Front plates handy target for radar gun
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If a barrage of e-mails and phone calls is any indication, readers don't mind sounding off about front license plates.
A few even suggested that state Department of Licensing spokesman Brad Benfield had omitted in this column last week the main reason the state still requires front plates on vehicles.
Benfield said the state had nixed eliminating them after the idea got lukewarm support from law-enforcement officials.
Among advantages of the front plates, he noted, was that their reflective surface makes it easier to see parked cars on a dark roadway, and front plates are useful for identifying vehicles involved in hit-and-run accidents or backing away from a crime scene.
And, too, he said, plates front and rear give police officers two chances to identify vehicles passing them on the road.
Matthew Rinearson of Seattle thinks there's another reason: "Probably the single most important reason today to keep front license plates, and one that law enforcement doesn't want you to know, is that it is where they aim the lasers to catch speeders. It is a highly reflective surface and it is where they are taught to aim."
Michael Gilmore of Seattle said much the same thing. "In this era of increasingly aerodynamic and therefore stealthy cars, it provides a nice vertical surface off of which to bounce radar," he said.
Other readers did, too:
• I.I. of Seattle: "Modern laser devices for nabbing speeders on the highway are most effective by aiming the light at the highly reflective front license plate. It has nothing to do with safety, but the State Patrol's hang-up with pulling you over."
• Anthony B., of Redwood City, Calif.: "In California where I live, license plates are required on the front, in part so that the vehicle can be identified by cameras that catch traffic-light violators."
Patrol officials don't deny that front plates are good for radar guns. But the Patrol's Christine Fox says that since a beam needs to be aimed at a reflective surface to bounce information back to an officer, windshields, front grilles and even mirrors are good for that, too.
The American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators says 31 states, including Washington, require front and rear plates.
Q: Don Wiese of Kirkland wonders why there are signs for car-pool lanes that set weight limits and ban trailers, yet troopers seem to ignore trailers and large motor homes and trucks in those lanes. He says he was surprised to see a car-pool-lane sign with 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. time restrictions. He wasn't aware that there had been a change.
A: While commercial vehicles more than 10,000 pounds gross-vehicle weight are not allowed in car-pool lanes, motor homes and vehicles with trailers are, as long as they carry at least two people, says State Patrol spokesman Steve McCulley.
However, McCulley notes, car-pool-lane restrictions can differ from left-lane restrictions.
Trucks over 10,000 pounds and vehicles towing trailers are prohibited from the left lane when there are three or more lanes in the same direction. The car-pool lane is not considered the left lane, so it does not have the same restrictions.
"I believe the signs your reader has observed are for left-lane travel restrictions," McCulley said, adding that state troopers enforce restricted travel in car-pool lanes and in the left lane.
And the state Department of Transportation opened some Eastside car-pool lanes to all traffic at night last summer as part of a demonstration project. Solo drivers can now use car-pool lanes between 7 p.m. and 5 a.m. on Interstate 405 and Highway 167, and on Interstate 90 and Highway 520 east of I-405.
Bumper's soapbox
Claudia Eisenreich of Kent says the number of people racing through stoplights seems to be increasing. "Every day on the way to work, driving from Kent up to Seattle, we encounter a minimum of four cars speeding through intersections after their signal has turned red," she said.
"Is this being monitored at all by authorities? I believe that if each major intersection had a camera monitoring and citing these dangerous drivers, the revenues generated would be so monumental that income taxes could be eliminated."
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Bumper welcomes feedback on topics appearing in this column. E-mail us at bumper@seattletimes.com or call Charles Brown at 206-464-2206.