I’ve often written about Idaho’s license plates: here, here, here, here, here, and probably a few posts I didn’t find in a quick search.
So, maybe you think I know everything there is to know about the subject. Bad assumption about me no matter what the subject. But I do know a little. That’s why I was surprised to learn recently about an Idaho license plate fact that was staring me right in the face.
I have an electric car. The City of Boise offers electric vehicles a special parking option. You pay a fee once a year, then forget about feeding meters. I’ve been using it for a couple of years. So, I was surprised to get a parking ticket over near the statehouse.
I checked my parking permit receipt to make sure I hadn’t missed a deadline. Nope, I was good until mid-December. So, I took the ticket to city hall, which was just a couple of blocks away. The helpful clerk was puzzled by the way her system was acting. Yes, I had a permit and, yes, I’d received a ticket. Why hadn’t the meter patrol person noticed that when they typed in my license plate number? I have a personalized—some say “vanity”—plate with the letter and number combination 4IDAHO. At least, I thought I did. It turns out my plate is actually 4IDAH0.
Did you catch the difference there? It’s in that last digit. It is not an O but a zero. It’s not a mistake I made when ordering the plate. It’s not a mistake at all. Idaho uses only zeros when representing an O in a personalized plate. In fact, the only place you’ll actually find an O is in the county designators 1O and 2O. Why? Probably because someone decided it would be less confusing.
It confused the meter reader, though. When they typed in 4IDAHO no EV parking permit came up, so I got a ticket. I would have typed it in the same way. Helpfully, the City of Boise has merged 4IDAHO with 4IDAH0 in their system so that the issue won’t come up again.
I could probably zero in on some lame aphorism to close this post out, but I’ll resist. This isn’t a zero-sum game.
So, maybe you think I know everything there is to know about the subject. Bad assumption about me no matter what the subject. But I do know a little. That’s why I was surprised to learn recently about an Idaho license plate fact that was staring me right in the face.
I have an electric car. The City of Boise offers electric vehicles a special parking option. You pay a fee once a year, then forget about feeding meters. I’ve been using it for a couple of years. So, I was surprised to get a parking ticket over near the statehouse.
I checked my parking permit receipt to make sure I hadn’t missed a deadline. Nope, I was good until mid-December. So, I took the ticket to city hall, which was just a couple of blocks away. The helpful clerk was puzzled by the way her system was acting. Yes, I had a permit and, yes, I’d received a ticket. Why hadn’t the meter patrol person noticed that when they typed in my license plate number? I have a personalized—some say “vanity”—plate with the letter and number combination 4IDAHO. At least, I thought I did. It turns out my plate is actually 4IDAH0.
Did you catch the difference there? It’s in that last digit. It is not an O but a zero. It’s not a mistake I made when ordering the plate. It’s not a mistake at all. Idaho uses only zeros when representing an O in a personalized plate. In fact, the only place you’ll actually find an O is in the county designators 1O and 2O. Why? Probably because someone decided it would be less confusing.
It confused the meter reader, though. When they typed in 4IDAHO no EV parking permit came up, so I got a ticket. I would have typed it in the same way. Helpfully, the City of Boise has merged 4IDAHO with 4IDAH0 in their system so that the issue won’t come up again.
I could probably zero in on some lame aphorism to close this post out, but I’ll resist. This isn’t a zero-sum game.
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