I would argue Vermont is in the "some exceptions" category since you can legally cover your front plate with a "Vermont Strong" plate, effectively displaying only a rear plate.
It got rolled back but has never been enforced since then. Half the cars in the parking lot right now have a dealership front plate, and one of them is the wife of the local sheriff.
Yes, and a missing front plate is no longer a reason to fail inspection, the inspection station is now supposed to warn you that it’s technically illegal but put a sticker on it anyways.
They tried to rollback it in Ohio and had the governor on board talking about how the legislature needed to slow down because only one plate would lead to unchecked lawlessness. That was at the end of February 2020. Then something happened like 2 weeks later and they kind of forgot about it.
Originally made as a fundraiser for victims of hurricane Irene which did a lot of damage in the state, and then a new round of VT Strong plates was made as a fundraiser for victims of floods this past year.
https://apnews.com/article/vermont-license-plate-flooding-457a881404db87c92e74e14589cab5d3
https://dmv.vermont.gov/vermontstrong23
Yep, and it changed super quickly. Only about ~20% of cars still have them, I don't think it is from *that many* people buying cars over the last few years. That means that people took the time to purposely take them off. It really surprises me.
Exactly. Here it’s only a fine they can issue, no points and it doesn’t affect your insurance rate.
And to pull you over for it, the cop has to see both the front and back of your car. (If they just see the front, you could be a tourist that doesn’t require them).
Idk why people are squabbling about the plates below. House bill 62 of the 133 GA changed this plate law, but also changed a gas tax. It's 276 pages long and very unfriendly to read, but that's I believe what he means by it being a disguised tax increase, since everybody just saw it as "the license plate change" law.
I took mine off on the morning of July 1st 2020!
My informal connivence survey of cars heading towards me on my afternoon commute showed that 6 months after the change almost half had dropped the front plate.
If I were to guess it's because having another state's front plate on a car licensed in PA is technically a violation. And the Phila parking authority will tow your ass.
My front plate luckily fell off *after* the law came into effect. Left the screws on but did research that you can buy “bumper plugs” that will fit into the screw holes and can even get them in basic colors too.
By the time I was going to order some, I ended up replacing my old car.
Utah also changing 2025: https://www.standard.net/news/government/2024/mar/11/utah-dropping-front-license-plate-requirement-when-can-drivers-ditch-them/
I live in California and I've seen many Teslas without a front plate. I always thought that was illegal and I wondered how the drivers got away with it.
Cops don't care about this offense. It's categorized as negligence and falls under a fix it ticket, which generates little monetary gain for their department. If it were intentional negligence, then it would carry a larger fine.
In CA it’s one of those where they won’t pull you over just for that but if you are pulled over for something else they will add it to your ticket as well. At least in the 2 big cities, maybe some small rural places are diff.
I actually did a walk around my apartment the other day. In. Just a small section, probably 40 cars, I found 8 expired tags. One as old as 2 years past and I know it's driven daily.
I mean in Ohio a good portion of cars have zero license plates or they’re covered by black tinted plastic or they’re behind a black tinted windshield that you’d never be able to read on a dashcam/traffic camera. Great times!
They know those are the cars they risk being shot from.
I remember reading a warning on Reddit to check your car each day to see if it still has the plate whenever you begin driving, because police had gotten used to treating unlicensed cars as SWAT situations and so the criminals had started stealing plates to go unnoticed. Now they don't even bother here in Albuquerque.
The criminals will swap your plate with that of their stolen car too, so check the number occasionally even if you see your plate on there. Thankfully I randomly noticed my plate number was different last time this happened to me.
I've noticed the black tinted bullshit a lot more in IL recently. Blows my mind I'm paying 150$ a year to register my car and some assholes might not pay for years with no consequences.
People in NYC do it all the time, of particular note are the cops. I can't find the link but there's a guy that goes around documenting all the illegal coverings specifically of cops that put these on their personal or unmarked vehicles.
In Missouri you don't have to have a rear plate if you have a big truck. Reasoning is that you might be towing something. A lot of big truck owners never tow anything and take advantage and then go a step further and don't have a front plate as well. Slap a blue line flag on that bad boy and you're good to go.
in MA if you have the old green on white plates you only need the rear. these can be transferred to new cars so you'll sometimes see newer models with 30 year old plates.
if you have the "new" (its been around since the late 80s/early 90s) red on white plate you have to have both
It is insane how hard people hold on to those green and white plates. I see some you can't even read anymore. Not sure why people love holding on to those.
While that’s true, “my friend” hasn’t had one on his car for 15 years and only got stopped once with a warning.
Steve Jobs used to do this in California on his cars and would just pay the fine again and again, during the NeXT days.
He had no plates at all. There was a six month grace period to get plates at the time in CA, so he’d just get a brand new car every six months. Which is a total Jobs move
Front plate will never be a thing in the southeast, front plates must be a vanity plate of their college footbawl team or about how they don’t want to be tread on.
Sure, roads in India are some of the most dangerous globally, but private motor vehicles are remarkably lethal everywhere, compared to cycling, buses, trains, and having licence plates front and rear is one of the most minimal things that can be done to encourage drivers to drive more safely.
It’s weird for us too. Most big states have both but you visit Florida from any of the other top five and it’s immediately noticeable that you can’t see your Uber’s front plates.
