cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/43879975
this post was submitted on 05 Mar 2026
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How do you not have a points system or something to penalise repeat offenders?
New York does have a point system. If you get 11 points within 18 months, you will get an automatic driving ban. Speed violations are worth a minimum of 3 points.
https://dmv.ny.gov/points-and-penalties/the-new-york-state-driver-point-system
But in order to be assessed points, you have to be caught. And many times, prolific traffic lawbreakers do things like cover up their car's registration plates to avoid being ticketed by automatic speed cameras.
But from where was this data sourced if the drivers were not caught?
The post only shows the make and model of the car. They probably were caught by the cameras multiple times without a visible plate number. You can still tell it's probably the same person if cameras in one area catch the same model of car speeding over and over again without a plate.
That is interesting and shows they need to go further based on this so hopefully highlighting this issue will lead there. Any car without a clear licence plate should be immediately pulled over by police and fined on the spot plus checked for insurance, licence, etc. If they don't have insurance here in the UK, the car is impounded until someone with a driving licence and appropriate insurance collects it. If you don't have a driving licence, im not too clear if they impound it or just leave the car there and arrest the driver. Either way, they're not able to drive off.
Any vehicle owner should either identify the driver at the time or take the points by default. Cameras should be changed to ones that take pictures of the drivers from the front. The technology exists!
If a car isn't taxed, the police can fine or more usually, the driving authority roams around randomly and if the car is on any public road, puts a boot on the car and a massive yellow sticker on the windscreen. It doesn't happen often but enough to make people pay taxes or get called out to your neighbours. Eventually those cars are impounded too.
The flip side to all this though is the need for infrastructure to actually slow cars down instead of just a speed limit. Only a combination of a lot of things will do anything
That's the same as in New York. If you are caught by police driving a car without proper insurance, registration, or without a valid driving licence, the police can have the car towed and impounded, although, for minor issues, such as expired registration or insurance documents, they usually will just give the driver a warning to remedy the problem. However, if the driver has already received warnings for the same problem in the past, then the police will usually not extend any more leniency.
Driving with illegal modifications such as missing registration plates, purposefully obscured plates, or suspended driving licence, is almost always an arrest and impoundment.
That is the same then but how do you get this number of infractions? I don't understand. Maybe I should be asking whether we get the same issues here then if they're falling through some gaps
These people are not getting caught. New Yorkers have very elaborate ways to avoid tolls and speed cameras. One popular trick is to have a lever which engages a shutter that covers their registration plate, which they engage only as they approach a speed camera or toll gantry. As soon as they are out of sight of the camera, they roll the shutter back up.
This modification, of course, is highly illegal but it's very difficult for the police to catch unless they stake out the camera and wait for someone to do this in front of them. Police do occasionally do that, but it's obviously not a great use of police resources to sit there and simply hope that someone is stupid enough to do this in the sight of a police car.
Edit: You can watch this video for further info: https://youtu.be/WcliB8uBs5w