Interesting - I thought the whole idea behind the EU was to encourage reciprocity, but I guess it doesn't work on everything...
I'm more surprised by the SF situation, given the explicit reciprocity requirements in the US Constitution (Article IV - The States; Section 1 - Each State to Honor all others;
Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each State to the public Acts, Records, and judicial Proceedings of every other State. And the Congress may by general Laws prescribe the Manner in which such Acts, Records and Proceedings shall be proved, and the Effect thereof.) Issuance of HP tags / plates is normally a state gov't function, not a municipal one, and I would have expected the tag to be treated like a drivers license, especially since it's usually the same gov't agency that issues both...
Of course there was the somewhat notorious guy from CT - the late Reverend Kaiser, who lost his right leg just below the knee to a drunk driver, and subsequently drove around in a slightly modified BMW sidecar rig (floor boards with a rail around the right one to keep his foot from falling off, and an oversized brake pedal so he could be sure to hit it...) At the time CT refused to issue HP plates for motorcycles on the theory that "handicapped people cant ride, so if you are on a bike you aren't handicapped...
" The Rev just put the generic blue wheelchair stickers on the outfit, and literally handed his leg to any cop that tried to give him a ticket... If he didn't intercept the cop, he'd go to court, (wearing his full leather riding gear and clergy collar and give his leg to the judge... Never lost a case for some reason
. It took a few years, but he did finally force the state legislature to pass a law requiring the registry to give HP plates to qualified bikers... (and then had a second battle because they didn't want to give him HP plates for both his bike and his Cadillac station wagon...)
He pissed off a lot of people, but in his day was quite a major activist in the bikers rights community, claimed a good bit of credit for getting the CT helmet law repealed (by running protest rides at 20mph through downtown Hartford during weekday rush hours - and suggesting in the media that any commuters bothered by this call their legislators....) He also forced the state to repaint the statehouse parking lot to comply with ADA standards, and when they passed the state auto seatbelt law, showed up at the entrance to the legislators parking area with a camera and tape recorder to ask the legislators why they weren't wearing their seatbelts in accordance with the law they had just voted for...
(Unfortunately most of the responses couldn't be broadcast due to FCC language regulations....)
ex-Gooserider