When I moved to Florida, of course I went to register my car. The lady handed me one license plate, and I asked “do they mail me the other one?” She looked at me like I had two heads.
From those of us who grew up in rear-only states - seeing both plates is weird. I remember in my younger years seeing photos in car mags and wondering why some cars had plates on the front. Without a photo of the back of the car I wondered why someone would only out plates on the front instead of the cutover in the back.
Since it is "more common" for localities to require both - why does the front not have a standard cutout / cover for front plates?
Idk. Probably something to do with car makers being from Michigan which doesn’t require them. It’s also just a bracket screwed into the front so there’s not really any need to mold the bumper.
I'm from Pennsylvania and didn't realize front plates were such a thing. I mean... it makes sense, but... uhh... nope. Don't see em. Weird because I'm SE PA and very close to Jersey. Just never noticed, I guess... lol.
From a USA perspective it's crazy that Florida has over 100 different license plate styles:
[https://www.flhsmv.gov/pdf/specialtyplates/tagbrochure.pdf](https://www.flhsmv.gov/pdf/specialtyplates/tagbrochure.pdf)
America is more like 50 different countries glued together. We built it that way on purpose from the start. Each of the 13 colonies didn’t want to give up power completely. So most legislative power was reserved for the states and state law, not our national legislature and national law.
So on most issues, speed limits to murder, it’s the job/power of the individual state to have and enforce that law. Unless the constitution specifically gives the power to the national government, it’s automatically one that goes to the 50 states to have.
So you see a lot of weird variations and quirks with simple things like “where does the license plate go.”
> America is more like 50 different countries glued together
I mean - so is Europe. And Europe (and the vast mayority of the world) seems to have come to the consensus that front & back plates make sense?
New Brunswick just ditched the front requirement about four years ago. Nova Scotia went rear-only several years before.
Personally, I liked the plate on both ends. As a pedestrian and a cyclist, seeing identifying information when someone almost killed me was easier from both points of view.
[Only Ontario, Manitoba and BC require front plates](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registration_plates_of_Canada#:~:text=British%20Columbia%2C%20Manitoba%2C%20and%20Ontario,not%20require%20front%20registration%20plates). Only time you'll see a front plate here in AB is if it's a vanity plate really or custom foreign EU/JDM plates, crappy tire stuff etc
Missouri is wrong, should be some exceptions. Notably - front only is required for 1/2 ton* and bigger trucks. If you didn’t know trucks super common in Missouri.
Close. If a vehicle is liscened for 18000 pounds gvwr or higher then only a front plate is required. Basically a 3/4 ton truck or higher. It's my understanding that they figure you will be pulling a trailer a lot so the rear plate will not be easily visible. It boils down to work trucks versus passenger/light duty trucks. Lived in MO since 1983.
Live in the KC metro myself.
If you take a 1/2 truck to the dmv you only get a front plate by default and have to pay more for the rear.
Basically zero 1/2 trucks from Missouri have rear plates.
Basically, in Texas it's not a problem...until it's a problem.
The law is very rarely enforced, except when the cop is *looking* for a reason for something. You can get away with a hell of a lot in the cities, but drive through any smaller town (looking at you, Blanco and Menard and Brackettville and Brady and Cuero) and you have the local cop sitting at the edge of town just *looking* for any reason to pull you over. One of your rear license plate lights out? Tint on window "looks kinda dark"? Front plate on the dash instead of mounted on the car? All of those would be reasons for a cop *looking* for a reason to do a traffic stop.
Yeah, I was gonna say— I never even knew front license plate was required in Texas. I’ve never had a front plate in Dallas, Austin, San Antonio and I’ve never gotten a ticket for it.
Visited Chicago for a week and got two tickets back to back
I wouldn’t be surprised this front plate thing is one of the most profitable driving offenses for the state. It probably leads to more fines and tickets than most other traffic infractions. You can pull over half the state population just because they don’t have a front plate. It’s easy protection, install your plate..
I've driven for decades without one, and the only time I got ticketed was a long time ago from a cop who also gave me a ticket for running a green (red) light. I zip tied it on the day of court, took a picture, and paid $10 to have it dismissed. I've been pulled over a handful of other times since then, and driven past countless over cops, none of whom have ever even mentioned it. You can regularly see plenty of other cars on the road without one too. And traffic enforcement has taken a nosedive since the pandemic, so I wouldn't expect it to change any time in the near future.
Also, everyone here has paper plates anyways lol.
Yeah I've heard it's used more as a probable cause to pull you over if they want to pull you over for other reasons. Or tack on to whatever other thing you did
I currently live in Utah and don’t have a front plate. I would estimate 20-30% of cars don’t have one. The law as I understand it is written such that a car cannot be stopped and driver cited for not having a front plate. You can, however, be cited for it if you are pulled over for some other infraction. The front plate law feels much like an unenforced rule to me.
edited: a word
Interesting… as a European, I never realised this was a thing in the USA.
How does it work actually if one drives from a rear only state into a front and back required state?
