Oregon Launches a New License Plate Design. What's a Motto With You?
Oregon's Mail Tribune reports that the Beaver State will now offer motorists a chance to warn other motorists not to run over bicyclists. For an extra $10 on top of the usual license fee, Oregonians can buy a plate with the design pictured here, safe in the knowledge that an undisclosed percentage of the proceeds go to Portland's Bicycle Transportation Alliance. If drivers don't want to share the road with anyone– Oregon is survivalist central after all– they can affix plates benefiting the Elks, Masons, square dancers and firefighters. Military vets also get their own plates: Purple Heart recipients, members of the First Marine Division, disabled veterans, former prisoners of war, and five others). Graduates of seven Oregon universities are also allowed to flaunt their education on their tags, but not if they went to Southern Oregon University (for some strange reason). All of which begs a question: whatever happen to having one damn plate design per state? Setting aside the law enforcement implications of multiple iterations, a single design with a single motto provided a unifying state identity for its residents. Anything for money, eh?
[A list of all 50 states' plates– without minor variations– here ]
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Important plot point about Texas Plates: Many different causes raise money with these plates because a portion of the proceeds goes to them. Why the state needs to do this? I dunno.
Keeps the prisoners happy, all of that variety.
Oregon is NOT "survivalist central", I believe that Idaho holds that title. Now there are those who refer to Portland as "Beruit on the Willamette".
As an Oregon resident and driver, this posting reminds me of all that is wrong with my state. The bicyclists take priority over all drivers (at least in Portland). They are some of the rudest people you will ever come across by riding in city streets, sometimes where cars cannot pass. To top that they believe they are superior because they are riding a bike, while the 1 million other people in the city are "evil" because we are harming the environment by driving. To top all other things. One day a year, the city closes a majority of the major bridges (I believe 4 of 9) for Bridge Pedal. Of course these Bike Nazis (as I call them) do not pay taxes to keep up the roads they ride on and do not carry insurance. So if one falls on your car as you are carefully passing, guess who can be held liable? I hate Portland bicyclists and this is just the icing on the cake!