NYC plans crackdown on obscured license plates as congestion pricing launches

New York City drivers who obscure or cover their license plates to skirt automated tolls and tickets are in for a rude awakening, the city transportation department warned on Tuesday.

The city published plans to impose new fines on drivers whose plates are covered with anything “including dirt, rust, glass or plastic coverings, substances or materials” that renders them unreadable. The rule aims to broaden the city’s definition of illegally covered license plates. The transportation department's plan comes the same week the MTA launched its congestion pricing tolls, which rely on tolling cameras to charge drivers $9 daytime fees to enter Manhattan south of 60th Street.

The proposed regulation is in line with changes to New York state traffic law passed in Albany last year that also aimed to crack down on toll evaders. The change to that law went into effect in September, and fines drivers who obscure their plates between $100 and $500. The rules proposed by the city transportation department on Tuesday would additionally allow enforcement officers to issue $50 fines to parked or idling cars with obscured or blocked plates across the five boroughs.

“By expanding the definition of what is illegal, we will be able to hold reckless drivers accountable and create safer and more accessible streets for all,” Transportation Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez in a statement on Tuesday.

According to a report published by the Citizens Budget Commission last year, the transportation department lost more than $100 million in 2023 to drivers who covered their license plates to evade tolls, red light and speed cameras.

Mayor Eric Adams has also promised to pursue drivers in “ghost cars,” or vehicles with phony or obscured plates. City officials said they’ve seized more than 73,000 ghost cars and unregistered vehicles from the streets since Adams took office in 2022.

Alexa Sledge, a spokesperson for the street safety advocacy group Transportation Alternatives, said the new rules are a good step toward ensuring no driver is able to find a loophole to the MTA’s congestion pricing tolls.

“I don’t exactly know who is obstructing their license plates, but it definitely is a widespread problem,” Sledge said. “Everyone needs to pay the toll regardless of who they are and what their job is.”

MTA officials said that the state law requires the money from congestion pricing to finance $15 billion in repairs and upgrades to the MTA's mass transit infrastructure.