Consider the math. The first series of license plates had three letters and three numbers, and the first digit was never a 0. The letters I, O, and Q were never used.
For math geeks, these rules create 12,167 different letter combinations. Each three digit number can generate 900 plates (numbers 100-999), so the 12,167 letter combinations generate 10,950,300 possible plates.
When Massachusetts exhausted the three-letter three-number combinations, they simply reversed the order, generating another 10,950,300 possibilities. In 1987 the Registry started manufacturing the red “Spirit of Massachusetts plates, and they stopped issuing the green plates in the early 1990s.
Soon after the red plates began to appear, the NNNLLL combinations were exhasted, and the state went to a series of two letter – four number plates. Given the same rules, four number-two letter plates generate 4,761,000 combinations. Reversing the order generates another 4,761,000 plates. Those combinations were exhausted, and the state then placed the two letters in the middle of the number combination. That generates another 4,761,000 plates.
This numbering scheme is now exhausted, and we appear to be going to a scheme of three digits, two letters, followed by another number.
This now results in a combination where a plate can now be 123 LD0, where the last character is the number zero. (Someone familiar with the Massachusetts registration scheme can tell the last digit is a zero and not the letter O because the plate expires in October, not January.) This creates confusion in 10% of the plates distributed under this new scheme. In addition, having multiple (and increasingly complicated) schemes makes it more difficult to remember a plate number in an emergency.
Plus, as an extra bonus, the first generation of red plates is aging to the point where they are fading like the old greenies.
So, here we are in a state of 6.4 million people, and we have exhausted more than 37 million possible plate combinations (including the 900,000 number-only plates from 100000 to 999999).
Massachusetts issued new plates every year prior to 1949, when the state issued new plates every two years. In 1967, the state went to undated plates (blue on white), then red on white (around 1972), replaced by the current green on white starting in March, 1977.
What should new plates look like?
Given that we need to retire the red and the green plates to reuse the 37 million combinations that are exhausted in the current scheme, we need to change the color of the plate and possibly devise a new design. The state police have already converted to new plates with blue characters.
Some states have incorporated art into their plates, and that’s not a bad thing. Massachusetts was one of the first, incorporating our sacred cod into the 1928 plate. Perhaps it is a time for it to return, now that the technology for artistic enhancements has improved.
The Spirit of Massachusetts is the Spirit of America?
It was a state tourism promotion that dates back to the Dukakis administration, but half of this slogan lurks on our license plates today. I doubt it does little to promote tourism. Maybe we don’t need a slogan on the plates, but if we place something on our plates it should be something that actually sells the state. I’ll happily leave that to the imagination of BMG readers.
But I’m still using the same green and white license plate. I’ve got it memorized, and it’s still perfectly readable and functional. Isn’t it in keeping with the spirit of Yankee thrift to allow use of the same license plate for 21 years? I’d be sorry to retire it; it’s an emblem of continuity through change for me now.
Here’s the problem. There are about 30 million license plates in the current green-red series that are no longer on the road. Anyone who has been to a flea market or yard sale has seen old plates for sale – that’s why you can’t re-issue the same numbers on a new plate.
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p>Unless you start over every few years, you end up with millions of current, invalid plates out there somewhere, and you end up issuing new plates with contorted number-letter combinations to avoid duplicates with a number that hasn’t been used in 20 years.
Don’t allow people to own their plate — require them to rent them. Each plate has a $100 deposit on it. I love old license plates — they’re fun. But, if I got $100 for returning it to RMV, I’d do it!
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p>Yeah yeah, the problem of the old plates that aren’t around anymore, plus encouraging theft, etc. My plan isn’t an easy solution.
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p>The RMV could, however, encourage recycling! Just let people know that they can recycle their old license plates at any RMV, you know, to be friendly to the Earth. They’d get some back that way, although certainly not all.
what is the problem with an old plate with the same number being out there somewhere? As long as the old one can’t be put back on a car once it has been re-issued, there can’t be two on the road at the same time.
what’s stopping it from being re-attached to a car at any time, thereby creating ambiguity because there are two vehicles with the same nameID on the road…
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p>of course, they could implement a multi-year program to require the replacement of all white and green plates, and then declare all green and whites to be null and void. That would work in-state, but there would still be ambiguity out-of-state…
I could switch my Mass tags to have Texas plates, that look just like the ones they still use there, or New York tags, that are of a retired design. The New York tags would be flagged here quickly, but only because we’re so overrun with New Yorkers that we recognize the plate. I bet they would work for longer further away from New York.
and the ambiguity out of state is something for which little could be done.
