'no front license plate' bill, passes Texas house

[rfkrfk]

HB3540

Please ask your state Senator to support
this progressive legislation.

Not one person I've ever met,
likes front license plates.
Everyone hates those things.

The struggle continues.

[Atman]

1. They are good police radar reflectors.

Cops love 'em. Cars are all round and plastic up front. Front plates are a good target to aim the speed gun at.

In Massachusetts, when I lived there, front plates were added a long time ago. Safety, we were told.

Dig deeper. It turned out the legislator sponsoring the bill has some relative that sold 3M reflective materials. 3M had a glut of this high-reflective material it had expected to market, but for reasons that escape me now, they couldn't unload the stuff and were stuck with warehouses of this reflective material.

So, the state ordered new plates, 3M got the contract thanks to the connections to the legislature, a handful of people made lots of money off the deal, and Mass residents are forever stuck with two plates.

[jobycom]

2. I've had two cars that I never put front tags on

Never been stopped. One was a minivan I drove for four years, one is a Prius I'm still driving. Cops don't seem to care. It's just one of those laws they can use in an emergency, but don't think twice about any other time.

[tammywammy]

3. I was stopped once for not having a front plate

It was abour 3 years after I ran over a huge piece of tire in the road (I couldn't get out of the way) and it ripped the plate and holder right off my car.

I was pulled over by a state trooper on my way home to Denton from Arlington. I wasn't speeding or anything, I guess he was bored. I got a warning, so that was that.

At the car dealership where I work, when someone's picking up their plates, if they ask I'll tell them "yes a front plate is required by law (and we give them 2)" but I know plenty of people with only one who've never been pulled over.

[Longhorn]

4. I got stopped for no front plate just south of Lubbock.

I drive a sports car and I'm pretty sure she stopped us to make sure we weren't up to no good. Nope, just us old fogies! :D She gave us a warning ticket, however. So even though there's no place for a front plate, my husband found a way to stick one way back behind the front body molding.

This is a photo before we added the license plate:

[BrightKnight]

5. Government has become too intrusive.

ID cards, RF tags, Sneak-and-Peek, Patriot Act, ChoicePoint...

Perhaps the party should champion a few freedom loving libertarian causes. It is possible to do this without abandoning core progressive and good government values.

[derby378]

6. Folks, this is nothing new

And it has nothing to do with government intrusion. Texas has enforced the need for a front licence plate at least since the late 80s. In fact, I was stopped for having no front plate and had to explain to the officer that my "new" car didn't come with one. I didn't get ticketed, but he insisted I needed to get a new set.

[carpetbagger]

7. Hopefully it goes through before I get pulled over.

Mine fell off.

[johncoby2]

8. Praise the lord! They ARE doing the work of the people!

This bill will restore the faith in our legislature.

[NoPasaran]

9. Let's see: National ID Card, Biometric data stored in central database

but we're liberated from the tyranny of front license plates. Seems a pretty fair trade to me. :sarcasm:

[GOPisEvil]

10. Don't forget we're close to being safe from rogue, oversexy cheerleaders!

But we have our front license plate freedom and for that we should rejoice!