5 ms·

> Connecticut introduced [vanity license plates] in 1937 as a perk for drivers with five years of accident free driving 1937 gamification, nice. I always wond

by GuiA 10y ago

> Connecticut introduced [vanity license plates] in 1937 as a perk for drivers with five years of accident free driving 1937 gamification, nice. I always wondered why more countries didn't offer vanity license plates. It's a trivial service to offer in the internet age, and has the potential to bring in a nice additional lump of money every year for the government. Plus, it's just fun.

domador 10y ago
Maybe other countries have larger numbers of conformists and squares in charge...
fowl2 10y ago
my state (in a different country) does - https://www.vplates.com.au/ https://www.vplates.com.au/
seszett 10y ago
> has the potential to bring in a nice additional lump of money every year for the government If there is a fee for these plates, it makes people more unequal than they already are in their relation to the state for no other reason than allowing the rich to show they are rich. Many places take the approach that the state should never provide different classes of services depending on who can afford them or not.
- MrPatan 10y ago
  Venezuela is calling. They don't have anything snarky to say, they are just very hungry and would like some food, please, thanks.
  - seszett 10y ago
    You're obviously trying to make a point but I don't really get it, could you try to explain it without the snark?
  - coldtea 10y ago
    Because, as we all know, equality == Venezuela. And in the same, intelligent manner, one can say: Hello, piss poor people in the US called, they'd like some food too.
- cafard 10y ago
  Well, rich and (perhaps) vain: they are called vanity tags. I don't think that I could infer the relative wealth of the people I see by the tags on their cars. In your view are turnpikes and toll bridges OK?
  - seszett 10y ago
    > In your view are turnpikes and toll bridges OK? For private owned roads (or conceded to a private company for maintenance) they are OK of course, but not for state-maintained roads. Bridges are a bit different as they usually are much more expensive to build, but once the initial investment is recovered they should become toll-free IMO (once again, unless privately maintained). However, I think your question has little to do with what I was talking about: a better comparison would be having a second set of publicly-built parallel roads with higher tolls for those who can afford them, or offering higher toll fees allowing a higher speed limit. I personally wouldn't be OK with this.
    - cafard 10y ago
      The situation exists throughout the US. One can, as far as I know, get anywhere in Pennsylvania that the turnpike will take you without using the turnpike. It will just take a fair bit longer to do so.
- douche 10y ago
  If vanity plates cost more per year than a large pizza, which has been roughly the case in every state I've lived in, I'd worry more about some sort of wealth signalling effect. And if I didn't see so many wrecks rolling down the road held together with bondo and baling wire sporting vanity plates... There's also often a whole suite of charity plates, where you can proudly display your support of XYZ for an additional fee, some of which is donated to charity. Growing up, I remember many people in Maine who thought the old lobster plates[1] were ugly enough to opt for the loonie plates[2]. [1] http://www.15q.net/us2/me00b.jpg http://www.15q.net/us2/me00b.jpg [2] http://www.maine.gov/dacf/parks/get_involved/images/loonPlate.jpg http://www.maine.gov/dacf/parks/get_involved/images/loonPlat...
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- pjc50 10y ago
  That's a rather strange way of looking at it, since the custom plates aren't actually "better" in a functional sense. Just more desirable.
DocTomoe 10y ago
Sometimes, parts of the license numbers carry Information. For instance, German license plate KA-WT 342 is from the City of Karlsruhe ("KA"), and is privately registered (letters after the dash). KA-T 34H is a Karlsruhe privately-owned historic car (H at the end). KA-4734 is a car owned by the Regierungsbezirk Karlsruhe (most likely a police car) 0 57-274 is a car owned by the embassy of Indonesia in Germany (0 for diplomatic, 57 for Indonesia) BN-173-345H is a historic car owned by an UNHCR (173) employee with diplomatic immunity working from Bonn (BN). Cars owned by the UNHCR itself would be 0 173-788H... This kind of quick-glance information gets lost when you introduce vanity plates. We do have "Wunschkennzeichen", though, allowing you to choose the random letters and numbers from the pool of those combinations not yet used.
- tremon 10y ago
  Does that also mean that Germans have to apply for new license plates when moving from one district to another, or does the license plate only refer to the district of original purchase?
  - coldtea 10y ago
    From other places where this holds, it only refers to the district of the original purchase. And people don't move that much either, so 90% of the plates or such are accurate as to their owner's district too.
  - DocTomoe 10y ago
    If you move, you used to get new license plates. There was talk about changing this, but I am not aware that it has.
  - gambiting 10y ago
    In Poland you have to get a new license plate every time the car changes its owner, unless they happen to live in the same city. But the first 2-3 letters change depending on where you live, and it's quite granular, so even if you sell your car to a city not far away it might need a new license plate.
dingaling 10y ago
Northern Ireland has a strange approach. Generally they follow a pre-1963 county-based system in monotonic sequential order but occasionally a profitable prefix arises; recently BIG nnnn where nnnn is integer. So they can reserve the 'nice' ones in the sequence e.g. BIG 1 and sell those on the market. But they don't sell them in advance of sequence.