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p>Of course, if there were only 50 license plate designs nationwide instead of 1000s, it’d be easier for law enforcement to notice one that wasn’t kosher, but I digress.
I think the ambiguity would be easy to handle, because a plate is assigned to a car. 923CFT has to be on John Smith’s 1999 Mazda Protege, VIN XXXX. If someone fashions another 923CFT or uses their old 923CFT on a different car, it would be a crime (it probably already is a crime) and people wouldn’t risk that. It’d be easy to know that a car is using old plates if it wasn’t a Mazda Protege.
Someone uses the old 923CFT on a car while illegally parked in Rhode Island. Okay, it is a crime, but the owner of the current 923CFT is now arguing with the City of Providence about those unpaid tickets – none of which has a VIN attached.
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p>Seriously, most other states reissue new plates on a regular basis. Are they smarter than we are? I mean, how hard can it be?
you’re saying we should retire the few remaining green plates and then we can re-use all the numbers that were ever on a green plate? It would be easier for cops to know that it was not a valid plate if it was green, even in Providence. I guess that makes sense.
OK — true confessions time. I’m originally from California. I first was taught by my Dad how to change a tire on the Bayshore Freeway, somewhere near Moffett Field — at rush hour, and with the flat on the freeway side. I learned how to drive on the freeway on I-280 and by navigating the switchbacks above Palo Alto. (If you really want to try testing your brakes….)
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p>As car-obsessed as Californians are, fetishizing about license plate numbers is just not part of the driving culture.
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p>So what is it about greenies and low license plate numbers? Auctioning off numbers just strikes me as silly.
anal-retentive
adjective
(of a person) excessively orderly and fussy (supposedly owing to conflict over toilet-training in infancy).
noun (also anal retentive)
a person who is excessively orderly and fussy.
I had always thought that we had plates so that the vehicle can be uniquely identified by law enforcement or witnesses.
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p>If that’s the reason, than all of the following should be law in all 50 states:
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p>1. Front and back plates required, thereby not allowing cars in North Carolina [and others] to use this plate on the front, even if it does make the driver somehow more cool.
2. Only one of “1” and “I” allowed, eliminating this confusion
3. Only one of “0”, “O”, and “Q” allowed, eliminating this confusion
4. Virtually no artwork or additional words which can make it difficult to identify plates, especially out of state, like this.
5. Ensure that the font for the state is of an easy font, unlike, for example, this plate.
6. Any “license plate holder” or frame which obscures any part of the plate — alphanumeric or the words to the top and bottom — is strictly verboten.
7. Doing anything else to obscure the alphanumeric code on your plate is not allowed, including this, which is admittedly funny and creative.
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p>I know, most of these are nit picking. A little artwork or using a 1 for an I can’t create too big a problem. I agree — the problem isn’t a large one. But, the fact is that we have plates to uniquely identify the exact vehicle, and since getting a full read of the plate is hard enough on a moving vehicle at some angles without the characters which look very similar, obstructions to the plate, etc., anything which makes it more difficult to read the plate should be prohibited.
2. the plate should have a bare minimum of information, in our case “MASS” and at most “BAY STATE”, absolutely nothing else
3. no vanity plates
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p>Here are two examples that I like. These were around for quite a few years. Unfortunately New Jersey has moved away from the utilitarian approach with a white and yellow two-tone. Texas has since gone completely to the dark side. Note the tiny “lone star” between the two sets of numbers.
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p>I like stomv’s idea of leasing the plate for $100. This would allow the recycling of both materials and numbers.
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“lease” in the idea that individuals don’t “own” the plate; the state does. The state could lease the plate for $1/yr with a deposit — the idea is just that the state owns the plate. The deposit merely helps ensure that unused plates get returned so that the numbers and the metal itself get reused/recycled instead of ending up waste.
