License Plate Covers?:VA

[pndbear81]

What is the name of your state: VA

You know this has been racking my brain. What is the deal with license plate covers?
1) Are they Legal?
2) Do they protect people from Traffic Camera's or something?

3) Wouldn't it just make you more of a target if it obscures your license plate?

4) They kind of piss me off, am I the only one?

5) Have they banned all Traffic Camera's in VA???

D.C. is notorious - in terms of traffic camera's - but atleast they do not give points when you are caught.

 

[lwpat]

Anything that obscures your licese plate is illegal and that includes most of the covers currently being sold. I have not heard of anyone being stopped just for this violation so my guess is that it is pretty far down the list. If you get stopped for another reason they are likely to tack this one on.

My understanding is that Virginia has decided to stop the use of red light cameras. They have serious problems with the technology and they do not decrease the number of accidents as claimed. Basically they are simply another way to impose a tax.

 

[fedcop110]

You know this has been racking my brain. What is the deal with license plate covers?
1) Are they Legal?
2) Do they protect people from Traffic Camera's or something?

This is directly from VSC 46.2-716:

B. No colored glass, colored plastic, or any other type of covering shall be placed, mounted, or installed on or over any license plate if such glass, plastic, or other type of covering in any way alters or obscures (i) the alpha-numeric information, (ii) the color of the license plate, (iii) the name or abbreviated name of the state wherein the vehicle is registered, or (iv) any character or characters, decal, stamp, or other device indicating the month or year in which the vehicle's registration expires. No insignia, emblems, or trailer hitches or couplings shall be mounted in such a way as to hide or obscure any portion of the license plate or render any portion of the license plate illegible.

Basically anything covering the plate is illegal I'm sure that there are some covers that don't obscure anything, but I have yet to see one.

Also VSC 46.2-833.01 states that the governing body of a city having a population of over 390,000 (and many other localities) may institute a photo-monitoring system to enforce traffic light signals.

5) Have they banned all Traffic Camera's in VA???

No

4) They kind of piss me off, am I the only one?

No, I am not too fond of them either

3) Wouldn't it just make you more of a target if it obscures your license plate?

Yes, they are illegal.

Hope this helped a little

Here is the link to the Code of Virginia, traffic code:
http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?000+cod+TOC4602000