Ticket for "L" plate riders

[N4CR]

Can they really book you for Over 70 (breach of learner conditions) and speeding as two different offences? Shit, $1300 is alot for such an offence. You probably only get a $1000.00 fine for speeding at 150km/hr......

Depends on how noob/arseholish they are feeling They can but most decent cops consider it 'double dipping' eg you get done for speeding twice

[lukehyslop]

I remember when I sat my restricted test I completly forgot about the 70km rule (cos I'd never believed in it anyway) and sat on 100km for about 5 kays of open road. Fortunately the testing officer had similar thoughts about the rule and still passed me.

[Ixion]

The thing you must remember is that the learner restrictions have little if anything to do with safety. There is a powerful body of opinion within the bureaucratic circles of Government that just wants to get rid of motorcycles. Permanently. Completely.

They don't have enough clout to do that quite yet. But anything they *can* do to make motorcycling less accessable, less easy, more expensive, and generally to deter anyone taking it up; that they will do.

Their hope is that if they can deter youngsters entering , then as old farts like me die off, the numbers of people actually motorcycling will shrink to the point where they are an insignificnat minority. And then motorcycling can be banned. For safety reasons of course.

Very very few of the road laws and restrictions have much to do with safety. And interestingly, those that do , such as failing to stop at red lights, or driving on the wrong side of the road, are the ones ignored by the police, or accorded only nominal penalties by the law..

$150 for going over the centre line . $400 for failing to display an L sticker. You tell me which is more dangerous.

[Monsterbishi]

I got pinged once for not having a current rego, I didn't have a L plate on at the time and the officer didn't bother writing it up purely because he couldn't fathom how it warranted a $200 ticket(at the time)

Annoying thing was back then, the L plates were made of a crappy brittle plastic, broke after about 5 minutes of riding...

[bugjuice]

The thing you must remember is that the learner restrictions have little if anything to do with safety. There is a powerful body of opinion within the bureaucratic circles of Government that just wants to get rid of motorcycles. Permanently. Completely.

They don't have enough clout to do that quite yet. But anything they *can* do to make motorcycling less accessable, less easy, more expensive, and generally to deter anyone taking it up; that they will do.

Their hope is that if they can deter youngsters entering , then as old farts like me die off, the numbers of people actually motorcycling will shrink to the point where they are an insignificnat minority. And then motorcycling can be banned. For safety reasons of course.

Very very few of the road laws and restrictions have much to do with safety. And interestingly, those that do , such as failing to stop at red lights, or driving on the wrong side of the road, are the ones ignored by the police, or accorded only nominal penalties by the law..

$150 for going over the centre line . $400 for failing to display an L sticker. You tell me which is more dangerous.

there's no way in hell they could ban bikes in a country.. Doesn't matter who in parliment thinks what. It is a serious fukover that they do make things a bit harder for us instead of working for us, but the joy of riding makes it better. Before they even finish muttering the word 'ban' there'd be protests etc..

If just one person in parliment ever got their frikken leg over, or even tried riding a bike for that matter, I bet the roads would be a different place

[vifferman]

$150 for going over the centre line . $400 for failing to display an L sticker. You tell me which is more dangerous.

Having an L plate on your vehicle is more dangerous - it makes motorists go nuts trying to get past you. That, and the 70 km/h restriction make riding much more dangerous for learner riders.

[MacD]

Their hope is that if they can deter youngsters entering , then as old farts like me die off, the numbers of people actually motorcycling will shrink to the point where they are an insignificnat minority. And then motorcycling can be banned. For safety reasons of course.

The only positive outcome of the congestion in Auckland and the increase in petrol prices is that the number of new motorcyclists seems to be increasing again. There's been a distinct increase in the number of motorcycles around the Auckland University/AUT area in the past few years. Hopefully more bikes on the road means more awareness of motorcycles in general.

[Kjell]

Have noticed a lot of cops around this last week. Generally I keep to the speed limit and stay away from aggresive cages. On a two lane uphill strech a few cars have got pulled over. Prob over quota now.

With my L Plate, got the sticker kind and placed on the rear fender beside the lights, was visable from the back, just. Only place I could attach on the back of the bike. Considering I was riding at night (midnight) sometimes going home from work, cops really didn't notice. (I did have an exemption for hours outside licence for this by the way).

Thought I was going to get a ticket yesterday, came into a sideroad after getting the rear tyre to move a bit, bit greasy on the corner, came through, power to correct and resume, hit second and throttled off for the speed bump. Over bumps and off, prob had front tyre off on exit, then no hander to readjust gloves so rain didn't get in.

About 70m from the speed bump in a dark blue car under a tree, was a cop with the radar gun. He didn't even acknowledge my presence, so mustn't be too worried about my antics, however he won't catch too many boy racers down the road due to the speed bumps, not sure what he was doing there.

[spudchucka]

Just some information that no "L" plate = $400.

35 or 40 demerits too i believe...

Its 25 demerits for licence offences. You only need four of them and you get to give you licence back to LTSA for three months.

[bear]

Would not displaying an L plate where required to, therefore in breach of your licence conditions, affect insurance validity?

I agree that the 70km/h restriction in a 100km/h zone is dangerous to you and the other motorists, do you think that the restriction is supposed to encourage those riders with provisional licences to keep to 70km/h zones and below?

[monkey99]

Just to add to the fire..I had a speeding ticket on my learners for going 152km/h without an L plate...this was quite a few years ago(6)..but the Sergeant just took my license... and no court appearance ticket was about $900 I think he felt a little pity as I was screaming off to my G'mas funeral in Gisborne... That and a truck had just about cleaned him out with wash as he was talking to me...just before River Road...dumbest thing was I was following another car and had just pulled to the left lane to let a daggy Van scream thru ...Some just have personal agendas it is an unknown quantity so follow the rules close to cities where the likley hood is more Frustrated cops are hanging out

[Bonez]

Anyone on an L plated bike with a full m/c licence been pulled over?

[Lou Girardin]

L plates and speed restrictions date back to the days when people would be extra considerate with learners and the speed limit was 80 km/h.
Now the L plate may as well be a bullseye and the LTNZ hasn't realised that the open road limit has gone up to 100.

[FEINT]

I agree that the 70km/h restriction in a 100km/h zone is dangerous to you and the other motorists, do you think that the restriction is supposed to encourage those riders with provisional licences to keep to 70km/h zones and below?

If that was the case, most of the learners on the North Shore of Auckland couldn't go to Auckland City as the only route is the motorway and over the bridge.

[Eurygnomes]

Seems there may be a few L-plates hanging around in peoples gargres' on here. Anyone got one in Welly that I could attach to my shiny GN250 (ARRIVES TOMORROW!!!) for a wee while (till I do my CBTA thingy)? I'll pay postage...and can pass on to hte next L-plate rider who will wear one.

I'll wear one, and I'm considering sticking to the back roads. By the way, I liked the 'put it in my boot cos it was damaged' story. Very nice. Like me turning up to a lecture where hte lecturer was H. O. T. and saying "I was just checking out the course to see if I'd take it next year!".