Drivers are frustrated with frontal licence plates
The latest campaign to bump off those front bumper eyesores most of us call licence plates has sprung up in New Brunswick.
On the heels of an Ontario man's fight to cruise around without an unsightly slab of metal perched on the front of his car, Terry Cormier of Moncton has started an online petition of his own (www.gopetition.com/online/14388.html) that asks the N.B. legislature to drop the requirement in his province.
Drivers in six provinces and three territories - including Quebec - get along fine with only the rear plate, Cormier said. Why not New Brunswick?
"I just think it is ridiculous that you need to have a front
licence plate. I want the same right as most people in most of the provinces and territories," he said. Manitoba and British Columbia also require front licence plates.
Even the guys who sell cars agree people don't like them.
"A lot of buyers find it ugly," said Jim Vaughan, sales manager for a Volkswagen dealership in Ottawa.
Cormier's argument has less to do with a car's looks though.
"People don't like the look of them - well, that's a good argument, but I don't think it will be enough to change the law. The money, that's the big thing," he said.
Since Saskatchewan dropped front plates in 2004, it's saved $370,000 a year, he said, and New Brunswick could save $200,000 annually if it did the same.
New Brunswick Public Safety Minister John Foran points out the two-plate rule is endorsed by most U.S. states. Foran, a police officer for 28 years before he became a politician, says there are valid reasons to keep it.
"First and foremost, it's a way for a motor vehicle to be identified," he said, citing the example of a bus driver being able to get the number of an oncoming vehicle that poses a threat to children.
Source: KEN MEANEY, CanWest News Service