Oregon’s new Share the Road license plate has reached an important sales milestone.
According to Debi Mercer with the Oregon Department of Motor Vehicles, over 1,000 of the specialty plates have been sold (at a rate of about 7-15 per day) since they became available at the beginning of 2008 .
That’s an important milestone because now the $10,000 deposit (for the application and development of the plates) paid to the DMV by Cycle Oregon and the Bicycle Transportation Alliance — the two beneficiaries of the sales proceeds — will be refunded. Mercer also says that the Share the Road design is the first Oregon specialty plate to reach the 1,000 sales mark in its first year.
Jerry Norquist, the director of Cycle Oregon who spearheaded the effort to create the plate says, “That’s really good news. Not only will we get our deposit back, but the 1,000 plate mark also triggers the payouts to our new educational fund.”
Proceeds from the sale of each plate will be evenly split between the BTA and Cycle Oregon ($5 a piece) and will go directly into education-oriented programs and initiatives.
The Share the Road plates got off to a rocky start, and it took several months after it’s official launch date (January 1) to get back on track and become available again.
Norquist is working with Oregon State Senator Floyd Prozanski (D-Eugene) and the DMV to find better ways to market the plates to prospective buyers. Right now, they’re looking into creating a poster or a brochure of all the specialty that would be distributed at all DMV offices.
For more information on the Share the Road license plate, visit the Oregon DMV non-profit plates page.