Numberplate nouse

COMMENT
You can almost set your watch by it... Or at least mark it in your calendar.

It’s now a yearly ‘outbreak’ from Gordon Lewis, Victoria’s Road Safety Camera Commissioner. And it goes like this: “Motorcycles and motor scooters should be required to be equipped with means to identify the registration number of the vehicle from a front perspective.”

Lewis then trots out the “alarming” statistics about how many motorcycles avoid speed detection through the state’s automated road safety camera every year, and he’s then given a free kick by the same old tired, myopic talkback radio hosts. Predictably, they fan the hysterical flames by reciting extreme cases of alleged speeding instances committed by motorcyclists around the state -- as if that’s justification enough for adopting front identification.

“How dare motorcyclists get away with it” they say, while other road users have to face the full force of the law.

“It’s just not fair”...

A bit like the TAC levy on our registrations, hey?

And the other chestnut: “They are getting away with paying tens of millions of dollars in fines.” More on that one later.

Just like extending mandatory sentences for ‘one-punch’ offenders to 10 years, adopting front identification on motorcycles isn’t going to make one iota of difference to those tools who ride at 200km/h in city streets, as they have no regard for the law.

“I have front identification, so I will toe the line from now on.” Yes, it’s laughable, just as a hot-heated, drug-fuelled thug is not going to pull back from a punch in a city street at 3:00am because there’s a spectre of going to jail for an extra three years.

Such thugs don’t think about their actions and potential consequences, but guess what: motorcyclists do, and the majority of them have more road sense and awareness than car drivers.

Let’s take a look at Mr Lewis’ latest “alarming” statistics.Lewis says, citing Department of Justice figures (which we believe are spurious, but let’s run  with them for the sake of the exercise) that 12,888 instances of speeding motorcycles were detected in 2013-14. This is nearly 20 per cent down on 2012-13 and compared to 2009-10, when there were 17,730 instances of speeding bikes detected; that’s a massive 28 per cent drop.

In the same period the number of motorcycles registered has climbed by 25 per cent. Isn’t that a sign of good behaviour?

And how many more automated road safety cameras are in operation than 2009? A lot more, so in effect the massive reduction in detected speeding amounts to a giant pat on the back for Victorian motorcyclists – but this big picture context has been totally overlooked by Mr Lewis in the pursuit of dishing up more punitive brickbats towards motorcyclists.

Of the 12,888 instances detected in 2013-14, 2739 were rejected because of “unreadable” number plates. Whose fault is that? Motorcyclists fit numberplates supplied by VicRoads.

Lewis’ report says 9400 speeding detections were rejected in 2013-14, 6242 of them because of no frontal identification. On the assumption that most fines would fall within normal infringement averages that equates to around $3m ‘lost’ in the 12-month period. The figure could be lower, but clearly we’re not “talking tens of millions of dollars” as one Melbourne talkback radio shock jock said this morning...

Front numberplates haven’t been fitted to motorcycles for decades, mainly for tangible safety reasons. Since then, motorcycle design has forged ahead, so these ‘experts’ who believe we can just flick the switch and bring them back into vogue clearly aren’t aware of the facts.

What about stickers as a substitute? Sure, motorcycle riders would be delighted to disfigure their bikes to make allowances for road safety cameras. What about identification on helmets? More of the same.

It's about time law makers understood and dealt with the issues constructively instead of choosing to reinforce the tired old stereotypes of motorcyclists as being laws unto themselves.

Same time next year, Mr Lewis?