Obstructed Plates

Online comments: 52

• Annie Mason

  Thank you! This rule is necessary and overdue. Please enforce these license plate violations when they are committed by NYPD and other city personnel in their personal vehicles. I’ve see so many cars blocking curb cuts and accessible entrances to bus stops, subway stations, schools, parks, libraries, and so many other public spaces—and they are never held to account. They put badges or pieces of paper in their dashboard and get to exist above the law. Disabled people including wheelchair users and the elderly deserve full access to sidewalks and street crossings. NYPD are not entitled to free parking spaces for their personal vehicles anywhere they want. It makes all of us less safe.

  Comment added January 7, 2025 2:27pm

• Jehiah Czebotar

  Thank you for clarifying these rules to address how they apply to all vehicles – not just NY License plates, and for updating the language to match NY VTL 402 (b).

  Comment added January 7, 2025 2:48pm

• Elizabeth Denys

  I am glad to see that these rules will be clarified to ensure it’s clear that they apply to all vehicles, not just ones with NY License plates, and to see the update to match the language in NY VTL 402 (b). We are safer, particularly vulnerable road users like pedestrians and bicyclists, when drivers do not get to skirt the laws by illegally obscuring their plates.

  Comment added January 7, 2025 3:07pm

• Colin Rafferty

  This is a reasonable set of changes that will punish car owners who intend to break the traffic laws, and will have no extra burden on car owners who follow the law.

  Comment added January 7, 2025 4:16pm

• Jorge

  If license plates work and are that important to the collection of tolls; ticketing individuals; and overall accountability of a driver, then why are these same proposed rules not being extended to mopeds; ebikes; and bicycles which are running rampant throughout the New York City?

  Let’s get that added to this as well.

  Comment added January 7, 2025 4:18pm

• Menachem Goldstein

  Yes please!

  Comment added January 7, 2025 5:21pm

• Tony Melone

  I strongly support this change, to make it clear that drivers in NYC must not cover or obscure their plates. In 2022 I was assaulted by a driver who fled in a car with plates covered by dark plastic. The NYPD found video of the car leaving the crime scene but could not identify it because the plate was covered. Plates must be visible so dangerous drivers can be held accountable, and so that no one gets to skip out on camera tolls and fines.

  Comment added January 7, 2025 5:36pm

• Amanda Melhuish

  Hi! I strongly support these updates as they clarify that the covered license plate rules apply to license plates from ALL states. This is an essential step in ensuring efficient enforcement of tolls and fines for driving in the bus lane. Thank you!

  Comment added January 7, 2025 6:09pm

• Owen Davis

  I strongly support this rule. As a biker I often experience dangerous driving firsthand and at close proximity. I have observed that those with fake or obscured plates tend to drive more dangerously. Although I can’t confirm this empirically, it seems to be a very striking pattern. It’s no surprise either, since these drivers are more convinced they won’t be caught.

  Comment added January 7, 2025 6:20pm

• Ryan Christman

  This is a common sense law worthy of support by all people who use our public ways.

  Comment added January 7, 2025 9:40pm

• Nicole Aptekar

  I strongly support this rule change, drivers with covered plates should not be allowed free reign to speed, block sidewalks and intersections, run through red lights, and evade tolls. Doesn’t matter what state the plate is from, in NYC, you shouldn’t be able to break the law on the road.

  Comment added January 7, 2025 9:58pm

• Niels Vanderloo

  I normally do not like extra restrictions on things by NYPD, but as someone who lives in the central business district I think this is especially important giving congestion pricing, and the rise of people obstructing their plates.

  Comment added January 8, 2025 8:38am

• Albin Henneberger

  This is a good policy change and should be enacted swiftly. Please enable the NYPD and DOT to enforce these as well as placard abuse. These seemingly small infractions have a huge impact on social trust. Thank you!

  Comment added January 8, 2025 9:38am

• Joel Barciauskas

  I fully support these changes to better align and enforce regulations around license plate visibility

  Comment added January 8, 2025 10:19am

• DJ Falkson

  Firmly agree with the rule clarifications around obstructed plates. They are a flagrant flouting of laws to avoid tolls by people who think they are smarter, better, more important, and don’t have to follow the same rules as the rest of us. What will be done to ensure that police or traffic enforcement agents are able to ticket or get these vehicles off the road?