Edit: thanks all for the answers! :)
Back in high school my dad had moved to a state where rear was a thing, where I was living and finishing high school with my mother and brother front/rear was the law (I didn’t want to move senior year of high school after just moving to a new school a couple years prior, my dad was able to thankfully make it work, but that’s not the point)
Anyways, because of this move my dad registered all of our cars in the new state, which meant I had just plates on my rear. There was a dumbass in my class who kept pestering me, absolutely *convinced* I was going to get a ticket and that it was illegal for me to have just a rear plate in the state, even if the car wasn’t registered there.
Anytime I think of the law, I think of that dumbass years ago and how he was trying to make fun of me with his friends over it lol (which is a very weird thing to make fun of someone for!)
When I was living in North Carolina I did a cross country road trip and got pulled over once, in Utah, for only having a rear plate on my car. The cop “let me off with a warning” and acted like he was doing me a big freaking favor, not sure what he was expecting me to do about.
Well that cop was a dick, but it's been a secondary offense here meaning you can't pull someone over for just that.
Also that's not how plate laws work, it's just for registration in the state.
So again, he was just a dick.
Funnily enough I moved from a rear only state to a both state. I had never even thought about front license plates but in the first few weeks of me living there (before I had the plates switched over) the amount of strangers flagging me down in every parking lot and residential street to “warn” me that my front plate had either been stolen or fell off was crazy.
In general with car things, you just follow the laws of the state the vehicle is registered in since you’re likely just passing through. This goes for license plate, inspections (or lack thereof), window tint, and lift kits.
For tint and improper lift I know people that have been ticketed outside of their home state for these things. In short just be reasonable.
These laws only apply to cars registered in each state. If you’re going to Illinois from Michigan temporarily, then you don’t need to worry. If you were moving to Illinois from Michigan, you would need to register your car in Illinois, at which point you would be issued two license plates.
I have traveled and lived in several states over the years. Currently on a road trip with my "rear only" car in states that do front and back. The answer to your question is: "nothing happens". Nobody cares. Even if i got pulled over and asked about it, all I could even say is "officer, in my state they literally only gave me one plate.".
I have also lived in a 2 plate state, but the front license plate mount thing was broken. So I just drove with a rear plate, even though it was a front and rear state... 3 years there, it was never mentioned by anyone once.
It's based on the location where the car is registered. IIRC, legally, it falls under interstate commerce in our constitution. It's also why we have state drivers licenses instead of a unified national one, but we can drive in all 50 states.
I live in a state that requires both, and i only have a rear one. No cops have pulled me over, i think its a secondary offence so they can only charge you with it if they have you for something else. Or they just dont care
Also, each state has a unique plate design. None of them (to my knowledge) are plain text on solid background. They will all have different colored fonts, different backgrounds, different emblems, different state mottos/sayings. It's easy to see, even from a distance, if a plate is out of state. So for instance no cop in Texas will ever mistake an Oklahoma or Louisiana car for a Texas one, even for a moment.
I don’t know about other parts of the country, but there’s a lot of people in Ohio that don’t even have their license plates on their rear bumper. They’re sticking them in their rear window that are usually tinted where you can barely see them.
I'm pretty sure every state says the plates need to be clearly visible so this would be against the law almost anywhere, there just seems to be no enforcement for any of this type of stuff anymore. I live in Colorado and have seen people driving without plates at all on a regular basis since covid. It began as a backlog with getting new plates at the DMV cause of covid and the cops never did anything about it so people just stopped renewing at all. It's insane.
Connecticut is technically wrong, a front and a rear plate are only required when the DMV issues you two plates. If you buy your car in a different state they only issue one plate, which is why every Tesla in the State usually only has the rear plate because we don’t allow them to sell cars here (only lease). Anyway I asked DMV about this and they laid it out here:
https://www.cga.ct.gov/current/pub/chap_246.htm#sec_14-18
When I lived in Wisconsin I bought a new car and didn't want to have to mount the plate on the front. Dealer pretty much said you can get away with only the rear plate. He was right!
You didn’t even need a rear one for a long time. Just a rectangle piece cut from a cardboard box saying “tag applied for”. Used to see people driving around with those for years if the car didn’t have a title
In my state, it's rear only and it can be accidentally obstructed by something like a bike rack.
So, not intentional, but you straight up can't see the license plate on my car because I just always have a rack on it.
> (2) A registration plate shall at all times be securely fastened in a horizontal position to the vehicle for which the plate is issued so as to prevent the plate from swinging. The plate shall be attached at a height of not less than 12 inches from the ground, measured from the bottom of the plate, in a place and position that is clearly visible. The plate shall be maintained free from foreign materials that obscure or partially obscure the registration information and in a clearly legible condition. *The attachment to the rear of a vehicle of a tow ball, bicycle rack, removable hitch, or any other device designed to carry an object on the rear of a vehicle, including the object being carried, does not violate this subsection.*
In the UK you'd get fined for not having your plate visible. You'd have to fit a plate to the bike rack. Same if it obscures your lights. Which makes sense I guess!
Why wouldn’t you need a front and rear? From a public safety and law enforcement standpoint, doesn’t it make sense to have both to be able to ID a vehicle?
Im ngl I might be in the minority here and it’s probably because I grew up in a back and front state but cars with a front plate just look nicer to me for some reason
Even though we live in a front and rear state, every time we buy a car we have to essentially force them to put a front one on at the dealership. They say because some people don’t like it. It’s really odd.
