Traffic enforcement decline

[wawa]

Jul 30, 2024 8:09:09 GMT -5 mrspez07 said:

Jul 30, 2024 7:51:33 GMT -5 kath16 said:

ok, i read this the same way as you and thought maybe i was misunderstanding the original post. it's like going out to a sit down restaurant but not tipping bc you "can't afford it"

I bought my car in Feb 23, in CO, my temp tags expired 60 days later. I could not go get my plates without receiving the info in the mail, and the DMV required appointments to do so. My tags expired I think on a Fri or Sat (not open Sat), and I didn’t get the registration info in the mail until Thurs, no ability to get in on Friday and then paid a fine/fee for being late when I went in the next week. Obviously that doesn’t explain the super expired plates around here but I think the slow turnaround with the dealers and DMV processing the registrations happened during the pandemic and maybe never caught up. Or people just don’t care and haven’t been caught so they keep pushing off the cost of the plates.

Apparently they're cracking down on it in Denver as we speak.  www.9news.com/article/news/local/denver-expired-car-tags-crackdown/73-56ce1ed3-8e73-4b64-9cb5-9b026cabdaed

I was googling to find the latest update on DC's crackdown on the same, and saw similar news stories from the last year or so for half a dozen different cities.

I don't have a NYT subscription to gift a link but for those who do a decent overview - www.nytimes.com/2024/04/19/us/expired-license-plates-temp-tags.html

At least in cities the expired tags, concealed tags and huge piles of unpaid fines can be taken care of without the need for pretextual traffic stops too. Camera scans of parked car tags with immediate boots or towing. Get 'er done.  Of course getting that up and running requires a new city contract and procurement of a vendor with the right equipment, so it's like a 2 year timeframe in most places because government contracting in almost every jurisdiction i know is even slower and more painful than previously in this lovely post-pandemic reality we live in and also...budgets.  But I bet it pencils out to a net gain. 

[basilosaurus]

Jul 30, 2024 8:09:09 GMT -5 mrspez07 said:

Jul 30, 2024 7:51:33 GMT -5 kath16 said:

ok, i read this the same way as you and thought maybe i was misunderstanding the original post. it's like going out to a sit down restaurant but not tipping bc you "can't afford it"

I bought my car in Feb 23, in CO, my temp tags expired 60 days later. I could not go get my plates without receiving the info in the mail, and the DMV required appointments to do so. My tags expired I think on a Fri or Sat (not open Sat), and I didn’t get the registration info in the mail until Thurs, no ability to get in on Friday and then paid a fine/fee for being late when I went in the next week. Obviously that doesn’t explain the super expired plates around here but I think the slow turnaround with the dealers and DMV processing the registrations happened during the pandemic and maybe never caught up. Or people just don’t care and haven’t been caught so they keep pushing off the cost of the plates.

Because I was living in co but registered in another state it took a long time of back and forth communication, all in good faith. Co didn’t want to issue another temp tag, but I was legally exempt from needing a co tag.

WRT taxes, I went from a $25 annual tax to over $600 when I bought a newer and far more efficient car. I certainly wasn’t prepared for that, and though I was intelligent enough and in my mid 20s it was a huge shock. I’m not going to denigrate people for not knowing the vagaries of taxes that don’t make logical sense. I’d been registered in other states with nowhere near that amount, so I thought I had a relatively decent understanding of what I owed. The dealership certainly did not say a thing. That was a huge jump defying logic

[waverly]

Jul 29, 2024 20:19:57 GMT -5 jlt19 said:

St. Louis had red light cameras but someone sued them or something and they’re no more.

The big thing now is to go hard after people with expired temp tags. So much so, that the police have asked the public to call and report them. Maybe people wouldn’t have expired tags if you didn’t require sales tax be paid in less than a month in order to get plates? Or at the very least let people roll the costs into their financing. But sure, let’s ask citizens to help fine each other. Great idea!

Do you mean private purchase?  I've always paid sales tax at the time of purchase from a dealership and they pay the state.  I've never bought a car from another person and then paid sales tax afterwards.  It was never separate, so I feel like it was rolled into financing, and then the dealer separated the funds later. 

The one time we sold a car, we met the seller at the DMV and they immediately took care of everything including registration and sales tax which was minimal becuase the price was low.   That was why we met them there, so they weren't driving around with our registration and license plate (which obviously we would have removed).  

[pixy0stix]

Sure. We can be empathetic that perhaps people just can't pay and also know that people who are unlicensed, not insured, and without proper registration, are a danger to everyone while they are driving a motor vehicle.

As the one lady in the article said (paraphrased) we can acknowledge all the problems and still need for people to follow the rules because it's a matter of public safety.

[glw]

This is timely in that yesterday I was crossing at a pedestrian crosswalk and the cop car to my right sped up to beat me across the crosswalk so he didn't have to stop and wait for me. No lights or sirens, and he had to stop at the red light a half block later. Super.

[pixy0stix]

My wishlist for this problem:

Way less cars. WAAAAAAY less cars.
Meaningful gun control.
Traffic enforcement without racism.
Phones that lock while in the vehicle. No exceptions while moving. Set everything before you get out of park.

[picksthemusic]

Jul 30, 2024 2:38:13 GMT -5 aurora said:

I used one of those pedestrian red light crossings the other day - the kind where the is a traffic signal that goes yellow - red when I press the button but there is no intersection.

The first car slowed and stopped for us (thanks!), then proceeded through while the light was still red. The second didn't even slow down. For a bright red stop light. (This is not one of those flashing lights where you can go once the pedestrians are through. You need to wait for green. Just like any intersection with traffic lights.)