They are a great source of revenue. People voluntarily pay big bucks to get a vanity plate made and renewed. I wouldn’t kill the cash cow.
it just hacks off a a limb, since the plate
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p>COOLGUY
could still be
KOOLGUY
but couldn’t be
K0OLGUY
or
KO0LGUY
or
K00LGUY
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p>and I wonder how much of a cash cow it really is… seems more like a cash chicken or something. Still, it’s voluntary taxation*, and doesn’t seem to target the poor or vulnerable in doing so.
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p> * Not to be confused with voluntary charitable giving through a government agency, such as this one
where $28 of the first $40 fee goes to Jimmy Fund [the other $12 to cover the manufacturing], and $40 of the $40 fee goes to Jimmy Fund upon renewal.
You cannot order a MA vanity with numbers mixed in among the letters.
What about adopting a program that has worked well in many other states, namely creating plates to support public higher education. With the hundreds of thousands of alumni from the state’s 29 public higher ed institutions, not to mention the friends and family of alums, I would think that there is definitely a market for a plate to support an area of public life that badly needs increased funding.
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p>I have been in many parts of the country and seen countless alumni plates, which in turn means more revenue for the schools. It is also a great marketing tool for recruiting students, since it is a very visible indicator of the presence of these institutions in everyday life.
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p>You could start off with 3 plates, 1 for UMass, 1 for the State Colleges, and one for the community colleges. Further differentiation, to plates for specific schools, could happen if the program starts to become more popular.
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p>As a state college alum I would love to have a plate that showcased my alma mater. Since public higher ed often gets glossed over in favor of the tremendous private institutions in Massachusetts, it would be nice to have a unique way to support and show pride in the great public institutions that are here as well. With approximately 70% of public higher ed grads staying in Massachusetts, I am sure that I would not be alone.
In many states, one can support public or private higher education…
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p>Not all states do both private and public. Iowa, for example, only does public. In this state, I can’t imagine the lege letting public schools get plates without also letting BC, Harvard, and Suffolk get plates too.
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p>Personally, I’m against the idea. Then again, I’m also against Red Sox/Jimmy Fund plates, Cape and Island plates, support public school plates, and just about every other specialty plates.
I am destroying the human race, ask me how
We can issue those plates to SUVs as a matter of policy.
$500 for a new set of plates will go a-ways to pay for our fiscal woes. Is this entry the trial balloon?
How much does it cost to manufacture a new plate? Given the low labor costs, it can’t be much more than one or two dollars. You add an extra buck to mail a plate instead of a decal. Total cost: about three bucks.
that you have to turn license plates in now to get proof that you no longer own the vehicle and cancel your car insurance. At least, I did when I got rid of my last car.
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p>This doesn’t help the situation with the old plates, but it’s a step in the right direction moving forward.
Maybe the state could offer a bounty for every old MA plate turned in: a one month MBTA pass, free of charge.
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p>Of course, it would be nice if the Lege accompanied this bounty with some actual additional budgetary transfer to the MBTA. Sure, they’ve got record ridership levels, but diesel, compressed gas, and electricity rates have all gone up, making it more expensive for the MBTA to get their riders from A to B. The $5 billion in bonds the MBTA is paying debt service on isn’t helping either…
Why is it that you could keep the old green and whites even after the switch to red and whites?
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p>NY made everyone switch upon expiration of their registration, so that within a two years, every car had the standard state plate. Mass. seems to be something of a hodgepodge.
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p>Anyway, this was a very interesting post. I’m amused at how it brought out the fun police– no vanity plates!– even though those vanity plates are probably far easier for the witness/police officer to read and remember.
this morning’s amber alert message said something like “Black SUV Red Sox plates and stickers”
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p>I’m not sure I understand how using a number series means it’s “exhausted.” As noted above, the Registry now wants unused plates to be returned. Doesn’t it keep records of those numbers, so they can be reissued? Even if it doesn’t, can’t it refrain from issuing any number that’s currently issued to a licensed vehicle? Even if someone illegally attaches an old, disused plate that has the same number as one currently issued to a vehicle, wouldn’t a police check of the number reveal that immediately?
The reason I don’t have the green on whites was that I had to return them when moving out of state ten years ago.
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p>No receipt from the registry for the return of the tags, no cancellation of the insurance.