  Comment added January 8, 2025 11:17am

• Vishnu Reddy

  I am in strong support of these rule changes. Our current mechanisms for ensuring that license plates are properly displayed is clearly not working. This makes our streets less safe and results in unaccountable drivers skirting traffic rules in a way that makes everyone unsafe

  Comment added January 8, 2025 12:34pm

• Matthew Denys

  I support this proposed rule change, which will help keep our streets safer.

  Comment added January 8, 2025 1:32pm

• dana bennewitz

  Similar to the idling and illegal parking complaints, can there be an option for citizens to submit issues now or in the future? I don’t have confidence in the NYPD to enforce this law as many NYPD officers have obstructions on their personal vehicle plates.

  Comment added January 8, 2025 2:12pm

• Geoffrey Thomas

  I support the rules changes. I have seen much discussion on social media recently from people who are looking for ways to conceal their license plates with reflective covers. This would not be clearly prohibited under the old rules since the plates are still readable by humans, but the new rules make it clear that a covering that distorts a photographic image is prohibited.

  The City Council’s “common sense caucus” has been outspoken recently in pointing out how accountability rests on being able to record license plates with security cameras. I think it should be a clear, bipartisan, and common sense opinion that all license plates should be easily visible in camera images or videos to ensure accountability.

  Furthermore, we have seen in recent weeks across the country how vehicles can be used as weapons of terror, and in fact New York City has experienced this in recent memory in the Hudson Greenway attack. Vehicles with obscured license plates should be presumed to be engaged in nefarious activity and should be a prime target for neutralization and removal. The safety of our city depends on the passage of this rule, and I cannot see any reason why a law-abiding citizen would oppose this change.

  Comment added January 8, 2025 2:13pm

• Ryan Leif Walsh

  I support these amendments

  Comment added January 8, 2025 3:34pm

• AP

  Thank you! This is a very positive change for the city, particularly in light of the start of congestion pricing.

  Comment added January 8, 2025 9:04pm

• Josh Jaffe

  Thank you for this common sense rule change.
  I would echo the suggestion from Ms. Bennewitz that would allow for bystander reporting. Crowdsourcing enforcement ensures fidelity to the rule, even for city officials and allows for more efficient use of city resources.

  Comment added January 8, 2025 11:31pm

• Shane Sauder

  I fully support this rule. We desperately need to crack down on motorists who try to skirt the law and tolls by concealing their license plates, or drive with no plates at all. The NYPD has not been enforcing this, and they really need to start. Drivers who do this are trying to avoid responsibility for their reckless driving. This is not only to evade tolls, its so they can speed through school zones and run red lights with no repercussions. Ghost cars like this have killed pedestrians, cyclists and other motorists. It needs to stop. This also needs to apply to all vehicles, not just the ones the NYPD decides to enforce on. If you go around NYPD precincts in this city you will see many vehicles with alter plates and blacked out tint on their windows. They are frequently parked on the sidewalk or in the crosswalk as well. The NYPD must stop this behavior as it is reckless, dangerous and sets a terrible precedent for the neighborhood. Not to mention, it literally violates the ADA as they frequently don’t leave room for wheel chairs or they block the curb cut at intersections.

  Comment added January 9, 2025 10:55am

• Josh Goodman

  This is a commonsense change that makes clear it is unacceptable for people to intentionally conceal identifying information about their cars and will help to curb reckless and dangerous driving. I strongly support the proposed rule change.

  Comment added January 9, 2025 7:57pm

• Jeff

  These rules need clarification on vehicle coverings before they can be put in effect. Given it’s winter and snow happens, many vehicle owners, like myself, chose to put a frost guard or other covering on their windshields to make it easier and more efficient to remove snow when needing to use the vehicle. The way these rules are written that would now be a violation. We know it’s dangerous to drive with snow covering a vehicle, requiring drivers to physically dig their cars out of snow before use to avoid a fine is not reasonable. Cracking down on illegal plates is great, please continue to do it. That said, these rules need to coincide with the enforcement of traffic laws for bicycles and scooters. 99% of all people riding bikes and scooters in the city regularly violate traffic laws including refusing to use designated bike lanes. If the NYPD and city officials have no problem allowing cyclists to routinely violate traffic laws, resulting in significant additional traffic while making roads significantly more dangerous, without any consequence, then the city has no business adding laws for motor vehicles to comply with.