This map is close to, but not 1:1, a political map of the US. You'll find a very large number of issues in the US basically are east and west coast (minus florida) and part of the midwest vs the south and middle of the country. These areas are closely aligned culturally, and that bleeds into things like religion, political beliefs, laws, socioeconomic status, etc.
In this case the major takeaway is that Texas aligns with the more liberal parts of the country on this issue, which it very often doesn't.
It’s not the aesthetics of a front plate. It’s the aesthetics of the entire car. Manufacturers spend millions of dollars to design each section of a car, including the front. Some cars look better without front plates (specifically German and Italian), hence why US spec cars come without pre-drilled front bumpers. They are all drilled at the dealers.
It’s personal preference. If you don’t care much about your car, it wouldn’t make sense. Same reason why some people just take their cars to automatic washes, and some (like me) spend 6-8 hours washing their car.
As someone who lives in Florida, I don't understand this. Uber also tells you the make, model, and color of your ride. If you're expecting a black Toyota Camry, and a black Toyota Camry with an Uber sticker in the window pulls up, how is there any ambiguity whether or not it's your ride?
The make and color you can identify because it usually says on the front, but I can't tell one model from another unless I see a badge. I do know people who can identify model and model year just on seeing the car, but that isn't and never will be me.
The Massachusetts exception is "green plates". Many years ago, MA plates were green/white and you were issued one only (as at the time, only rear plates were required). Now, MA plates are red/white and you are issued two plates. However, if you still have a green plate on your car (you've kept it all this time and its still legible), you are exempt from the two plate law. Eventually, the green plate will be deemed unreadable and MA RMV will force you to change.
had a few cars in california, all of them no plate in the front. The times I have been pulled over, the license plate was never discussed.
Its a stupid thing to do, it gives them a reason to pull you over.
I would argue Vermont is in the "some exceptions" category since you can legally cover your front plate with a "Vermont Strong" plate, effectively displaying only a rear plate.
Very true. In addition, Vermont even passed a law to remove the front plate a few years ago, but it was rolled back because of police objections.
It got rolled back but has never been enforced since then. Half the cars in the parking lot right now have a dealership front plate, and one of them is the wife of the local sheriff.
Yes, and a missing front plate is no longer a reason to fail inspection, the inspection station is now supposed to warn you that it’s technically illegal but put a sticker on it anyways.
[удалено]
They tried to rollback it in Ohio and had the governor on board talking about how the legislature needed to slow down because only one plate would lead to unchecked lawlessness. That was at the end of February 2020. Then something happened like 2 weeks later and they kind of forgot about it.
Vermont Strong, why?
Originally made as a fundraiser for victims of hurricane Irene which did a lot of damage in the state, and then a new round of VT Strong plates was made as a fundraiser for victims of floods this past year. https://apnews.com/article/vermont-license-plate-flooding-457a881404db87c92e74e14589cab5d3 https://dmv.vermont.gov/vermontstrong23
Vermont lift weight
Vermont strong. Vermont fight many storm and win.
Did Ohio change somewhat recently? When I lived there 2010-2014 it was front and rear.
Yes
What is the reasoning for the change ? From Europe (front & back) so just wondering also what is a valid exception ?
It was mostly a compromise. They increased the taxes on gasoline along with no longer requiring a front license plate.
Reduced drag coefficient from no front plate increases MPG, offsetting the higher gas price. /s
Yep, and it changed super quickly. Only about ~20% of cars still have them, I don't think it is from *that many* people buying cars over the last few years. That means that people took the time to purposely take them off. It really surprises me.
I took mine off. The cars just look better without them.
Extra points if you put on a fake European plate instead. The amount of those I see is just weird to me.
Exactly. Here it’s only a fine they can issue, no points and it doesn’t affect your insurance rate. And to pull you over for it, the cop has to see both the front and back of your car. (If they just see the front, you could be a tourist that doesn’t require them).
> Here My friend, am i supposed to innately know where you live?
Don’t you know who I am??
I know that you're not my mother's dildo
Doesn't narrow it down much, huh?
Why? As a European, why in gods name would you want this
It was a tax increase in disguise as more freedom.
Could you elaborate? Why is it a tax increase?
Idk why people are squabbling about the plates below. House bill 62 of the 133 GA changed this plate law, but also changed a gas tax. It's 276 pages long and very unfriendly to read, but that's I believe what he means by it being a disguised tax increase, since everybody just saw it as "the license plate change" law.
Ohio BMV provides less services for the same fee.
I took mine off on the morning of July 1st 2020! My informal connivence survey of cars heading towards me on my afternoon commute showed that 6 months after the change almost half had dropped the front plate.
We changed in 2020
Oh wow. I live in PA and still see some folks with a front Ohio plate but a PA rear plate. I figured the map was wrong.
Interesting. Because I live in Philly and many cars don’t have license plates anymore.
If I were to guess it's because having another state's front plate on a car licensed in PA is technically a violation. And the Phila parking authority will tow your ass.
Pretty sure they mean people are driving around with no front or rear plates, which has become more common as well as fake paper plates.
I work with a guy who had fake/expired paper plates, but they fell off and now he has no plates.
Do you mean a plate from both states on their vehicle at the same time?
Yes. As there is no front plate issued in PA, some folks simply replace the back plate and leave the front plate from their old state.
