Gary.Bewell@f34.n129.z1.fidonet.org (Gary Bewell) (06/05/90)
Index Number: 8612
Someone recently was talking about the lack of knowledge about
parking placards.
I had an interesting experience last month with the police after
mine was stolen.
In Alberta, we have a small placard that is hung on the rearview
mirror. Our car was being repaired and the repair shop left the
doors open when they finished working on the car. When I went to
pick it up, my placard had been stolen.
I called the police and an officer came over. I gave him the
registration number and showed him my registration certificate
which is identical to a car registration except it has the
registration number where the license plate number usually is, has
CONTINUOUS for an expiry date and Disable Placard for the type of
operation (which would be Passenger for a car). He kept wanting to
write down the placard number as the license plate number of the
vehicle from which the placard was stolen. It took me quite a
while to draw a picture of the placard and explain the ins and outs
of them. He had never looked at one closely and didn't know that
the placard is issued to a person not a vehicle. I find it ironic
that he never even knew that a person must have a registration
certificate for his or her parking placard. I had always thought
that this would be the easy way to stop abuse or theft of
placards. The placard numbers can be checked in the same way that
vehicle registrations are.
For your information: Around 1985 an interprovinical agreement was
drawn up for the recognition of other province's parking placards.
Placards would be recognized anywhere in Canada and would be issued
to the person not a vehicle. Optional vehicle license plates are
also issued and have the same recognition. (As far as I know, all
Canadian provinces also recognize US issued parking placards.)
Gary
# Origin: T.P.V. - Calgary, Alberta, Canada (NETWORK 8:7500/198)
--
Uucp: ..!{decvax,oliveb}!bunker!hcap!hnews!129!34!Gary.Bewell
Internet: Gary.Bewell@f34.n129.z1.fidonet.org