  Comment added January 10, 2025 8:12pm

• Mike

  I’m in support. We need stronger enforcement and much higher monetary and legal penalties for this. I can see at least a few ghosts or obstructed plates a day! Citizens should also be able to submit this violation. NYPD ignores 311 requests to resolve these problems.

  Comment added January 10, 2025 10:13pm

• Leah Moschella

  I fully support these changes. Let’s enforce regulations around license plate visibility

  Comment added January 12, 2025 10:43am

• Nicole Francis

  I am all in favor of this rule as my residential Brooklyn neighborhood is chock full of sketchy, out of state plates, likely fake paper plates, ghost cars with NO PLATES, obscured and damaged plates which seem to be solely for the purpose of evading tolls. Please, pass this rule and ENFORCE it. I am such a pain to the patient people at my Community Board because more often than not, when I report it to 311 they close out the SR without doing a thing. Happy to show you the loads of photos and dozens of SR numbers that I’ve collected over the years.

  Thank you.

  Comment added January 12, 2025 8:18pm

• Dennis D. Kitt

  I wholeheartedly support any efforts to crack down on motorists who obscure their license plates in order to evade tolls. Such selfish motorists are effectively stealing from law-abiding motorists like myself who diligently pay their tolls. It increases the costs of bridges, tunnels and roads for the rest of us. And it pollutes our air by artificially reducing the cost of driving for motorists who evade tolls.

  This rule cannot come soon enough. Now if only the police would crack down more aggressively on motorists with obscured or ghost plates!

  Comment added January 13, 2025 10:02pm

• Daniel Bersohn

  In re 34 RCNY 4-08.3(10)iv

  The verb “carried” is not sufficiently broad or clear. Suggest revising to:

  …or by anything carried thereon, placed thereupon, or affixed thereto, except…

  Suggest adding item v to explicitly prohibit license plate flippers, license plate shutters, reflective coatings/paints applied adjacent to the plate rather than directly to the plate.

  v. Mounted to a vehicle which is provided with an assembly, coating, paint, apparatus or device which is capable of or configured to controllably, automatically, or temporarily obscure the plate or distort a photograph thereof.

  Suggest adding item vi to avoid a lawsuit from car dealers:

  vi. License plate frames which obscure any text, sticker, symbol, or graphic used to properly identify the plate or license plate frames which produce intense, specular, or directed reflections, or emit light in ways which may distort a photograph of the plate.

  Suggest adding a requirement to title 38 requiring traffic enforcement agents to issue a citation to any and all standing or parked vehicles on a public way including agency signed parking zones and any vehicle located within an off-street parking facility owned by the City of New York including employee parking lots. The traffic agent shall not have discretion to waive the citation or issue a warning in lieu of citation 60 days after the effective date of this rule.

  Suggest adding a requirement to Title 38 for traffic enforcement agents to further remove and place into evidence any offending devices they encounter to the extent that such devices can be removed by tools provided to the traffic agent.

  Comment added January 14, 2025 3:05pm

• Michelle Kuppersmith

  I wholeheartedly support this proposed rules change to ensure that vehicle owners are in full compliance with having an unobstructed plate to ensure safety for all New Yorkers. It is great that DOT is updating the language to match NY VTL 402 (b).

  Comment added January 22, 2025 10:14am

• Jonathan Rabar

  As a resident of NYC for over a decade, I would like to voice my strong support for the proposed rule change. This is a common-sense reform that is not just about levying fines for toll avoidance: it is an important deterrent to all kinds of malicious criminal activity that would be aided by obscured plates. People should not own or use cars with fake or illegally obscured license plates. Thank you for your work in changing this rule.