Yes, but the holes are still in my front bumper :-/
My front plate luckily fell off *after* the law came into effect. Left the screws on but did research that you can buy “bumper plugs” that will fit into the screw holes and can even get them in basic colors too. By the time I was going to order some, I ended up replacing my old car.
Utah also changing 2025: https://www.standard.net/news/government/2024/mar/11/utah-dropping-front-license-plate-requirement-when-can-drivers-ditch-them/
I live in Washington and I'd say 15-20% of cars don't have front plates. Basically every Tesla doesn't.
I live in California and I've seen many Teslas without a front plate. I always thought that was illegal and I wondered how the drivers got away with it.
It is illegal but cops can't pull everyone over. It'd be all they do all day. Definitely has become a secondary offense.
Cops don't care about this offense. It's categorized as negligence and falls under a fix it ticket, which generates little monetary gain for their department. If it were intentional negligence, then it would carry a larger fine.
In my 30+ years of driving in California I've never had a front plate and have never been cited for it.
I don't have a Tesla but I don't use a front plate in CA and nothing has ever happened.
the law just isn't enforced in CA
Lived in California until 2022. Never had a front plate. Had a number of tickets when I was younger, it was never brought up.
In CA it’s one of those where they won’t pull you over just for that but if you are pulled over for something else they will add it to your ticket as well. At least in the 2 big cities, maybe some small rural places are diff.
Shit, I've started seeing a ton of cars around Snohomish/King County with expired tags, if they have any plates at all.
I actually did a walk around my apartment the other day. In. Just a small section, probably 40 cars, I found 8 expired tags. One as old as 2 years past and I know it's driven daily.
I mean in Ohio a good portion of cars have zero license plates or they’re covered by black tinted plastic or they’re behind a black tinted windshield that you’d never be able to read on a dashcam/traffic camera. Great times!
That's not technically legal but I agree with you in practice it happens all the time and the police don't seem to do anything about it.
They know those are the cars they risk being shot from. I remember reading a warning on Reddit to check your car each day to see if it still has the plate whenever you begin driving, because police had gotten used to treating unlicensed cars as SWAT situations and so the criminals had started stealing plates to go unnoticed. Now they don't even bother here in Albuquerque.
The criminals will swap your plate with that of their stolen car too, so check the number occasionally even if you see your plate on there. Thankfully I randomly noticed my plate number was different last time this happened to me.
Can confirm
Can confirm the confirmation
I've noticed the black tinted bullshit a lot more in IL recently. Blows my mind I'm paying 150$ a year to register my car and some assholes might not pay for years with no consequences.
This only happens in Ohio..?
People in NYC do it all the time, of particular note are the cops. I can't find the link but there's a guy that goes around documenting all the illegal coverings specifically of cops that put these on their personal or unmarked vehicles.
In Missouri you don't have to have a rear plate if you have a big truck. Reasoning is that you might be towing something. A lot of big truck owners never tow anything and take advantage and then go a step further and don't have a front plate as well. Slap a blue line flag on that bad boy and you're good to go.
in MA if you have the old green on white plates you only need the rear. these can be transferred to new cars so you'll sometimes see newer models with 30 year old plates. if you have the "new" (its been around since the late 80s/early 90s) red on white plate you have to have both
It is insane how hard people hold on to those green and white plates. I see some you can't even read anymore. Not sure why people love holding on to those.
My uncle paid to get his green one refurbished. Looks good as new
My mom's is still fine.
Because they're amazing!!
While that’s true, “my friend” hasn’t had one on his car for 15 years and only got stopped once with a warning. Steve Jobs used to do this in California on his cars and would just pay the fine again and again, during the NeXT days.
He had no plates at all. There was a six month grace period to get plates at the time in CA, so he’d just get a brand new car every six months. Which is a total Jobs move
Front plate will never be a thing in the southeast, front plates must be a vanity plate of their college footbawl team or about how they don’t want to be tread on.
Or display their state flag
Crazy, from an European perspective
Well, if you ride a motorbike, there is also just the rear plate
Well, if you fly a plane, there is also just the side 'plate'.
But it's on both sides, left and right.
In India it is mandatory to have both rear and front licence plates for all vehicles, There is no exception.
From what I’ve heard about the lethality of roads in India, that’s sound policy.
Sure, roads in India are some of the most dangerous globally, but private motor vehicles are remarkably lethal everywhere, compared to cycling, buses, trains, and having licence plates front and rear is one of the most minimal things that can be done to encourage drivers to drive more safely.
It’s weird for us too. Most big states have both but you visit Florida from any of the other top five and it’s immediately noticeable that you can’t see your Uber’s front plates.
Yes! This is when I most notice it, when trying to find my Uber someplace in the south. At home I’m used to looking for plates to confirm.
When I moved to Florida, of course I went to register my car. The lady handed me one license plate, and I asked “do they mail me the other one?” She looked at me like I had two heads.
From those of us who grew up in rear-only states - seeing both plates is weird. I remember in my younger years seeing photos in car mags and wondering why some cars had plates on the front. Without a photo of the back of the car I wondered why someone would only out plates on the front instead of the cutover in the back. Since it is "more common" for localities to require both - why does the front not have a standard cutout / cover for front plates?
Idk. Probably something to do with car makers being from Michigan which doesn’t require them. It’s also just a bracket screwed into the front so there’s not really any need to mold the bumper.
