Sent a letter to New Jersey Governor Corzine about changing the two license plate requirement to one and this was the response I received. I don’t think this will change anytime soon. I do have to ask myself if NJ only issued one plate wouldn’t the police just identify the car from the rear??

Mr. ____

Governor Jon S. Corzine has asked me to respond to your inquiry regarding the use of two license
plates in NJ. I appreciate the opportunity to clarify the position of the Motor Vehicle
Commission (MVC) on this issue.

There has been a great deal of research and discussion regarding the benefits of using one
license plate in New Jersey. The current two license plate system is supported by law
enforcement officials at all levels, including the New Jersey State Police, who report that
approximately 84% of automobile identifications are made from the front license plate. The
potential benefit of issuing one license plate to either reduce costs or to generate revenue
would not outweigh the importance to law enforcement of being able to identify vehicles
traveling in both directions.

I appreciate your interest in this matter.

Customer Advocacy Office
New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission

 

84% of identifications - for what purpose? If you are simply standing on the side of the road watching cars and identifying them, then sure. Or does that 84% identification relate soley to cars that were cited for a violation? Or is that 84% of cars they were looking for were identified by the front plate? Or does the 84% relate to cars that were pulled over and the officer walked to the front of the car to get the plate number?

89% of statistics are useless.

 

89% of New Jersey politics is useless.

Vehicle identification my ***. Unless I'm driving backwards, Mr. Po-po isnt' seeing my front license plate very long.

How on earth do other states identify their resident's vehicles?

 

I just passed a tropper this morning with NO front plate. I guess I am lucky, because I have been running no front plate now for over two years

 

I guess that makes you part of the 16% that DOESN'T get identified from the front..

 

Yeah I was just asking about this. I figure, so long as there is NO obvious place for a front license plate to be mounted, they (Leos) might be more leniant.

But Yeah, I hate the front plate so off it came!

 

This rings the bs bell. Try it. Try to read an oncoming car's plate next time you're on the road. If both of you are moving at any kind of speed, it's next to impossible. Good luck, but be careful!

 

i don't mind the front plate as much as the tinting law, nothing at all on either front side windows

 

I would guess that law enforcement likes a front license plate because it's a nice flat and reflective target to catch speeders using lasers. Without that I'd guess a raked sports car has to get closer before it's locked easily... especially ones with hide-away headlights.

A friend of mine who's in the local police dept. mentioned once that C5's take considerably longer to get a reading on.

I do know that police do drive around and run plates in parking lots from time to time... front plates make it easier for them to check plates on cars that are backed into parking spots too.

Just my $.02 ... I'm sure there's other reasons.

 

That's EXACTLY what I was going to say. It's total BS that they're identifying cars from their front plate any more than from the rear. Think about it - even in a parking lot, the front plate is often obscured by other vehicles, making it much easier to just look at the rear plate. Driving down the road makes the front plate even more useless (somehow) - you can't read it for oncoming traffic or in your rearview mirror.

Tint laws are moronic too. I can understand not allowing anything too dark in order to promote night time visibility, but not allowing tint at all is just ridiculous. I have 20% tint in the rear and I still have very good rearward visibility at night. I don't think limiting it to maybe 15% is unreasonable, but making it illegal is.

 

I think the only benefit of a front plate to law enforcement is the new camera based speed traps (not sure what they are called) that are popping up across the country. Other than that, I would think the officer would not care about your plate # until he was behind you in pursuit.....IMO.

 

I suppose we should use side license plates as well since when you are on the side of the road it is easiest to see the side of the car.

 

How about no front or rear actual plates, but we show our number with these puppies: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeKD-LWjAKY

 

lol when i read this thread i just started imagining a bunch of cars driving backward down the jersey turnpike being chased by cops squinting at the fronts of their cars