Monday’s Headlines: No Excuses Edition

As part of New Jersey’s effort to close many of the license plate loopholes identified by our Polk-Award-winning “Ghost Tags” series last year, Garden State motor vehicles officials finally unveiled last week new temporary tags that are far harder to fake.

According to the officials, licensed car dealers will be required to start issuing the new tags on Aug. 11 “to reduce vehicle registration fraud” — which is exactly what our reporter Jesse Coburn exposed in his series. For a while, both the new tags and the frequently fugazy old ones will be on the road, but after Nov. 1, anything resembling the left plate above will be a fraud, even if it was originally issued legitimately.

And NYPD cops will have no problem telling the real from the fakes: “Temp tags will no longer be issued on plain white paper,” New Jersey officials said. “Going forward they will be issued on light grey security paper.”

It’s a small change, but it could mean real success in reducing the presence of cars bearing fake or fraudulently issued temporary tags, a phenomenon that exploded during the pandemic (and with one Streetsblog editor!), but continues today, thanks to Jersey’s still-lax rules over who can legally issue temp tags.

And one other thing needs reform: New York’s speed and red-light cameras still can’t read New Jersey temps — even the real ones. And it’s not because the cameras are blurry — it’s because New Jersey won’t give us the registration information so the scofflaw drivers can be ticketed, as we reported last month.

For now, we’ll take the W.

In other news:

• City Council Member Tiffany Caban, who isn’t nearly the darling of the “ban cars” crowd that the Post thinks she is, got caught lead-footed — with four speeding tickets in a year. That’s a bad look for someone who does favor safer streets, but it’s also a reminder that a great way to get safer streets is to design them so people can’t speed. Until then, the Council Member has some explaining to do (she didn’t respond to the Post’s questions).
• Economist James Parrott had a hot take on the delivery worker minimum wage: It’s working! (NYDN)
• Also working? The Franklin Avenue Shuttle. (NYDN)
• And also working? Brooklyn’s sponge streets. (Hell Gate)
• The Post had more details about construction worker Herb Alesna, who was recently killed on the Washington Bridge.
• OK, we get it: Rich old ladies in diners like that Gov. Hochul is gutting transit and packing New York City with cars. Is that really whose opinion matters? How about ride the Bx36 sometime? (Politico)
• Speaking of congestion pricing, amNY covered a report showing that there is no alternative to the central business district tolls. (We covered it last week.)
• Meanwhile, former federal transit man Larry Penner isn’t too impressed by Gov. Hochul’s penny-ante funding for the Second Avenue Subway. (Mass Transit)
• City Limits printed a great YIMBY op-ed by Jessica Yager that hits really close to home for me — a block away from where I live. Build, baby, build!
• Meet biking barber, Julien Howard. (NY Times)
• Get ready for the latest argument in support of electric cars: they can stabilize our electric grid during heatwaves. We’re dubious. (amNY)
• A car-free Olympics? In Los Angeles? LOL. (NY Times)
• Three men were killed in separate motorcycle crashes in the Bronx. (NYDN)
• Someone built an app so you can use city traffic cameras to take selfies. Please be safe out there. (NY Post)
• The last phase of the G train renovation begins on Monday, but the pain will only last three weeks. The work will require shuttle buses between Bedford-Nostrand and Jay Street-Metrotech, where Church Avenue-bound customers can hop an F train. (Gothamist)
• Did you catch our own Kevin Duggan on WCBS-880 on Friday talking about his story about a car-brained road widening on Staten Island? If not, catch it here.
• And, finally, win a gold medal, get on a Parisien Citi Bike. All in a day’s work for Devin Booker: