Front Plate used?

[Patrick]

A buddy in my local Corvette club forwarded an email he had been copied on regarding this subject. I've edited it to remove the original sender's name:

Well, it finally happened. I was driving this morning and stopped at a stop light. City cop was opposite me. Light turned green and as I pulled out, the flashy lights went off and the cop pulled a U. I hadn't done anything wrong and thought he was after somebody else-well he wasn't...

He pulled me over and after the usual pleasantries, said "Well I guess you know I didn't pull you over for speeding. Do you know why I pulled you over?" I said no sir. "Well where is your front license plate?"

The officer was very professional so can't belittle him for that but did give me a short lecture that Corvettes are not exempt from the front license plate law, but Corvette owners don't seem to understand that. There was some more lecturing and he said finally, "Tickets and fines don't seem to do much good for most Vette owners rather than just a verbal warning-how about you?"

So as much as I hated it, I said I would put mine own and got off with a verbal warning. Did some errands and then went home. Took me 30 minutes to find the front bracket for the plate and after shedding some tears, put on my front plate for the first time ever. Then took me another 30 minutes to find the registration sticker. I always thought that Vette owners didn't get pulled over for no front plate unless they were doing something else (speeding, smokin tires, etc), but now I have been proven wrong.

Now Depressed In Minnesota
99 Black Roadster DRM RSR 500

See, as I stated earlier on in this thread, while I understand that there is a requirement for front plates, and the Corvettes are not exempt from the requirement, I question the need for front plates on principle.

If it were a safety issue, they would be uniformly required across all fifty states. Clearly, they are not required in all states. And, in most states, when you renew the tag for your plates, you are only given tags to go on the rear plate.

If it were an issue of identifying someone who may have committed an infraction, given that one can only see the plate from the front, why are they printed normally? Wouldn't someone seeing you, and needing to identify you, be seeing your plate from the rear-view mirror? Why aren't the plates printed in reverse for that reason?

To this day, I have not heard a reasonable explanation for why front plates are required. Yes, I know they are required- I'm questioning the requirement itself, not whether it is legal to run the Vette without a front plate.


-Patrick

 

[Z_OH_6]

A buddy in my local Corvette club forwarded an email he had been copied on regarding this subject. I've edited it to remove the original sender's name:


See, as I stated earlier on in this thread, while I understand that there is a requirement for front plates, and the Corvettes are not exempt from the requirement, I question the need for front plates on principle.

If it were a safety issue, they would be uniformly required across all fifty states. Clearly, they are not required in all states. And, in most states, when you renew the tag for your plates, you are only given tags to go on the rear plate.

If it were an issue of identifying someone who may have committed an infraction, given that one can only see the plate from the front, why are they printed normally? Wouldn't someone seeing you, and needing to identify you, be seeing your plate from the rear-view mirror? Why aren't the plates printed in reverse for that reason?

To this day, I have not heard a reasonable explanation for why front plates are required. Yes, I know they are required- I'm questioning the requirement itself, not whether it is legal to run the Vette without a front plate.


-Patrick

Like you Patrick I question the safety issue on having the plates up front. Other than stop light photos I don't see any practicality to it. Thank God either does Tennessee. We're not required to wear them. I suppose it could be worse, we could be required to have license numbers painted on both doors! LOL! I always hated seeing some European tags plastered halfway across the back end and the hood, excuse me, bonnet of certain cars. Gorgeous series one E-type Jags come to mind with glassine covered lights and sculptured lines and that wart of a license tag blemishing the bonnet. Yuuuck!

 

['04 Torch Red]

A buddy in my local Corvette club forwarded an email he had been copied on regarding this subject. I've edited it to remove the original sender's name:


See, as I stated earlier on in this thread, while I understand that there is a requirement for front plates, and the Corvettes are not exempt from the requirement, I question the need for front plates on principle.

If it were a safety issue, they would be uniformly required across all fifty states. Clearly, they are not required in all states. And, in most states, when you renew the tag for your plates, you are only given tags to go on the rear plate.

If it were an issue of identifying someone who may have committed an infraction, given that one can only see the plate from the front, why are they printed normally? Wouldn't someone seeing you, and needing to identify you, be seeing your plate from the rear-view mirror? Why aren't the plates printed in reverse for that reason?