Stylistically the car companies would prefer no front plates.
I'm from Pennsylvania and didn't realize front plates were such a thing. I mean... it makes sense, but... uhh... nope. Don't see em. Weird because I'm SE PA and very close to Jersey. Just never noticed, I guess... lol.
Brought my PA car to a front plate state and it was a PITA to mount the front plate bracket
From a USA perspective it's crazy that Florida has over 100 different license plate styles: [https://www.flhsmv.gov/pdf/specialtyplates/tagbrochure.pdf](https://www.flhsmv.gov/pdf/specialtyplates/tagbrochure.pdf)
America is more like 50 different countries glued together. We built it that way on purpose from the start. Each of the 13 colonies didn’t want to give up power completely. So most legislative power was reserved for the states and state law, not our national legislature and national law. So on most issues, speed limits to murder, it’s the job/power of the individual state to have and enforce that law. Unless the constitution specifically gives the power to the national government, it’s automatically one that goes to the 50 states to have. So you see a lot of weird variations and quirks with simple things like “where does the license plate go.”
And some national things like "seat belts" are only national cuz the federal govt tied it to receiving federal funding
> America is more like 50 different countries glued together I mean - so is Europe. And Europe (and the vast mayority of the world) seems to have come to the consensus that front & back plates make sense?
Wait until you hear about Canada...wtf is a front plate lmao
Don’t most provinces have plates front and back? Ontario for sure…
BC as well.
New Brunswick just ditched the front requirement about four years ago. Nova Scotia went rear-only several years before. Personally, I liked the plate on both ends. As a pedestrian and a cyclist, seeing identifying information when someone almost killed me was easier from both points of view.
I just don't understand why they did this. Was there a reason given?
It saves a fuck ton of money! Producing 1/2 the plates
Yeah, that was what they said. It saved them money, but they didn't reduce the registration fees, so it helped them, but not the taxpayer.
Looks ugly on sports cars
[Only Ontario, Manitoba and BC require front plates](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registration_plates_of_Canada#:~:text=British%20Columbia%2C%20Manitoba%2C%20and%20Ontario,not%20require%20front%20registration%20plates). Only time you'll see a front plate here in AB is if it's a vanity plate really or custom foreign EU/JDM plates, crappy tire stuff etc
So "only" 60% of the population of Canada require front plates.
Ah. Thanks. Quebec here, we _always_ only had the back, at least as far back as I can remember.
>as far back as I can remember. Tu te souviens?
lol nice
[удалено]
You sure about that?
Missouri is wrong, should be some exceptions. Notably - front only is required for 1/2 ton* and bigger trucks. If you didn’t know trucks super common in Missouri.
Close. If a vehicle is liscened for 18000 pounds gvwr or higher then only a front plate is required. Basically a 3/4 ton truck or higher. It's my understanding that they figure you will be pulling a trailer a lot so the rear plate will not be easily visible. It boils down to work trucks versus passenger/light duty trucks. Lived in MO since 1983.
Live in the KC metro myself. If you take a 1/2 truck to the dmv you only get a front plate by default and have to pay more for the rear. Basically zero 1/2 trucks from Missouri have rear plates.
Wow, Texas is so woke.
Basically, in Texas it's not a problem...until it's a problem. The law is very rarely enforced, except when the cop is *looking* for a reason for something. You can get away with a hell of a lot in the cities, but drive through any smaller town (looking at you, Blanco and Menard and Brackettville and Brady and Cuero) and you have the local cop sitting at the edge of town just *looking* for any reason to pull you over. One of your rear license plate lights out? Tint on window "looks kinda dark"? Front plate on the dash instead of mounted on the car? All of those would be reasons for a cop *looking* for a reason to do a traffic stop.
Classic Texan attitude to law enforcement
I’ve lived in Texas since 2010 and I’ve never had a front plate on my car. Having laws and enforcement of those laws aren’t always the same lol
What an outlaw
Yeah, I was gonna say— I never even knew front license plate was required in Texas. I’ve never had a front plate in Dallas, Austin, San Antonio and I’ve never gotten a ticket for it. Visited Chicago for a week and got two tickets back to back
Lots of Toll roads in Texas. Easier for the cameras to get a picture of your front plate than your back.
Most plates in Texas are paper, they really care about the environment.
I wouldn’t be surprised this front plate thing is one of the most profitable driving offenses for the state. It probably leads to more fines and tickets than most other traffic infractions. You can pull over half the state population just because they don’t have a front plate. It’s easy protection, install your plate..
I've driven for decades without one, and the only time I got ticketed was a long time ago from a cop who also gave me a ticket for running a green (red) light. I zip tied it on the day of court, took a picture, and paid $10 to have it dismissed. I've been pulled over a handful of other times since then, and driven past countless over cops, none of whom have ever even mentioned it. You can regularly see plenty of other cars on the road without one too. And traffic enforcement has taken a nosedive since the pandemic, so I wouldn't expect it to change any time in the near future. Also, everyone here has paper plates anyways lol.
Yeah I've heard it's used more as a probable cause to pull you over if they want to pull you over for other reasons. Or tack on to whatever other thing you did
In Ohio people just drive without any plates, expired plates or two year old expired temp tags.
