I was driving west on Wilderness Oak (far north side of SA) and I had just left an appt. and didn't put my radar detector back up before I pulled out of the parking lot. I wasn't even in a hurry, just driving when I see the motorcycle cop to the right behind a parked car. Before I could react his lights were on and I pulled over. He said he clocked me at 57 in a 40. I completely owned up to speeding and told him I didn't realize I was going that fast. He then asked where my front license plate was? I told him it was in the trunk and that I was waiting for a new plate bracket to come in. He then informed me that that the clear plastic (Weather Tech) cover on my rear plate was illegal and that I had to take it off. I asked why it was illegal since it is not covering anything on the plate and it is completely clear? He looked at me and said "The thing is illegal, so take it off". At that point I just shut up and let him finish with the ticket.



$210 unless I want to take a driver safety course, then the fee is $112 and I still would need to pay another $100 for the online safety course. But, at least the citation won't go on my record and possibly hit my insurance renewal.

 

Sucks man, be careful out there, at least with defensive driving it won't go on your record as long as it this is your only moving violation within a year

Currently because of the laziness of the state there is a loophole where front license plates are no longer required, that will change very soon. http://www.huffingto..._n_1098274.html

As for the rear, see section 7: http://texinfo.libra...bills/SB439.pdf (Not sure if this still in effect with new regulations)

TXDOT has not renewed the information on their website, they are still claiming that you must have 2 license plates...

 

I don't know if they still do it, but Blockbuster has a course you can rent (if I remember correctly it's 39.99 and you have 3 days to complete it). It's 6 hours long, but it's really 5 with a required 10-15min break each hour. You have some questions to answer each hour and then a comprehensive exam in the end.

It's super easy to do it, but you have to watch it cause they have random stuff happen (for example, the host of the program gets a note from a fake arm that's thrown on his desk) and they'll ask, "What item did the host get his report from?"

 

There's websites online where you go do it for 25$, believe me I've done it a billion times!

 

Damn, sorry to hear, Ed.

(1) Front License Plate - If this was a ticket and not a warning you should be able to take a photo of it on the front of your car and bring that to court and it'll be just a fix-it fine of $16 or something like that.

(2) Online Defensive driving is $25.00, not $100 as Kite23 mentioned. And it shouldn't go on your record afterwards, yay.

 

I have a tinted license plate cover on the rear.. + its dirty as god knows what. I dont think you can see my plate from 20+ft away. Cops pull behind me all the time, not one shit has been given yet.

 

Thanks for the info everyone!



Chris, no ticket for the front license plate, just some verbal abuse!



I'll be taking one of the online courses soon so I can get it over with.

 

Online course is going to take a long time, they won't let you start answering the questions until a certain time frame (25 to 40 minutes) passes by. I will recommend taking the funny bones class, it's usually setup in a comedy club for $25 and lunch is included. you can knock out the entire course in about a day 9am-3pm. My instructor was pretty funny.
http://www.funnybonedefensivedrivingschool.com/

 

I second this notion on Funny Bone. I always do my Defensive Driving there. You get some lulz, pizza, an easy test, and done in 6 hrs!

 

Actually, according to the letter of the law neither front nor rear license plates have been required since 1/1/12. I'm not quite ready to push LEOs' buttons by educating them on how our legislators screwed up on the side of a road, however.