State will change design in 2020

The State of New York plans next year to change its standard license plate and is asking residents to vote online for one of five designs.

The voting continues at bit.ly/plate-vote through Sept. 2 to replace the blue-and-white Empire plates, which were introduced a decade ago. The state says the new plates will be more reflective so they can more easily be read by plate readers for cashless tolls and red-light enforcement and by police officers.

One of the five designs

Beginning in April, when drivers renew their plates, those with plates that are at least 10 years old will be issued new plates for $25 and pay an additional $20 if they want to keep their plate number.

State Sen. Sue Serino, a Republican whose district includes the Highlands, in a statement called the change a “money grab” and termed the design vote “a sad attempt to distract from the fact that this is just one more way for New York State to cash in” by forcing drivers to buy plates they may not need.

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8 replies on “License Plate Vote”

  1. This whole business is an outrageous development. The plates seem to be in good condition generally; ironically, mine, which I have had for many years, are in the “new” color scheme. Also, I already pay a premium for the plates I choose. Do they plan on charging twice? Further, the materials to be used, as well as the destruction of the old plates (I don’t believe enameled metal can be re-used), will have a considerable carbon footprint.

  2. What is the story with the funding of that new bridge? Seems New Yorkers are being told to pay for it and advertise it with these mandatory new plates. Also note the recent bizarre story about the cost of adding an unnecessary middle initial to the signs naming it the Cuomo.

    Or are the Orange and Rockland commuters’ demands for special lower tolls going to be covered and paid for with weird, general taxes and with other indirectly obtained monies?

  3. All talk of this being a wasteful money grab (which it is) aside… In a state with 20 million people, there must be someone who can come up with some better designs than these. The fonts are terrible, the designs are outdated and uninspired. If this is going to happen, how about some sort of open design process to bring in some new ideas?

    I see cars from other states which all seem to have more thoughtfully designed plates than ours. Here’s a simple design proposition: Almost every new car sold has a license plate cover. The current NYS license plate is designed in such a way that the text is partially obscured by this ubiquitous cover. Planning ahead for the license plate covers so they don’t partially obscure the text is a simple design proposition. Let’s get some creative minds behind this one.

  4. In the vote on five new plate designs, Gov. Cuomo is just going to say the plate with the image of the new Tappan Zee Bridge, named after his father, won. The vote is a scam to make it look like we have a choice. [via Facebook]

  5. In response to criticism from Sen. Serino and others, the commissioner of the state Department of Motor Vehicles, Mark Schroeder, issued a statement decrying “the hypocrisy and misstatements from certain legislators seeking cheap press hits.”

    He noted that the fee for plates has been $25 for more than a decade and is set by the Legislature. He also said that the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators considers 10 years to be a plate’s useful life, and that if a plate is damaged or the reflective coating is degraded, electronic toll cameras cannot read it and a driver will not be charged.

    “The revenue loss will be borne by other drivers, which is unfair,” he wrote. “It is possible that a plate may still be in good condition after 10 years but that determination would need to be made on a plate-by-plate basis after inspection. If the Legislature can agree to a cost-effective and practical plate inspection mechanism, we would welcome the opportunity to be cooperative.”

    1. Now we are getting to the meat of the issue. Apparently a small number of drivers have discovered that if they damage their plates, or somehow allow their cars to be marked with damaged plates, wherein a part of the reflective coating is removed, they are not or may not be charged bridge or thruway tolls. Increasingly, oddly, inexplicably, l had noticed more and more cases of thusly-damaged auto plates parked here and there.

      No large-scale inspection system is needed, no large-scale replacement program is needed. Just station a few state police at the toll booths and have a few of those yet-very-few vehicles with damaged plates pulled over. Drivers are being pulled over for any of a great number of other reasons already. [On the other hand, many of these reasons frankly are quite trivial, and in these cases the practice should cease.] If the plate is damaged, a fix-it ticket is issued and the car must until it is resolved pay the tolls in cash. No new laws are needed. The police can easily figure this out.

      I knew this story had something to do with bridges.

      And who cares what the self-appointed “American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators” – the AAMVA – thinks? Obviously yet another case of a self promoting, seemingly “expert”, seemingly unbiased, yet unelected, privately owned and controlled non-Foil-able pressure group – a fairly shadowy source of unsolicited opinion and advice commonly used nowadays to brainwash executives, legislatures, commissioners and others, for who-can-say-whose’s benefit or advantage.

      In conclusion, and contrary to what Mark Schroeder is reported to think, the press is not cheap and the hits will keep coming whenever stupid, costly ideas are emitted by cabals or commissions in Albany.

      The criticisms by Senator Serino and many others, including myself, of this particular not-very-well-considered idea is entirely warranted and justified. More generally, criticism, and exposure to the disinfecting power derived from the sunlight of wide public discussion, is the only way dumb ideas, whether they may originate from cranks on the internet, from pressure groups promoting special interests, from state or federal legislatures, from secretive cabals or committee or commissions, from goofy Presidents (yes, I did go there), from wherever, can be debunked, defeated and/or corrected.

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