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Old 09-05-18, 07:32 AM   #17
Red Herring
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Join Date: Dec 2007
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Default Re: Oh no, not again (speeding)

The authorities would do well to consider where they want to go with the future of traffic enforcement. When otherwise responsible and law abiding citizens start to feel unfairly victimised there is a tendency for them to take disproportionate steps to counter it and that can have unintended consequences. At the moment pretty much all their enforcement options, and your vulnerability, are based on you being honest enough to correctly register your vehicle, and to display the correct number plate. You only have to sit in the lines of commuter traffic going into London each morning to count the number of bikes going past that have dirty unreadable number plates (even at this time of year), plates angled so they can't be read, plates "accidentally" covered by their lock wrapped around the rack, or a number of other measures to stop their plate being read. Remember, these are individuals who are getting up every morning and going into work, people who would generally fall into that slightly more respectable branches of society......

Then you only have to go to your average Wednesday evening biker meet. Sure, there have always been the local idiot but the number of groups I now see riding around with plates hidden up under the mudguard, or no plates at all has multiple over recent years. It suddenly becomes a "them and us" situation with bikers uniting to rebel against a cause..... just look at that other thread over the use of a Stinger!

I'm all for road safety, I spend a huge amount of my time promoting it, but you won't find me preaching you achieve it by forcing motorists to comply with speed limits. I'd rather spend my time encouraging them to appreciate the potential hazards and to select an appropriate speed to deal with them. Unfortunately my approach isn't a particularly good business model......
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