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p>I would have loved to have kept it; I have a bunch from each state I’ve lived in hanging in the garage.
Can’t we just add another digit as they do on the left coast?
You could add another digit, but that causes two problems.
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p>With every digit you add, the plate number becomes exponentially more difficult to remember. Remember, when people really need to memorize a plate number, it’s usually at a time of stress. More digits, more difficulty in remembering the plate number.
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p>You need to reduce the font size for the lettering, as you can’t widen a license plate to accommodate an extra digit. I find New York’s plates to be very difficult to read, especially compared to the nice clear font used in Massachusetts.
for using “exponentially” correctly, in direct contrast to many news articles and many conversations where people use “exponential” to mean “growing at a fast rate, with no regard to the derivative of the function growing in a similar shape”.
or just ten times more difficult to remember? Or are we considering superscripts? ASD 9323
There is a small, but interesting, literature in cognitive psychology about the length of data (numbers, letters) that can be successfully memorized.
… that 7 was a standard number of digits that people could be expected to remember and that it was owing to the habit of people trying to remember phone numbers. Without having done any research, I’d be that the number has grown two nine owing to the increasing necessity to remember area codes now. Although maybe it’s less among those who have modern cell phones or PDAs owing to the technological substitute they can be for one’s memory.
SSNs are 9 digits.
… and I remember having a hard time remembering the 9 digits when it mattered when I first got to college back in the 80s.
You only need to memorize one SSN. In fact, you don’t want people being able to easily memorize your SSN on sight.
Phone numbers were among the first sets of numbers tested for memory. However, going about the task of memorizing a phone number is different that remembering a license plate in an emergency.
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p>You have a longer time to memorize the phone number. The exchange names were an effort to break that memorization into different pieces – ANdrew 1 is easier to memorize than 261, which is why early phone numbers all had named exchanges.
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p>But, with phone numbers, area codes and exchanges have had limited combinations that are generally remembered in bulk. In Massachusetts, you can reasonably categorize area codes into five numbers – 978, 508, 413, 617, and 781. There are the new overlays, but I would guess that most people don’t know the overlay area code in their region.
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p>There are also exchanges that you come to recognize. In Arlington, our Verizon exchanges are 641, 643, 646, and 648. The brainpower to memorize most Arlington landlines involves knowing the area code is 781, the exchanges are one of the four Verizon exchanges. Deregulation brought us 777 (Comcast) and 316 (RCN), but you aren’t actually memorizing 10 discrete digits.
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p>People rely on known patterns to memorize data. This is why recognizable combinations, such as three numbers – three letters, are easier to accurately recognize and remember than mixed letters and numerals.
I was a license plate aficionado as a kid…had the spot all 50 set, referred to Colorado’s as a “torn Vermont”, back in the days when we didn’t have 2 dozen for every state. And I even remember the little ditty from the tourism campaign:
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p>I’m partial to white on a dark background, as it also makes it easier to see at night. Maybe a night scene on the shore, or the Customs House?
Sabutai, are you the only one nostalgic for the old ditty? It wasn’t even very popular in its prime. As far as I can tell, Sam Adams, Harpoon, and Ipswich Ale are the only ones now currently trying to sell the spirits of Massachusetts.
Not sure state tourism ditties end up beinga good idea, most of the time…
I love New York.
Virginia is for lovers.
No ditty, but everyone knows Maine is Vacationland. And New Hampshire was SCENIC before 1971.
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Now I remember what sabutai is referring to. That commercial spent some time in heavy rotation in NYC during the 80s.
I was a license plate aficionado as a kid…had the spot all 50 set, referred to Colorado’s as a “torn Vermont”, back in the days when we didn’t have 2 dozen for every state. And I even remember the little ditty from the tourism campaign:
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p>I’m partial to white on a dark background, as it also makes it easier to see at night. Maybe a night scene on the shore, or the Customs House?
This was Bill Weld’s idea of libertarianism and government “efficiency”. Get the gubmint off our cars’ backs. Ranked right up there with the convenient and selective toll booth closings.That really helped, win him reelection.
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p>Is he still Ambassador to Mexico? Or did he give that up, too?
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Rep. Garballey, a friend and reader of BMG, told me he is passing on this thread to the Registrar of Motor Vehicles.