If you own a vehicle and live in the City of Chicago you’re required to register your vehicle with the city. As proof of this registration, you’re required to put a registration sticker on the inside of your windshield on the passenger side of the vehicle. This sticker is identical in design as the DMV registration stickers we had back in New York; a laser printer prints the data on an exposed part of the sticker. You peel it off and put it on your windshield. Unlike New York stickers, these stickers stay in place quite well. Also like back in New York, the motorist is required to remove the old sticker and put the next year’s replacement sticker in its place.
A lot of folks in Chicago don’t do this. Instead the start a line of stickers up the windshield. I’d rarely see this in New York State, but it’s all over the place here in Chicago.
I don’t know if the practice warrants a ticket. I know that it drives me insane; it really trips off my OCD.
The sticker indicates where you’re allowed to park in the city, for example, if some streets have permit parking. I don’t know what the thought process is around keeping expired stickers on your windshield, but perhaps a $5 reminder ticket would help motorists follow the rule of sticker placement a little closer while increasing revenue for the city at the same time.
I know, it sounds petty, but with more and more drivers distracted on the roadway, the last thing they need is a row of stickers up the side of their windshield blocking their vision.
