General Road and Highway Discussion

[GtwoK]

Curbs in along Shirley Ave (or is it Bingemans Centre?)



Coke

And today it was being paved! Looks like the grade of the new lanes are a bit higher than the existing Shirley / Bingeman's Centre lanes... I presume after the paving is done here, they'll reroute traffic through the new section while they raise the grade of the old section? If that's the case, we could probably see the new section open within a week or so, unless they plan on doing the sidewalks before opening it.

[Coke6pk]

Interesting list... sad to see my Surname isn't on the list, but "Hutchuson, Jeff" gets both names?

Happy to see Cambridge seems to get all the phonetically challenging names... [Schmeidendorf, Nykolaishen, Muzylowsky, Mishibinikima, Kremchyk, Jagiellowicz]

Coke

[KevinL]

Adolf, Anger, Hooker, Loveless

Those appear to be 'reserved' to exclude them (could be seen as offensive, or at least objectionable).

[Canard]

I want to see the MTO's "exclude" list of their standard "ABCD 123 " plates - like, what the software is set to automatically index past. I think it'd be hilarious.

I saw "CAWC" the other day and it made me giggle

[Coke6pk]

I want to see the MTO's "exclude" list of their standard "ABCD 123 " plates - like, what the software is set to automatically index past. I think it'd be hilarious.

I saw "CAWC" the other day and it made me giggle

I saw MNGECAKE and Italian flags on the car, so I could only assume it was an insult to me (Caucasian).  Was surprised it made it thru the system.

[When I was younger (like 25 yrs ago), I wanted to get SSHOLE and add the Argo's logo (Which was just a Blue 'A' at the time), but couldn't scrape together $150 to buy the plate, so I guess I'll never know if it would of gotten by or not.

Coke

[MidTowner]

MNGECAKE is fairly bad. There was a pretty infuriating story a little while ago about a fellow with the last name Grabher having his plate disallowed in Nova Scotia after several decades. He had some good quotes about them wanting his birth certificate back next, and so on.

Some of these reserve street names are truly terrible. Trout Lily; White Willow, Black Willow, and Shining Willow; Ridge Crest; Purple Sandcherry; Eden Oak.

[Coke6pk]

Could it be that they have Plans of Subdivision on file that haven't yet been implemented, but that already have named streets in them?

This is possible because I saw Heroux Devtek on the list, and that's a "somewhat new" street in the Maple Grove Industrial Centre.

Coke

[ijmorlan]

MNGECAKE is fairly bad. There was a pretty infuriating story a little while ago about a fellow with the last name Grabher having his plate disallowed in Nova Scotia after several decades. He had some good quotes about them wanting his birth certificate back next, and so on.

That one was interesting in that, especially with the current president, I thought the complaint itself was well-founded, but the response after a brief investigation should have been “it’s his name. He can keep the plate.” If the investigation had found instead that the plate was owned by a dudebro who thought it was hilarious, then there should have been the possibility of it being pulled.

By contrast, I thought the complaint about ASIMIL8 in Manitoba was ridiculous on its face, and the more I think about it the more ridiculous I think it is.

[timc]

The thing about licence plates is you can't tell intent when you are driving behind someone.

[SammyOES2]

Yeah, its a reasonable thing for people to get offended about (imo) and there's no way to know its his name when driving.

If people want to complain about his name being offensive when he gives them his birth certificate, that's a different story. The context is much clearer there and its obvious its just his name.

[ijmorlan]

Yeah, its a reasonable thing for people to get offended about (imo) and there's no way to know its his name when driving.  

If people want to complain about his name being offensive when he gives them his birth certificate, that's a different story.  The context is much clearer there and its obvious its just his name.

That’s why I considered the complaint well-founded. But almost anything could be offensive — the name of a murderer, a rude word in a different language, the name of a location where somebody was victimized in some way, …. And don’t forget that we saw in the ASIMIL8 case that apparently standard English words are now offensive. So I think if it’s not blatantly offensive then providing a valid, non-offensive justification for the plate should be sufficient keep the plate. Remember, even under the current rules he had it for years before anybody complained. So clearly it’s not that bad (or wasn’t, until the current President was elected!).

[danbrotherston]

Yeah, its a reasonable thing for people to get offended about (imo) and there's no way to know its his name when driving.  

If people want to complain about his name being offensive when he gives them his birth certificate, that's a different story.  The context is much clearer there and its obvious its just his name.

That’s why I considered the complaint well-founded. But almost anything could be offensive — the name of a murderer, a rude word in a different language, the name of a location where somebody was victimized in some way, …. And don’t forget that we saw in the ASIMIL8 case that apparently standard English words are now offensive. So I think if it’s not blatantly offensive then providing a valid, non-offensive justification for the plate should be sufficient keep the plate. Remember, even under the current rules he had it for years before anybody complained. So clearly it’s not that bad (or wasn’t, until the current President was elected!).

Yes, anything can be offensive to someone, but that isn't the issue here, the issue is, is it offensive to most or a specific group of people without any context.

And again, we're talking about personalized plates, which are neither a right, nor a particularly valuable or important freedom.  The freedom of not living in a culture which has apparently offensive or derogatory statements on license plates is a much more important freedom.  It has a much bigger impact on the quality of life of many more people.

And, I'm perfectly happy with the current system, where we reject the most obvious ones and then take a very hard line when there are complaints.  Seems perfectly reasonable to me.

[SammyOES2]

Note as well, that this isn't just 'offensive', it actually reads as actively encouraging sexual harassment.

[Elmira Guy]

No doubt Mr Grabher should be ordered to legally change his name. Obviously his ancestors had no sense of decency when they settled on that name.

I hope my friends Mr and Mrs Kuntz don't put their name on a personalised plate.

[danbrotherston]

No doubt Mr Grabher should be ordered to legally change his name. Obviously his ancestors had no sense of decency when they settled on that name.

I hope my friends Mr and Mrs Kuntz don't put their name on a personalised plate.

Nobody is saying that, this is a civil conversation, please don't put words in people's mouth.  It has been repeatedly pointed out, that when in the context of someone's name, it is obvious that it is a name, when it is on a personalized plate, that context is lost.

We are now fully off topic....