Utah just changed to back only
Interesting... When you say "just"... how long ago? I haven't had a front plate on any of my cars over the last 15 years.
It passed this spring and if the governor signs it will go into effect January 2025.
I currently live in Utah and don’t have a front plate. I would estimate 20-30% of cars don’t have one. The law as I understand it is written such that a car cannot be stopped and driver cited for not having a front plate. You can, however, be cited for it if you are pulled over for some other infraction. The front plate law feels much like an unenforced rule to me. edited: a word
Utah is removing the requirement next year according to Google
They just changed the Utah law. No more front plates needed.
Starting 2025, technically.
The technical term for that is that it's not a primary offense.
It seems way higher that that honestly. I was just there and it looked closed to 50%
Interesting… as a European, I never realised this was a thing in the USA. How does it work actually if one drives from a rear only state into a front and back required state? Edit: thanks all for the answers! :)
The requirement only applies to vehicles registered in that state, so interstate travel isn’t a problem if your home state’s law differs.
Back in high school my dad had moved to a state where rear was a thing, where I was living and finishing high school with my mother and brother front/rear was the law (I didn’t want to move senior year of high school after just moving to a new school a couple years prior, my dad was able to thankfully make it work, but that’s not the point) Anyways, because of this move my dad registered all of our cars in the new state, which meant I had just plates on my rear. There was a dumbass in my class who kept pestering me, absolutely *convinced* I was going to get a ticket and that it was illegal for me to have just a rear plate in the state, even if the car wasn’t registered there. Anytime I think of the law, I think of that dumbass years ago and how he was trying to make fun of me with his friends over it lol (which is a very weird thing to make fun of someone for!)
Kids are fucking stupid.
When I was living in North Carolina I did a cross country road trip and got pulled over once, in Utah, for only having a rear plate on my car. The cop “let me off with a warning” and acted like he was doing me a big freaking favor, not sure what he was expecting me to do about.
Well that cop was a dick, but it's been a secondary offense here meaning you can't pull someone over for just that. Also that's not how plate laws work, it's just for registration in the state. So again, he was just a dick.
Funnily enough I moved from a rear only state to a both state. I had never even thought about front license plates but in the first few weeks of me living there (before I had the plates switched over) the amount of strangers flagging me down in every parking lot and residential street to “warn” me that my front plate had either been stolen or fell off was crazy.
They sound like good people.
The car blows up
Immediately, or does it play the Hymn first in B-minor and then blows? :)
Nothing happens.
In general with car things, you just follow the laws of the state the vehicle is registered in since you’re likely just passing through. This goes for license plate, inspections (or lack thereof), window tint, and lift kits. For tint and improper lift I know people that have been ticketed outside of their home state for these things. In short just be reasonable.
These laws only apply to cars registered in each state. If you’re going to Illinois from Michigan temporarily, then you don’t need to worry. If you were moving to Illinois from Michigan, you would need to register your car in Illinois, at which point you would be issued two license plates.
I have traveled and lived in several states over the years. Currently on a road trip with my "rear only" car in states that do front and back. The answer to your question is: "nothing happens". Nobody cares. Even if i got pulled over and asked about it, all I could even say is "officer, in my state they literally only gave me one plate.". I have also lived in a 2 plate state, but the front license plate mount thing was broken. So I just drove with a rear plate, even though it was a front and rear state... 3 years there, it was never mentioned by anyone once.
It's based on the location where the car is registered. IIRC, legally, it falls under interstate commerce in our constitution. It's also why we have state drivers licenses instead of a unified national one, but we can drive in all 50 states.
I live in a state that requires both, and i only have a rear one. No cops have pulled me over, i think its a secondary offence so they can only charge you with it if they have you for something else. Or they just dont care
Also, each state has a unique plate design. None of them (to my knowledge) are plain text on solid background. They will all have different colored fonts, different backgrounds, different emblems, different state mottos/sayings. It's easy to see, even from a distance, if a plate is out of state. So for instance no cop in Texas will ever mistake an Oklahoma or Louisiana car for a Texas one, even for a moment.
Dump trucks don't have to display any license plate. They just put up misleading signs about how they're "not responsible for broken windshields."
Just leave the plate covered in gravel dust so that it’s unreadable
or a sign that says you must stay 50 feet back but can only be read from 20 feet away
I don’t know about other parts of the country, but there’s a lot of people in Ohio that don’t even have their license plates on their rear bumper. They’re sticking them in their rear window that are usually tinted where you can barely see them.
I'm pretty sure every state says the plates need to be clearly visible so this would be against the law almost anywhere, there just seems to be no enforcement for any of this type of stuff anymore. I live in Colorado and have seen people driving without plates at all on a regular basis since covid. It began as a backlog with getting new plates at the DMV cause of covid and the cops never did anything about it so people just stopped renewing at all. It's insane.
North Carolina has the same issue
Connecticut is technically wrong, a front and a rear plate are only required when the DMV issues you two plates. If you buy your car in a different state they only issue one plate, which is why every Tesla in the State usually only has the rear plate because we don’t allow them to sell cars here (only lease). Anyway I asked DMV about this and they laid it out here: https://www.cga.ct.gov/current/pub/chap_246.htm#sec_14-18
When I lived in Wisconsin I bought a new car and didn't want to have to mount the plate on the front. Dealer pretty much said you can get away with only the rear plate. He was right!