  Comment added January 22, 2025 3:44pm

• Steve

  It’s not just obstructed plates. It’s also vehicles WITHOUT license plates. Officers cannot ticket them because there is no identifying information. I know this because I confronted a meter maid and they specifically told me they can’t do anything. Vehicles without any plates are a danger as well and should be towed immediately or booted. They obviously have no registration or insurance so they are potential hit-and-run vehicles. They also can speed without being recognized. Since you cannot ticket these vehicles and identify the owner, it must be taken off the street or immobilized so that the owner has to contact the authorities. If they don’t then it needs to be removed or donate to charity (kars4kids). The problem now is that you have to report it to sanitation and they take up to 3 days (that’s if your lucky) to get to it. It should NEVER have to go to sanitation because these are NOT abandoned. Read this: https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2024/01/16/no-license-plates-no-problem-scofflaw-drivers-remove-tags-from-cars-and-rarely-get-caught

  Comment added February 4, 2025 11:15am

• Charles

  Disingenuous nonsense. Overreach. Start charging off duty NYPD for their own license plate violations and you can go ahead and fund whatever road work you like with that money alone. Leave citizens trying to get to and from work alone. We have to drive because you’ll do anything but build more train lines, run more trains or run them on time.

  Comment added February 5, 2025 5:40pm

• Stephen Lee

  Motorcycles or electric vehicles that are parked on city streets should also not be allowed to be covered. They are effectively blocking their license from being shown. If motorcycles have to follow the same rules as regular vehicles, than covers should not be allowed, as it will be obstructing their plates. This needs to be specified. When I called 311 and look on the NYCDOT website, it is ambiguous. The language has to be consistent. If you cover a license plate it is against the law. There are motorcycles and electric bikes being covered because they are unregistered and hence illegal.

  Comment added February 6, 2025 10:30am

• Carl Green

  Please do more to prevent obstructed plates. These are the most reckless drivers on the road, they bully pedestrians and park illegally. Thank you! Also many of them are police (I live by a precinct.

  Comment added February 6, 2025 10:41am

• Eric D Adams

  Obstructed plates/paper plates/no plates are often seen on expensive luxury cars, near precincts and are typically driven poorly without regard to the safety of other road users.

  Comment added February 6, 2025 10:42am

• Kevin Burns

  Obstructed plates are plaguing this city. Leads to stolen money from nonticketing/tolling and illegal and dangerous driving

  Comment added February 6, 2025 10:50am

• Joe Kohl Riggs

  This measure is essential, reckless drivers with obstructed license plates terrorize my community

  Comment added February 6, 2025 10:51am

• Joaquin Effertz

  Please pass this rule. It’s more important than ever that drivers pay their fair share and don’t try to skirt the rules with strategic obscuring of their license plates.

  Comment added February 6, 2025 10:56am

• Arielle

  I’m writing in strong support for this proposal. As others have noted, this is an overdue change that will only benefit everyday new yorkers as we walk, bike, etc. around our city. Fair penalties (including towing) should apply to owners of private cars who can simultaneously 1) park their private cars for free or a very low cost on our public streets and 2) avoid accountability (e.g. paying their fair share of tolls, being detected by cameras, etc.) by manipulating their license plate. It is time that this be stopped! Let’s prioritize our public space to benefit *more* individuals rather than the select few. This proposal is a step in this direction.

  Comment added February 6, 2025 11:21am

• Safiya Altman

  I strongly support this amendment, and would like to see measures put in place to enforce it. Drivers who are comfortable with concealing their plates are also comfortable breaking other laws of the road, including speeding, running red lights, and hit and runs.

  Comment added February 6, 2025 1:03pm

• Luis Gomez

  I strongly support this rule change—the first step to ensuring continued pedestrian and community safety is by ensuring that accountability is routinized and possible. Banning obscured and covered plates will greatly increase the wellbeing of others by ensuring that illegal parkers, school-zone speeders, and hit-and-run drivers can be easily identified and held accountable.

  Comment added February 6, 2025 1:44pm

• Anthony Ottaviano

  I support the rule change.

  Comment added February 6, 2025 2:11pm

• Jack Satriano

  Thank you! All cars obscuring plates on NYC streets should be towed judiciously. Driving is a privilege, not a right!

  Comment added February 6, 2025 2:37pm

• Laura Hogan

  I strongly support this proposed rule. We know that congestion pricing is working —just as proponents always said it would, incidentally — and now we need the City to enforce the congestion pricing framework by levying fines against all drivers who unlawfully seek to evade the toll. The City needs to stand up for law-abiding citizens and punish lawbreaking ones, and this rule will allow that to happen. Thank you for your consideration.

