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Re: CHAT: postcodes

From:Jeff Jones <jeffsjones@...>
Date:Sunday, September 22, 2002, 12:32
On Sat, 21 Sep 2002 20:10:58 -0400, Roger Mills <romilly@...> wrote:

>Christophe wrote: >>in France the plate is for the car, not for the driver as in Belgium.
In Florida, the plates used to go with the car. There was a 1 or 2 digit number for the county and a letter for the weight class, the rest was numeric. New York made them change it.
>For some reason, I've always been fascinated by such systems...perhaps >because, as I said earler, the US used to have such a variety of them. >Until my first visit to England, it had never occurred to me that the >license plate/number could be a _permanent_ thing. The first motorcycle I >ever owned (bought in London) was OFC 300; apparently that indicated an >Oxford origin (since people would look at it and say, "Oh, you're from >Oxford"-- don't I wish!). > >A permanent number would certainly simplify life-- here in the US, we have >to renew our plates every year, for a price of course; when you buy a new >or used car, you have to get new plates, for a price of course. A very >lucrative racket for the state. How does it happen the French/English etc. >haven't discovered this easy source of revenue? Or do they have some other >way to collect a yearly tribute?
They could just issue a sticker and charge the same fee as for a whole plate. Florida only issues a new plate only once in 5 years unless the car is sold or the plate is stolen.
>When we travelled, when I was a child, it was always a fun game to see how >many different states' license plates you could spot. Out in South Dakota >(is that on European maps?? ;-) ) in the 40s, it was rare to see anything >from much further than two or three states away. NY, Florida, Calif. were >really exotic. Even now, when people drive all over the country, and >license plates tend to look almost the same, I still do it. I've seen only >one or two Alaskas in my entire life.
Not surprising. IIRC the Alaskan state capital can't be reached by car.