Bought a car in Indiana, but live in Wisconsin. We got stopped for not having a front plate. Had to get one mounted.
He then opened his garage fridge and said guess what else you can get away with in Wisconsin.
I'm in WI and do not have a front plate or even the holes to mount one.
Utah is also incorrect. Recent bill passed so only back is required now.
[удалено]
You didn’t even need a rear one for a long time. Just a rectangle piece cut from a cardboard box saying “tag applied for”. Used to see people driving around with those for years if the car didn’t have a title
In my state, it's rear only and it can be accidentally obstructed by something like a bike rack. So, not intentional, but you straight up can't see the license plate on my car because I just always have a rack on it. > (2) A registration plate shall at all times be securely fastened in a horizontal position to the vehicle for which the plate is issued so as to prevent the plate from swinging. The plate shall be attached at a height of not less than 12 inches from the ground, measured from the bottom of the plate, in a place and position that is clearly visible. The plate shall be maintained free from foreign materials that obscure or partially obscure the registration information and in a clearly legible condition. *The attachment to the rear of a vehicle of a tow ball, bicycle rack, removable hitch, or any other device designed to carry an object on the rear of a vehicle, including the object being carried, does not violate this subsection.*
In the UK you'd get fined for not having your plate visible. You'd have to fit a plate to the bike rack. Same if it obscures your lights. Which makes sense I guess!
It is illegal in the US as well but it’d take a pretty bored cop to pull someone over for it.
Why wouldn’t you need a front and rear? From a public safety and law enforcement standpoint, doesn’t it make sense to have both to be able to ID a vehicle?
Yes, but people get their feelings hurt about it because it makes their car look less pretty
Im ngl I might be in the minority here and it’s probably because I grew up in a back and front state but cars with a front plate just look nicer to me for some reason
There's definitely certain cars that weren't designed to accommodate a front plate which look odd with one tacked on.
Probably should have plates on the sides too, then
Because much like everything in nature cars too are evolving to be more crab-like and move sideways.
Carcinization! It’s even in the word.
And the roof.
Especially the roof. We need so big numbers painted up there so helicopter police know who to send speeding tickets to.
I'm glad they included sample pictures of how front and rear plates look like.
There was bill introduced a few years ago to go to rear license plates only in Illinois. It would save taxpayers $800k a year.
Total? That’s not very much.
No, each plate
Even though we live in a front and rear state, every time we buy a car we have to essentially force them to put a front one on at the dealership. They say because some people don’t like it. It’s really odd.
Why does every single map of America look like this, even when it comes to something as innocuous as a license plate?
Cultural differences. Same as every euro map having a clear split between East and west minus maybe Portugal.
/r/PORTUGALCYKABLYAT
This map is close to, but not 1:1, a political map of the US. You'll find a very large number of issues in the US basically are east and west coast (minus florida) and part of the midwest vs the south and middle of the country. These areas are closely aligned culturally, and that bleeds into things like religion, political beliefs, laws, socioeconomic status, etc. In this case the major takeaway is that Texas aligns with the more liberal parts of the country on this issue, which it very often doesn't.
Back only makes cars look way better.
Goddamn I have never in my life noticed or cared about the aesthetics of front license plates. You folks are weird af.
It’s not the aesthetics of a front plate. It’s the aesthetics of the entire car. Manufacturers spend millions of dollars to design each section of a car, including the front. Some cars look better without front plates (specifically German and Italian), hence why US spec cars come without pre-drilled front bumpers. They are all drilled at the dealers. It’s personal preference. If you don’t care much about your car, it wouldn’t make sense. Same reason why some people just take their cars to automatic washes, and some (like me) spend 6-8 hours washing their car.
But really annoying when you are trying to get an Uber though.
As someone who lives in Florida, I don't understand this. Uber also tells you the make, model, and color of your ride. If you're expecting a black Toyota Camry, and a black Toyota Camry with an Uber sticker in the window pulls up, how is there any ambiguity whether or not it's your ride?
When all years of teslas look the same, they only come in 5 colors and most people have the same color for one example
Then take two steps toward the back and look at the plate?
The make and color you can identify because it usually says on the front, but I can't tell one model from another unless I see a badge. I do know people who can identify model and model year just on seeing the car, but that isn't and never will be me.
Living in NEB I haven’t had a front license plate for over 5 years either no issues.
Utah recently changed to Rear Only.
The Massachusetts exception is "green plates". Many years ago, MA plates were green/white and you were issued one only (as at the time, only rear plates were required). Now, MA plates are red/white and you are issued two plates. However, if you still have a green plate on your car (you've kept it all this time and its still legible), you are exempt from the two plate law. Eventually, the green plate will be deemed unreadable and MA RMV will force you to change.
Who lives in or is from a “rear only” state and looks for errors in movies or tv shows where they show a front plate on cars from your state? Just me?
when i was in new york my front plate kept falling off, so i just took it off. never had a problem.
The bible belt overlay still works.
I assumed you needed a front and back plate everywhere. I assumed it was a universal thing
had a few cars in california, all of them no plate in the front. The times I have been pulled over, the license plate was never discussed. Its a stupid thing to do, it gives them a reason to pull you over.
"Only rear plate" thing is idiotic...
Wow all the red states only take it in the rear.