If numbers didn't match the plate registered to your vehicle, you deserved the ticket By your own admission, the number on the vintage plate didn't match the plate number registered to your vehicle. Vintage plate or not, the plate is supposed to identify your vehicle. On the plus side, if the vehicle was stolen, your chances of the police recovering the vehicle are increased if they can pull up the correct license plate number. It only makes their job harder when you have one license number on the front and a different one on the back. Save the vintage plate for the car shows, and respect that cop for doing his job: enforcing the law. All of us are equally subject to the law. I don't blame the cop for not playing favorites -- or for not making you the exception. Why should you be any more special than the rest of us? We appreciate your service to our country, but it doesn't make you above the law the rest of us have to follow.
I disagree. One plate states don't care what you have in the front. Many people here in Penna run plates in the front that look like real plates but they are not. In fact there is a strong market for look alike PA plates with silly sayings on them. Police don't care and it is not a problem. Everyone knows it is the rear plate that counts. Sounds like that Texas cop had something up his butt regarding the Michigan resident. He is more special b/c he resides in a one plate state!
You're forgetting the most obvious point. He was in Texas, not Michigan. In the state of Michigan, you do as the state of Michigan does. But he wasn't in Michigan, he was in Texas. So Texas law applies in Texas, not Michigan's. Texas is a two-plate state, not a one-plate state. If he wants to get cute with license plates, and if Michigan lets him get away with it, he can go to Michigan and put whatever he wants on the front of his car until he turns blue. But it's not going to get him any traction doing that in Texas.
I don't agree, but I am not going to drag this out. I am guessing the cop was going out of his way to be a pain. But I wasn't there so it is only my guess.
If this logic was true, your beloved Texas LEOs could just park at the state line and ticket every single one-plate car for not having matching front and rear tags.
It's worth remembering that a traffic stop provides the opportunity to check out a suspicious vehicle or driver, to see whether anything serious turns up--stolen vehicle, outstanding arrest warrants and so on. One can understand how mismatched plates would look suspicious to a LEO not familiar with the laws of the issuing state. Once he's got you stopped he has time to investigate but of course there's no guarantee he'll make the right call. The patrol officer's job is to enforce the law, not interpret it. If there is any doubt, one of his best options all around--except for us--is to just write the ticket and let the judge decide whether he was right.
No. They can, and should, cite cars with incorrect-numbered tags on the front. The cop was right and (painful as it is for me to admit) Weir is right. Running with no plate from a jurisdiction that doesn't require one is perfectly legal in Texas. I would expect that if your vintage front plate had the same number as the rear one, you'd have no problem (and there are some states that allow you to register a vintage plate as your plate number). So let's not let the hyperbole get the best of us. Plate numbers are there for a reason and misleading 'cutesy' ones can get you into trouble.
http://www.wstoshop.com/servlet/the-1360/No-Hole-License-Plate/Detail I've ordered one to (temporarily) placate the LEOs long enough to have my Fixit-Ticket signed off. Then, I'm rolling around the corner and spinning it off. If I get another such ticket - repeat. Should have it early next week ... will report here. The car is too pretty for front plates.
That's a pretty expensive game you're playing. Some states even add points each time you get a moving violation. Extra points = higher insurance and possible fines and penalties once you reach a certain point limit. Then there's the cost of your repeated fines and tickets. Those add up. One definition of insanity is continuing to do the same thing and expecting a different result. If a front license plate is such an affront to your sense of aesthetics, what's cheaper? Moving to a one-plate state or continuing to rack up tickets, penalties, points, etc? If having a front plate on your vehicle is such a problem for you, why do you think that continuing to subsidize your ticket habit is a better solution? Seems to me that you're not teaching the LEO's anything except that you're willing to continue paying through the nose to break the law.
Yes; but I don't know of any states that consider a missing plate a moving violation. It is primarily an equipment or registration violation.
First ticket in six years of not having a front plate, and it's a fixit ticket. Total cost- $50.00 for the removable plate kit. Cheap. Zero points on my license and no fine. By the way, I also drive fast and commute over thirty five thousand miles a year. Those tickets add up. The plate thing? Not so much. And one definition of cliche' is restating something that has been stated ad nauseum. This is a fun game. Except that my job and all my stuff is, unfortunately, here. Moving out of state to avoid a ticket on something that has cost me fifty bucks after around 210,000 miles of driving? Seems a bit extreme, yes? Mom??
Besides, he is not expecting a different result!!! Hey think of it as an extra fee to drive without a front plate. He chooses to pay the fee. I agree that front plates are pointless and apparently the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania feels the same way! CR I see from your avatar that your car does not have a front license plate. What does Wisconsin require? If they require a front plate, then what are you doing, breaking the law?
Wisconsin requires two. My car is from Florida and doesn't have a front bracket. It's kinda' difficult to track down parts for a 24-year-old BMW. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.
Well now, I guess SOMEBODY has money to burn in this economy. Good luck with THAT. I'm not used to thinking of my local government as a charitable organization. Maybe you could try and deduct the fees as "charitable donations" (good luck with that too).
Despite Bruddah Weir's immovable stance. . . . . . I like the notion of paying the fine rather than debauching the aesthetic of the roadster. "But I DO have a front plate, officer! It's in the trunk!" One of these days I will probably engineer a bracket for the front tow-hook attachment, or buy one if I'm feeling lazy. But ad nauseam doesn't have a U in it. . .