To this day, I have not heard a reasonable explanation for why front plates are required. Yes, I know they are required- I'm questioning the requirement itself, not whether it is legal to run the Vette without a front plate.


-Patrick

I agree...can't quite figure out why state legislatures have differing views of this particular tag law....I think they are plain stubborn about the front tag...go figure...

 

[jvdaniel]

In New Jersey front plates are required. The only time mine has been on is when I take it for state inspection. I have friends that have gotten tickets for not having their front plate on their vett. I hope that if I get stopped I can get out of a ticket since my son is a Police Officer.

 

[Nevets2004]

No front plates required in PA. A good argument for a "no front plate" state would be to look at all the money the state saves by only making half the plates.

 

[01TriBlack]

Required in Minnesota....and I've been stopped for not having one. The cop offered to put the plate on for me after I told him I had just gotten the car and hadn't had the opportunity to do so yet.... and didn't know how.

I think they require the front license plates only so their laser guns are more effective.

 

[Patrick]

That email I referenced above launched a flurry of responses among my local Corvette club. The consensus opinion is that front plates are required so that photo-radar and cameras monitoring intersections for people who run red lights can be tagged. That's a whole argument in itself, and one that's been hashed over ad naseum in various threads in The Edge forum.

Rather than restating that argument, I should tell you that one of the members of my club- a police officer from Canon City- indicated that on a couple of occasions, he's been able to identify law breakers as a result of front plates. I told him that anecdotes don't make for good public policy, and that unless he could provide me with information that crime rates are significantly higher in states that don't require front plates, his argument didn't hold any water for me.

Guess I'd better not go speeding next time I visit the Royal Gorge. :L

-Patrick

 

[theblackvette]

Protect yourself at all times!

Just in case the camera goes off accidently when you are in the intersection, or if you are in a speed trap and the camera takes your picture by mistake, this may help you:

http://www.radarbusters.com/products/photo-radar/default.asp

The consensus opinion is that front plates are required so that photo-radar and cameras monitoring intersections for people who run red lights can be tagged.


Guess I'd better not go speeding next time I visit the Royal Gorge. :L

-Patrick

 

[Ed02]

Just in case the camera goes off accidently when you are in the intersection, or if you are in a speed trap and the camera takes your picture by mistake, this may help you:

http://www.radarbusters.com/products/photo-radar/default.asp

Around here where they have the intersection red light cameras, they have also made any clear covers over the plates illegal. It didn't take them long to figure that one out.

 

[Senator75]

Okay, I'm trying not to get on my soapbox here.

For the record, I'm not adamantly for front plates either (since both states I've lived in require them), but I always feel a need to apply logic...

Printing front plates backwards rather than forwards really makes no sense either way. If an LEO is approaching you head on after you just did a burnout from a green light, then he would want the plate to read forward, not backward. Besides, how dumb would you have to be to blatantly break a law and then pull up BEHIND a cop?

I do like the idea of telling the MVA's or whatever your state calls them about saving money. Of course, if they only had to make half the plates, that means they would have to reduce our fees by 10%.

Out of curiousity...do red light cameras get the front plate? The one I was caught at got my back plate. I really wish I had had the top down and was giving the one finger salute...at least that way the picture would've been worth the money!

As for anecdotes not being good basis for laws...it's frightening just how many times that is actually the case. I could go into more detail here, but I promised I wouldn't use that soapbox.
Sen

 

[ctjackster]

Ryan, I see you are located in NY. I can tell you frompersonal experience, at least up in Syracuse in the mid-1980s, cops with nothing better to do would walk down a line of cars parked on the street and ticket those failing to display a front plate - since I thought the front plate looked ugly on my then 1980 Mazda RX7, I kept getting these tickets. (Funny, the cops never seemed to be around when my car stereo was being stolen 3 times in six months!). The cops would also ticket any parked car with an outdated inspection sticker.

I live in CT now, we also have a front plate law but I have never put one on any of my vehicles and I have never been ticketed for it.

