Front numberplates coming soon

By 2009, your motorcycle is likely to have a front numberplate, even though most of the rest of the world manages without them.

That's the result of a draft regulatory impact statement authored by Vic Roads.

The organisation has been working on the issue at the behest of a national council of transport ministers.

Testing of prototype plates has been completed and a final design for the laser-cut plastic identifiers, which are the same size as current rear plates, has been arrived at.

Three main types of mounting have been identified: adhesive fixing to a fairing or windscreen, bracket mounting above or below the headlight, and unspecified custom mounts. Estimated respective costs are $25, $70 and up to $150.

It is expected that state road registration authorities will bear the cost of the plates for the 540,000 registered bikes nationally which will need to be retro-fitted, but not for the mounting. New bikes will be charged for the cost.

Vic Roads estimates the initial fit-out of the national fleet will cost $22.1 million in 2009, $13.5 million of which will be covered by road authorities and the remainder of which will be borne by owners.

An additional $10 million is expected to be spent on a national propaganda campaign to support the move.

The report claims there will be a 2-4 per cent reduction in motorcycle road trauma as a result of the change, mostly due to a reduction in speeding because of the increased chance of being nabbed by a speed camera.

It also claims that approximately 49 per cent of motorcycles detected speeding are currently not identified because of the lack of front numberplate.

Few countries in the world (India and Singapore are among them) currently use front plates.

Web: vicroads.vic.gov.au

See this link for the full version of the document (PDF, approx 4Mb)

(Pic: mounting kits for naked bikes, as revealed in the report.)