Picture Illustration / Las Vegas Solar
Beneath Nevada rules for “traditional” and related automobiles, just about any automobile older than 20 years may be registered with a traditional license plate and thereby keep away from a smog check, that are in any other case obligatory in Clark County.
Friday, Feb. 12, 2021 | 2 a.m.
Carson Metropolis —
What makes a automobile traditional? It seems like fodder for bar trivia, but it surely’s a query virtually sure to come back up within the Nevada Legislature.
Basic automobile license plates permit recipients to bypass annual smog checks required in Clark and Washoe counties.
Whereas many individuals consider the classics as maybe a Nineteen Fifties muscle automobile or a classic roadster, in Nevada automobiles can qualify for traditional plates when they’re simply 20 years previous.
That signifies that 2001 minivan you’re nonetheless utilizing to run the youngsters round and drive to work might technically be a traditional.
Some environmentalists say too many individuals are utilizing the early traditional designation to get round smog requirements for automobiles which can be extra rolling fog machines than items of automotive historical past.
Assemblyman Howard Watts, D-Las Vegas, is proposing laws to shut the loophole, limiting the particular plates to automobiles extra usually thought-about classics.
“Mainly, an increasing number of automobile (homeowners) have realized they’ll drive these automobiles with a traditional plate, they don’t need to get a smog examine, and there’s no actual enforcement,” Watts mentioned.
The variety of traditional automobiles registered in Clark and Washoe counties has grown from about 5,000 in 2011 to greater than 23,000 this yr.
Beneath the present regulation, traditional automobiles should not alleged to be pushed greater than 5,000 miles a yr, however there’s little actual enforcement.
“The DMV doesn’t actually have the construction or assets to implement that,” Watts mentioned. “I’d love to deal with that, however we’re dealing with a reasonably severe funds state of affairs.”
His proposed resolution: Require individuals who need traditional automobile plates to have traditional automobile insurance coverage. It might assist resolve the issue as a result of insurance coverage corporations are usually pickier about what sort of automobiles qualify as classics.
Allstate, for instance, lists typical {qualifications} as restricted annual mileage, proof of correct storage, proof the driving force has one other automobile for on a regular basis driving and automobile age necessities.
It’s tough to determine the affect on the setting from cracking down on the variety of early classics on the highway. However older automobiles are considerably dirtier than newer fashions.
Emissions from a 1990 mannequin yr automobile produced as much as 18 occasions the quantity of ozone-producing emissions as a 2015 mannequin, based on a 2016 report by the Nevada Division of Environmental Safety.
Rudy Zamora, program director for Chispa Nevada, a Latino-focused arm of the League of Conservation Voters, mentioned the laws would profit communities of colour, which regularly bear the brunt of air pollution.
“Communities of colour are disproportionately affected as a result of we’re those which can be nearer to the sources of air pollution — we’re nearer to the highways,” he mentioned.
Christi Cabrera, coverage and advocacy director for Nevada Conservation League, mentioned the proposed laws would additionally direct some state emissions charges to fund automobile smog restore applications and electric-vehicle incentives for low-income folks in Clark and Washoe counties.
Watts mentioned the environmental, financial and clean-energy impacts of the invoice make it value passing. “I feel it’s a win, win, win coverage,” he mentioned.
