We're not supposed to take photographs of cars with local licence plates.
Who knows why - maybe the driver would have some 'splainin' to do w/r/t why (s)he was there (or was not somewhere else), and The Star just doesn't want to get wrapped up in that.
So I can't illustrate this point.
But I'm sure you've all seen them - licence plates where the blue paint on the characters has ALL gone away.
One I saw recently was really old - three digits followed by three letters. Can't remember how long ago that was the format, but with the 'plate-to-owner' system now in place, you keep the plate forever.
But I have seen this on newer cars too - four letters, three digits.
Whatever, it sure does make it cheap to ride the 407 - they can take photos of your plate all day long and I can't see how they'd ever ID you.
Ditto if a cop wanted to track you down.
Dispatch: "What's the plate number?"
Officer: "Uh, seven blanks..."
Do plates wear out? Does the paint just fade, or get scrubbed off in car washes?
If so, the lads at Millbrook or Collins Bay or wherever they make the plates now must use a different paint for the characters than for the rest of the plate - it seems you can always read 'Ontario' at the top and 'Yours to Discover' at the bottom.
You don't think some of these people may have come a bit too close to the plate with the wire brush in their handy portable drill?
Naw; perish the thought.
Because it would be a clear violation of the Ontario Highway Traffic Act to not have a legible plate showing to the front and rear of the vehicle.
How do these people not get tickets? Given how old at least some of these plates are, surely some minion of the law would have caught up to them by now.
Unlike me - I parked on a city street this morning ten minutes before the 'Permit needed' period was up. POW; thirty bucks.
Maybe if I can figure out how to obscure my plate the way these folks have I can make that back in dodged 407 tolls.
KIDDING!!!...
Of course, I'm kidding...
Saw this today and immediately thought of you...
http://bringatrailer.com/2012/10/03/1973-amc-hornet-hatchback-vintage-road-racer/
You may like this from yesterday as well...
http://bringatrailer.com/2012/10/03/bat-exclusive-hnatiws-favorite-1968-chevrolet-camaro-z28/
Happyhumpdayplusone, Jeff.
Posted by: Jeff | October 04, 2012 at 11:01 AM
My front license plate started peeling after a year so I put on a transparent protective cover which became less than transparent after a few more years so I tore it off.
I'm suggesting that the quality of license plate painting has gone way down over the years.
Posted by: Richard | October 04, 2012 at 12:47 PM
I had a licence plate with the first three letters YNR in the mid '90s, around the time that they updated the plates. The paint started wearing off pretty soon after. I have noticed that plates made around the same time and into the early 4 letter series had the same problem. I wonder if they changed the paint since the newer plates don't seem to wear off.
The cops are really slack about this. Another game I play is in parking lots, I look for plates with out-of-date stickers. I saw one recently with a a sticker from 2009!
Posted by: Mike | October 06, 2012 at 08:06 AM
Well, at least the license plates have improved from when they were steel and rusted away after a few years on gravel roads. As for the paint, when I tried to clean one of mine to make it more legible, the blue paint started coming off. It seems that at some point it wasn't very durable. It's a Catch 22.
Posted by: John B | October 07, 2012 at 12:34 PM