  Comment added February 6, 2025 3:48pm

• Bin

  We need to get ghost cars off the streets. No one should be a bove the law and this gives a great sense of lawlessness.

  Comment added February 6, 2025 3:59pm

• Briana Mims

  We fully support the concept of reducing and eliminating ghost plates, which do not pay their fair share as they hide behind unregistered plates. However, we believe there must be an amendment to the proposed rules to exclude Apportioned Plates (APP) organized in every state under the International Registration Plan. We also believe and suggest that commercial license plates also be exempt for this newly proposed rule – which goes too far in trying to reign in ghost plates.
  Please note: vehicles registered in many states throughout our country, such as Florida, Indiana, Minnesota and NJ appear to have their own, rules as to how license plates must be displayed.
  The rule should focus on ensuring plates are visible and in a conspicuous location for all vehicles as the Rules for the State of New York, for another important matter, only require parking ticket notices of violation to be placed in a conspicuous location i.e, not under a windshield wiper.
  Please note that:
  • Each state has its own vehicle regulations that cater to its unique needs (see below screen shots of exhibits to support our claim). For instance:
  o Florida has a maximum plate height requirement of 60 inches.
  o Indiana has no maximum plate height.
  o New York’s 48-inch rule is specific to their needs, while other states, such as Minnesota and others have different standards.
  • Most importantly, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, which we believe supersedes local rules, is shown below. For this reason alone the rules should be amended to conform with the federal regulations.
  We further note that imposing NYC’s 12″-48″ height requirement on vehicles registered in other states would create unnecessary compliance burdens for vehicles already compliant with FMCSA’s (Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration) visibility standards, which again, appear to supersede any local Rule. The FMCSA requires license plates to be clearly visible from the rear but does not specify any maximum height. NYC’s proposed rule eviscerates the federal mandate without adding any safety benefits, creating confusion, inconsistency, and safety hazards. The safety hazard clearly exists if vehicles coming into NYC have to pull over, to the side of the road, and physically modify the placement of the license plates or plates. We note for this official that NYC DOT goals are to ensure that fines are collected but, have nothing to do with promoting vehicular and pedestrian safety. In stark contrast, the FMSCA rules are designed specifically to promote traffic safety – nationwide
  APP and Commercial vehicles from various states are already compliant with FMCSA’s visibility standards and should not be required to move their plates to meet NYC’s additional height restrictions. Changing plate positions for these vehicles would cause logistical and financial strain without improving safety. Wouldn’t make since for a delivery company to stop on the bridge and/or tunnel to move their plates as they already are in compliance with their registration state.
  While it is important for plates to be visible and unobstructed, NYC should not impose regulations that conflict with federal guidelines.
  We strongly urge you to amend the proposed rule to respect the regulations of the FMSCA, as well as other states, and to focus on ensuring visibility without imposing additional burdens on interstate as well as intrastate regulations. Below are screenshots of examples that were raised in my comments above:
  EXHIBIT A:

  EXHIBIT B:

  EXHIBIT C: EMAIL FROM FEDERAL MOTOR CARRIER NYC DOT

  EXHIBIT D:

  Comment attachment
  OPPOSITION-TO-NEWLY-PROPOSED-RULES-LICENSE-PLATE-DISPLAY.pdf

  Comment added February 6, 2025 4:42pm

• Anna Sathe

  Echoing previous comments-
  I strongly support these updates as they clarify that the covered license plate rules apply to license plates from ALL states. This is an essential step in ensuring efficient enforcement of tolls and fines for driving in the bus lane.

  Comment added February 6, 2025 4:53pm

• Pravin Sathe

  I strongly support this amendment. Ideally this is coupled with robust enforcement and a substantive increase in fines / consequences for those that break the law.

  Comment added February 6, 2025 5:38pm

• Trevor Dines

  I am strongly in favor of the proposed changes. It is essential that every vehicle is identifiable by a genuine plate, and that every owner is properly billed for tolls they incur.

  Comment added February 6, 2025 5:40pm

• Stephen Black

  This rule is long overdue.

  Comment added February 6, 2025 6:04pm