by GuiA 10y ago

domador 10y ago

Maybe other countries have larger numbers of conformists and squares in charge...

fowl2 10y ago

my state (in a different country) does - https://www.vplates.com.au/ https://www.vplates.com.au/

seszett 10y ago

> has the potential to bring in a nice additional lump of money every year for the government If there is a fee for these plates, it makes people more unequal than they already are in their relation to the state for no other reason than allowing the rich to show they are rich. Many places take the approach that the state should never provide different classes of services depending on who can afford them or not.

MrPatan 10y ago
Venezuela is calling. They don't have anything snarky to say, they are just very hungry and would like some food, please, thanks.
- seszett 10y ago
  You're obviously trying to make a point but I don't really get it, could you try to explain it without the snark?
- coldtea 10y ago
  Because, as we all know, equality == Venezuela. And in the same, intelligent manner, one can say: Hello, piss poor people in the US called, they'd like some food too.
cafard 10y ago
Well, rich and (perhaps) vain: they are called vanity tags. I don't think that I could infer the relative wealth of the people I see by the tags on their cars. In your view are turnpikes and toll bridges OK?
- seszett 10y ago
  > In your view are turnpikes and toll bridges OK? For private owned roads (or conceded to a private company for maintenance) they are OK of course, but not for state-maintained roads. Bridges are a bit different as they usually are much more expensive to build, but once the initial investment is recovered they should become toll-free IMO (once again, unless privately maintained). However, I think your question has little to do with what I was talking about: a better comparison would be having a second set of publicly-built parallel roads with higher tolls for those who can afford them, or offering higher toll fees allowing a higher speed limit. I personally wouldn't be OK with this.
  - cafard 10y ago
    The situation exists throughout the US. One can, as far as I know, get anywhere in Pennsylvania that the turnpike will take you without using the turnpike. It will just take a fair bit longer to do so.
douche 10y ago
If vanity plates cost more per year than a large pizza, which has been roughly the case in every state I've lived in, I'd worry more about some sort of wealth signalling effect. And if I didn't see so many wrecks rolling down the road held together with bondo and baling wire sporting vanity plates... There's also often a whole suite of charity plates, where you can proudly display your support of XYZ for an additional fee, some of which is donated to charity. Growing up, I remember many people in Maine who thought the old lobster plates[1] were ugly enough to opt for the loonie plates[2]. [1] http://www.15q.net/us2/me00b.jpg http://www.15q.net/us2/me00b.jpg [2] http://www.maine.gov/dacf/parks/get_involved/images/loonPlate.jpg http://www.maine.gov/dacf/parks/get_involved/images/loonPlat...
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
pjc50 10y ago
That's a rather strange way of looking at it, since the custom plates aren't actually "better" in a functional sense. Just more desirable.

DocTomoe 10y ago

Sometimes, parts of the license numbers carry Information. For instance, German license plate KA-WT 342 is from the City of Karlsruhe ("KA"), and is privately registered (letters after the dash). KA-T 34H is a Karlsruhe privately-owned historic car (H at the end). KA-4734 is a car owned by the Regierungsbezirk Karlsruhe (most likely a police car) 0 57-274 is a car owned by the embassy of Indonesia in Germany (0 for diplomatic, 57 for Indonesia) BN-173-345H is a historic car owned by an UNHCR (173) employee with diplomatic immunity working from Bonn (BN). Cars owned by the UNHCR itself would be 0 173-788H... This kind of quick-glance information gets lost when you introduce vanity plates. We do have "Wunschkennzeichen", though, allowing you to choose the random letters and numbers from the pool of those combinations not yet used.

tremon 10y ago
Does that also mean that Germans have to apply for new license plates when moving from one district to another, or does the license plate only refer to the district of original purchase?
- coldtea 10y ago
  From other places where this holds, it only refers to the district of the original purchase. And people don't move that much either, so 90% of the plates or such are accurate as to their owner's district too.
- DocTomoe 10y ago
  If you move, you used to get new license plates. There was talk about changing this, but I am not aware that it has.
- gambiting 10y ago
  In Poland you have to get a new license plate every time the car changes its owner, unless they happen to live in the same city. But the first 2-3 letters change depending on where you live, and it's quite granular, so even if you sell your car to a city not far away it might need a new license plate.

dingaling 10y ago

Northern Ireland has a strange approach. Generally they follow a pre-1963 county-based system in monotonic sequential order but occasionally a profitable prefix arises; recently BIG nnnn where nnnn is integer. So they can reserve the 'nice' ones in the sequence e.g. BIG 1 and sell those on the market. But they don't sell them in advance of sequence.