Pay attention to traffic signals!

There's one of those on a road near my house - it was placed there because someone died trying to cross the street there a few years ago. Luckily folks in my area stop at this light when it's red. It's right next to a lake so there are a lot of pedestrians there, especially in the summer.

[kath16]

Jul 30, 2024 10:51:15 GMT -5 picksthemusic said:

Jul 30, 2024 2:38:13 GMT -5 aurora said:

I used one of those pedestrian red light crossings the other day - the kind where the is a traffic signal that goes yellow - red when I press the button but there is no intersection.

The first car slowed and stopped for us (thanks!), then proceeded through while the light was still red. The second didn't even slow down. For a bright red stop light. (This is not one of those flashing lights where you can go once the pedestrians are through. You need to wait for green. Just like any intersection with traffic lights.)

Pay attention to traffic signals!

There's one of those on a road near my house - it was placed there because someone died trying to cross the street there a few years ago. Luckily folks in my area stop at this light when it's red. It's right next to a lake so there are a lot of pedestrians there, especially in the summer.

yes, we have one of those at the local university near me, but it took a student dying to get it. the current infrastructure in that particular town has NOT kept up with the influx of population. not even a little bit.

[jlt19]

Jul 30, 2024 9:31:18 GMT -5 waverly said:

Jul 29, 2024 20:19:57 GMT -5 jlt19 said:

St. Louis had red light cameras but someone sued them or something and they’re no more.

The big thing now is to go hard after people with expired temp tags. So much so, that the police have asked the public to call and report them. Maybe people wouldn’t have expired tags if you didn’t require sales tax be paid in less than a month in order to get plates? Or at the very least let people roll the costs into their financing. But sure, let’s ask citizens to help fine each other. Great idea!

Do you mean private purchase?  I've always paid sales tax at the time of purchase from a dealership and they pay the state.  I've never bought a car from another person and then paid sales tax afterwards.  It was never separate, so I feel like it was rolled into financing, and then the dealer separated the funds later. 

The one time we sold a car, we met the seller at the DMV and they immediately took care of everything including registration and sales tax which was minimal becuase the price was low.   That was why we met them there, so they weren't driving around with our registration and license plate (which obviously we would have removed).  

Nope, you have to pay the sales tax when you register the vehicle and get plates. The dealerships have nothing to do with it, which is why it’s so problematic when you have radio commercials advertising a dime down (and I’m sure high apr) and then you realize you’ve got to come up with an additional 4-5% cash within 30 days and again every December for personal property taxes.

I’m not saying I agree with not paying it, but there needs to be some reform because I imagine most not paying aren’t because they can’t, but need transportation (public transit is a joke here) so continuing to fine them when they can’t pay in the first place is not helping anyone.

[heygrey]

Jul 29, 2024 15:46:08 GMT -5 Velar Fricative said:

NYC has had red light and speed cameras basically everywhere for a long time now. But, people just don’t pay the violations…that is, if they get the violation in the mail. Because plenty of speeders just cover their plates now, or use fake paper ones, so they can get away with not getting violations.

Slightly off topic, but I was just in the states (WA/ID/MT/WY) and saw so many of these paper tags. H and I kept puzzling over them because surely there aren't that many people who just bought a vehicle and/or moved to a new state and have temp tags. We saw one vehicle that had a paper tag over a real plate, the paper just flapping in the wind. I meant to ask on GBCN what's up, but this probably explains some of them. 

[sillygoosegirl]

Aug 1, 2024 23:42:50 GMT -5 heygrey said:

Jul 29, 2024 15:46:08 GMT -5 Velar Fricative said:

NYC has had red light and speed cameras basically everywhere for a long time now. But, people just don’t pay the violations…that is, if they get the violation in the mail. Because plenty of speeders just cover their plates now, or use fake paper ones, so they can get away with not getting violations.

Slightly off topic, but I was just in the states (WA/ID/MT/WY) and saw so many of these paper tags. H and I kept puzzling over them because surely there aren't that many people who just bought a vehicle and/or moved to a new state and have temp tags. We saw one vehicle that had a paper tag over a real plate, the paper just flapping in the wind. I meant to ask on GBCN what's up, but this probably explains some of them. 

We has a paper tag for several months a year or so ago, because the state ran out of stickers and sent us a temporary tag for our renewal instead. It was weird.

[waverly]

Aug 1, 2024 17:13:15 GMT -5 jlt19 said:

Jul 30, 2024 9:31:18 GMT -5 waverly said:

Do you mean private purchase?  I've always paid sales tax at the time of purchase from a dealership and they pay the state.  I've never bought a car from another person and then paid sales tax afterwards.  It was never separate, so I feel like it was rolled into financing, and then the dealer separated the funds later. 

The one time we sold a car, we met the seller at the DMV and they immediately took care of everything including registration and sales tax which was minimal becuase the price was low.   That was why we met them there, so they weren't driving around with our registration and license plate (which obviously we would have removed).  

Nope, you have to pay the sales tax when you register the vehicle and get plates. The dealerships have nothing to do with it, which is why it’s so problematic when you have radio commercials advertising a dime down (and I’m sure high apr) and then you realize you’ve got to come up with an additional 4-5% cash within 30 days and again every December for personal property taxes.

I’m not saying I agree with not paying it, but there needs to be some reform because I imagine most not paying aren’t because they can’t, but need transportation (public transit is a joke here) so continuing to fine them when they can’t pay in the first place is not helping anyone.

In the states where we purchased the dealership had registered the cars for us and collected sales tax at time of purchase. I guess that isn’t standard at every dealership/ state.