 

[Bioscache2]

Ryan, I see you are located in NY. I can tell you frompersonal experience, at least up in Syracuse in the mid-1980s, cops with nothing better to do would walk down a line of cars parked on the street and ticket those failing to display a front plate - since I thought the front plate looked ugly on my then 1980 Mazda RX7, I kept getting these tickets. (Funny, the cops never seemed to be around when my car stereo was being stolen 3 times in six months!). The cops would also ticket any parked car with an outdated inspection sticker.

I live in CT now, we also have a front plate law but I have never put one on any of my vehicles and I have never been ticketed for it.

Thanks for the tip but so far no tickets but of course I live in White Plains, NY (a little north of NYC) so I think the cops have better things to do, that and my rear lisence plate says Air Force on it so hopefully that'll be enough for a cop to leave my parked car alone (provided all I was doing was missing the front plate). Also thats why its good to park in a parking pot, if its not public property I'm pretty sure they can't ticket the car. Anyone else know about this ruling?

 

[BruceBed]

I was just curious how many people put the front plate on their car and how many chose to forgo it and just run the risk. If your lucky enough to live in a state where its not required then your choice is simple. I think I'm just gonna roll the dice and keep it off but I was curious.

We don't need a plate out front in PA. I had a Corvette black plate out front. It got cracked some how and I 've just had the naked bracket in place (still looks better than a C6).

 

[napacruzerC5]

I just put a plate on my 04 C5. I picked up the front plate holder from KEWL and it really helps. It makes the front plate look a lot better.

I run a front plate on my '01 with the body colored plate holder along with a polycarbonate (clear) cover over the plate. Both available from Mid America.
Since I usually drive on the higher end of the flow of traffic I don't need the extra hassle. California Highway Patrol patrolling near the Oakland Bay Bridge are notorious for pulling over no front plate and illigal tint.

 

[94C4]

I tried driving with no front plate here in Wyoming when I first bought my C4. On about the third or fourth time out, I was stopped and given a warning. Now I use a front plate with a plastic cover from Mid America. The thing that galls me about the whole deal, is that other cars in the community have been without a front plate for years and the police never seem to care, but if they see a Corvette without one they pull it over. Lots of cars here without them, mostly with bras on the front don't have the front plate. Maybe it's my imagination, but there seems to be a double standard here.

 

[jester]

MN requires both plates and does not allow any kind of covering over either one.


On a cruise this summer with about 25 cars, a HP Officer pulled one of the cars over and gave him a warning for no front plate. It was very effective at getting the word around that we needed to have front plates displayed.

By the way, we were just coming from a show and the car that was pulled over had the plate on under the cover. That didn't cut any ice with the officer. He'd heard it before.

 

[FlyNLow]

jrose,
I'm jealous. :L

Seriously, various requests have been floated up to the Colorado State Legislature over the past 20 years to remove the front license plate requirement. Unfortunately, every one of them has failed because of the Law Enforcement lobby.

What I don't understand about front plates is why, if they are intended to identify the vehicle to law enforcement (which is what the LE Lobby has claimed, every time some consumer group tried to get new legislation introduced), why aren't the plates printed in reverse, so that you can read them in a rear view mirror?
:confused

-Patrick

Amen.....I just put the plate on the 2002 Coupe yesterday, because the risk of a $100 fine and 3 points ain't worth it. Interestingly, if you have a "STREET ROD", in Colorado, you do NOT have to have one. How'd THAT happen?? ad

 

[SleepieAce]

I take the risk.

 

[Vanity Plate Bob]

About 20 states require a front one.

 

[brndaj]

Ryan, I see you are located in NY. I can tell you frompersonal experience, at least up in Syracuse in the mid-1980s, cops with nothing better to do would walk down a line of cars parked on the street and ticket those failing to display a front plate - since I thought the front plate looked ugly on my then 1980 Mazda RX7, I kept getting these tickets. (Funny, the cops never seemed to be around when my car stereo was being stolen 3 times in six months!). The cops would also ticket any parked car with an outdated inspection sticker.

I live in CT now, we also have a front plate law but I have never put one on any of my vehicles and I have never been ticketed for it.

In CT it's a $75 ticket for not having the front plate, I know from experience, it's still worth it, I hate the way the car looks with the front plate on.