You might get a $100 ticket, starting Wednesday, if you obscure your automobile license plate with one of those fat frames that promote pastimes, car dealers and alma maters.

You say you'd rather be fishing? The police would rather be able to read your license plate.

That includes every letter and number of your license number, the state that issued your license, and the month and year your registration expires.

Under a new state law that takes effect Wednesday, you’re not street-legal if ... [MORE].

Quick, what was the number on that license plate?

I think it was 88 -- just like on Dale Junior's No. 88 National Guard / AMP Energy Chevrolet. 

Or maybe not. Cops and traffic cameras have a hard time deciphering the actual license numbers of some of North Carolina's colorful specialty license plates -- especially those rolling NASCAR billboards, which compound the confusion by adding a race-car driver's number, which is not part of the actual license number.

So Mike Robertson, the DMV commissioner, wants to get rid of the colors and convert these pretty and popular plates to the standard blue numerals on white background. (See today's story.) ... [MORE]

Some readers think it was silly, or worse, for the General Assembly to ban fat frames that hide basic info -- state name, registration renewal stickers -- on car license plates (see today's Road Worrier column, with reader comments).

If they want to make sure that NC license plates are easily recognizable, then they should repeal all those "SPECIAL INTERST" license plates that are no where near the original White, RED, and Blue colors! - mike_cary

To claim that NC state troopers couldn't recognize a local plate (even one of the variations of vanity plates) is sort of demeaning to their ability. - shawnc1959

Maybe so.  But -- quick! the car is speeding away! -- can you tell me what state is attached to the license plate you see here?  ... [MORE]

Texting is now illegal when you're driving. That includes both sending and reading text messages and e-mail. If you feel the urge, put your car in Park.

And it's against the law to have a fat frame on your car that covers important info on your license plate -- the state name and the month and year registration stickers.

You can take my word for this (see today's Road Worrier column). Or not.

If not, you can read for yourself these two new laws that take effect today, Dec. 1. If your license plate frame is too fat, you'll only get a warning for the next 12 months. The $100 fine for violators starts a year from today.

The $100 fine for texting while driving? That starts now.

Here are the final text and legislative history of the texting ban, House Bill 9.

Likewise, the final text and legislative history of the fat-frame law, House Bill 67.

Let me know your thoughts about this stuff.

Car dealers are OK with an impending change in state law to ban fat-bordered frames that obscure the state name and other important ID info on license plates (see today's Road Worrier column with reader comments).

"We've got a lot of dealers who buy those frames in bulk," said Robert Glaser, president of the N.C. Automobile Dealers Association. His comments got trimmed out of today's print edition, because we were short on space. "We just want enough time to allow the dealer to prepare to comply with the law."

Glaser said he checked with his counterparts in Arizona. They adjusted without serious pain to similar legislation last year.

Rep. Nelson Cole, himself a retired auto dealer, is pushing the North Carolina legislation to make license plates legible, and it includes a one-year grace period.

But car dealers aren't the only ones who will be affected. College alumni groups and sports booster clubs like to use these fat frames, too. Watch out, Wolfpackers.

It appears that the General Assembly is about to approve House Bill 67. It would expand a state law that says the license plate on your car should be legible, to add this provision:

Any operator of a motor vehicle who covers the State name, year sticker, or month sticker on a registration plate with a license plate frame commits an infraction and shall be fined ....

You know what they're talking about: A frame around your license plate that advertises your alma mater or your outlook on life -- or, more likely, the dealer who sold you the car.

"These things have gotten to be where the whole tag is an advertisement," Sen. Harry Brown of Onslow County said at a July 1 meeting of the Senate Finance Committee, which endorsed the bill.

Sometimes the borders of these frames are so fat that the car dealer's name obscures part of the tag -- namely, the state name embossed in small letters across the bottom. The license number by itself doesn't fully identify a car -- there can be several states that have issued tag number ABC-1234 or whatever.

Have you ever been ticketed because of your license plate frame? What are your thoughts about this legislation? Which car dealers are causing the problem here?

Let me hear from you by e-mail or phone (919-829-4527), and don't forget your daytime contact info.