Ask Phoebe: Obscure your number plates and you risk a fine

Photo / File

Supplementary plates can be attached to dog boxes or bike racks

Q: Can you please inform me what the law is about transporting bicycles on the rear of vehicles so that they obscure the number plate? On a number of occasions we have seen bicycles being transported and the vehicle rear number plate cannot be read. I thought if the number plate was obscured then a supplementary plate was necessary. With reference to this I thought a supplementary plate carried the identical number as the vehicle number plate but recently a vehicle with bicycles had a supplementary plate that was totally different to the number plate.

Sue Schultz, Red Beach

It is mandatory that a registration plate is legible and unobscured. Section 28 of the Land Transport (Motor Vehicle Registration and Licensing) Regulations 2011 allows drivers to obtain supplementary registration plates that can be attached to objects such as dog boxes or bike racks that obscure permanent registration plates.

This means drivers don't have to remove and reattach registration plates when they carry objects that obscure them.

The supplementary registration plates must bear the same set of characters as that of the registration plates assigned to that vehicle.

They can only be attached to a motor vehicle that bears the ordinary or personalised plate of the same registration number.

And they are not mandatory. Drivers can choose to remove their usual registration plate and attach it to the object that is obscuring it.

Supplementary plates are smaller than normal registration plates (300mm x 114mm) and have the word "supplementary" along the bottom.

You may be fined if your registration plate is obscured or illegible.

Q: At each end of our suburban street we have what I believe are called traffic calming devices. They consist of a slightly raised section of the roadway about 6-8cm high by about 2.5m wide and extend from kerb to kerb. On the sloping entry and exit ramps there are a few diagonal white stripes. There is no chevron or any other pattern on the road surface. My question is whether this device is an authorised pedestrian crossing? I understand that an authentic pedestrian crossing is clearly marked for its full width by a distinctive chevron pattern. My daily observation is that these devices are frequently assumed to be pedestrian crossings.

John Stewart, St Heliers.

No, they are not pedestrian crossings. They are, as you say, traffic calming measures, to reduce the speed of vehicles travelling along your road. While this arguably makes things safer and more pleasant for pedestrians, it should not be assumed that traffic approaching a speed bump will automatically stop for pedestrians. In the absence of a nearby zebra crossing or signalised crossing, extreme care should be taken when crossing the road.

Local area traffic management guidelines do not prohibit parking on this type of speed bump.

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