Tuesday, March 08, 2022

Minnesota made a decision to change from one license plate to front and back license plates for vehicles newer than 1972

Minnesota state statute 169.79 says: “No person shall operate, drive or park a motor vehicle on any roadway unless the vehicle is registered in accordance with the laws of this state and has the license plates or permit confirming that valid registration or operating authority has been obtained.” 

 Vehicles that are allowed to display only one license plate include motorcycles, a dealer’s vehicle or vehicle in-transit, classic car, collector car or a vehicle that is of model year 1972 or earlier that is not registered as a collector vehicle and is used for general transportation purpose.

https://www.mankatofreepress.com/news/local_news/are-all-vehicles-required-to-display-two-license-plates/article_166dc1b6-9b0c-11ec-b711-03b3dc044ff7.html

Makes no sense to me that some asshole in state govt decided it's not legal to drive a new car with one plate, but you can drive an older car with only one. 

Why create a two plate system? Cops are only going to need to see one, and if they can't pull you over, that license plate no longer matters

3 comments:

  1. the answer is . . . (wait for it) . . . Traffic & Security Cameras! Two plates will double the chances of catching a legible plate in the video. Now, why only cars newer than 1972? no idea but I can't imagine there are a lot of pre 72 daily drivers surviving the weather in Minnesota.

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  2. We've actually had the two-plate requirement for my entire driving life. What you're seeing is a clarification from a column that the MN State Patrol supplies to newspapers around the state. As for the 1972 cut-off, I can't give a solid answer to that. We use a 20 year cut off for "Collector" plates which only are supplied as a single rear plate, but '72 is thirty years. Perhaps just bad math skills from someone in St. Paul?

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  3. Whoops! Sorry about that - my brain said fifty years but my fingers wrote thirty years. You're going to think EVERYONE in MN is bad at math...

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