civilitty wrote:
| I was thinking a Scarlet Letter. Maybe "A" for Alcoholic?
| vitaflo wrote:
| "Whiskey" plates in MN all start with the letter W (this
| why we call them whiskey plates). So there's your scarlet
| letter.
| gnopgnip wrote:
| Typically part of the sentence is to require an ignition
| interlock for multiple years. Driving a car without an
| ignition interlock is a lifetime driving ban, plus up to two
| additional years in prison. The details vary by state
|
| The plate is there to shame the driver primarily and dissuade
| them from DUI, secondarily so the police pay more attention
| to them.
| ojosilva wrote:
| The median is 1.8 cars per household in the US, so I'd say,
| from intuition and experience, that in these states the
| targeted vehicle will be +95% of the time driven by the DUI
| offender.
|
| But it doesn't matter, because "whiskey plates" are just
| plain wrong - they are a tongue-in-cheek, populist lawmaker's
| kool-aid. As a deterrent whiskey plates work best for
| conscious, god-fearing folk who rarely go over the limit.
| Besides these types of public shaming schemes can also have
| just the opposite effect, ie a university bro that looks cool
| with that whiskey plate or by creating enduring self or
| public confirmation that you are now that person the plate
| says you are. Adequate punishment would be to combine fines
| that are proportional to one's income, use tech like ignition
| interlock devices and invest on the individual's
| rehabilitation as a responsible driver, including
| participating in social services and education programs,
| among other ordinary measures.
|
| Furthermore, permanently revoking a drivers license is a
| serious punishment in a country where transportation/commute
| is primarily done by car. Also not all DUI's are the same and
| there's a principle of proportionality that always applies
| when sentencing offenders. So strike-3-and-you're-done would
| be very harsh for the great majority of DUI/DWI cases in the
| US.
| WkndTriathlete wrote:
| 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 any traffic violations.) The idea
| is that the extra enforcement is incentive for the recovering
| DUI driver to continue to drive safely and re-develop that
| habit.
| HeyLaughingBoy wrote:
| > 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 driving a car with whiskey plates,
| then it's an immediate loss of license.
| schoen wrote:
| I hired someone on Craigslist for something (I don't remember
| now exactly what it was for) and he turned out to have a
| breathalyzer interlock on his car, presumably ordered by a
| judge or something after multiple DUIs. If I remember
| correctly, he had to periodically blow into the tube while
| driving. I don't think I had realized that was a thing before
| that.
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