Photo credit: myfoxaustin.com
Texas drivers will have one minor annoyance off our lists starting next March — we’ll still have to get auto inspections, but we’ll no longer have to put an inspection sticker on our windshields. That’s under a new law that was detailed in a recent article in the Dallas Morning News. Here are excerpts:
Texas drivers will enjoy a little better windshield view starting in March 2015 when safety inspections become tied to vehicle registration. Texas’ inspection sticker — a front-glass fixture for more than half a century — will go away in the process.
The inspection itself is still required. Vehicle owners will have to get one within 90 days before renewing their registration. They will have to provide proof the inspection was passed, just as they now provide proof of insurance.
The change will lead to millions fewer inspections from next March, when the new rule takes effect, to the end of the transition. So those in the business of conducting inspections stand to take a short-term loss — but not a big one.
The state stands to save $2 million by discontinuing the inspection stickers, which Texas has required since the 1950s. For decades, the safety inspection sticker rode the windshield solo. But that changed for some with the addition of the TollTag and for all Texans when registration stickers were moved from the rear license plate.
With toll roads spreading across the Dallas-Fort Worth area landscape, the three-sticker windshield has become commonplace. Drivers will save a little clutter.
