Burke Strickland

Texans may be breaking new law if license plate surround touches letters / numbers

In Texas, it is not illegal to have a license plate bracket or surround. But as of September 1, 2003, it IS illegal to have one that covers up the design that tells what state it is from (including the name ”Texas”) and/or obscure the identifying letters and numbers. According to the story aired on the local news, having one that is even “borderline”, where the surround just touches the letters and numbers, is enough for the state troopers or local police to pull you over for probable cause and write a ticket which can subject you to a $200 fine.

I took the surround off my rear license plate (which had the dealer’s name, etcetera that my dealer had installed when I bought the car a few years ago) since it was covering “Texas” and touched the edge of the numbers and letters. I checked with the dealer today to see if they had a replacement that complies with the new law, and they said they had to remove all of them and had no replacements on order. It’s tough to design one which complies with the letter of the law and still has enough room to display legible names and slogans.

Urban Legend that all license surrounds are banned in Texas is debunked (license surrounds per se not illegal -- just the wrong kind): http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/pending/texasplate.asp

TV news story highlights the situation: http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/news/909...al_plates.html

Burke

Mark Philp

I think this is common in some other states, but it's one of those laws that isn't enforced much. I recently found out we have such a law here in New York. Only found out because I read that they are inforcing it with a vengance in New York City. I don't know of anybody getting ticketed for it here in upstate, but I'm sure if the government finds out they can make money doing it they will. To be safe, I took mine off.

Philip_G

As long as you're in state I don't think it's a big deal, I've been hassled for it while out of state though.
Screw the dealer frames, get some nice clear plate vaults!

David Preston

They do it here in Ga also. My wife's friend got pulled over and got a warning. She tokk it off when she got home. My friend got pulled over for the same thing. I got pulled over for a tinted one and had to take it off. Thanks for the reminder I have to go take the one on my wife's car off. It covers up a lot. I guess she has been real lucky.

Lee L

Philip_G, the clear plate vaults are banned in NC and many other states as well. I would assume this will be enforeced more and more as more cities start using red-light cameras.

Revenge is like serving cold cuts-

Tony Soprano

Jay H

Yup, got a stupid $25 ticket for covering "new jersey" as if the cop couldn't tell that it was a NJ plate for simply looking at it.

Jay:

You are the crispy noodle in the vegetarian salad of life

Denward

~Eschew obfuscation~

Rob Landolfi

It could also be difficult for in-state law enforcement to tell plates these days... Florida has at least 55 different plates when you count all the specialty tags listed on their state DMV site. There's education, sport team, college, wildlife, arts, military, etc. in addition to the familiar plates with the orange (fruit) over the Florida shape.

Rob

Steve Ridges

Out of curiosity, why do you feel the need to provide your car dealership with free advertising? I'd NEVER have a dealer license plate frame on my car.

DonRoeber

Steve, I'm with you. The first thing I do when I get a new car is to take off their license plate frame, front plate if they added one, and any sort of sticker identifying the dealer. I just gave them a whole boatload of money (or would it be a carload?), and I'm pretty sure they're not paying me for advertising.

Luckily, right at that moment, an unconscious Argentinean fell through my roof.

He was quickly joined by a dwarf dressed as a nun.