Dublin Bus with no license plate

mrcheez

I only noticed it didn't have a license plate on the rear while reviewing my bikecam footage (I was just looking at the footage to observe how close it came to running me over last month)

http://tinypic.com/r/m8pmvp/8

Isn't that an offence? Bit of a problem if I had gotten knocked off I would have thought?

Or is that it hidden away behind dirty glass on the lower rear window?

If so, doesn't that obscure the visibility of the license plate (say there was sunshine reflecting off the window, or it was raining and the window was covered in droplets etc)?

Spook_ie

Some other cyclist probably heard someone say "Take that buses number"

foggy_lad

There is a window in the rear window and the number is in that, it is not very clear in the "bike-cam" still image but that is more likely due to the image quality than the number not being there at all.

mrcheez

Doesn't that obscure the visibility of the license plate (say there was sunshine reflecting off the window, or it was raining and the window was covered in droplets etc)?

Admittedly the dull lighting probably isn't ideal conditions for the camera, but still I would have thought a license plate should stand out clearly (as the taxi reg.. and other older bus registrations do)

GTE

Nothing is clearly read in that photo, aside from familiar terms like "Dublin Bus" and "Volvo".

I doubt there is much in this until you can go out and confirm it with your eyes rather than iffy camera.

Just because the taxi is has a higher intensity of white visible, does not mean the intelligibility is better.

mrcheez

bbk wrote: »

Nothing is clearly read in that photo, aside from familiar terms like "Dublin Bus" and "Volvo".

Yep I'm not showing a photo where you can clearly see the other car registrations for privacy reasons, but this photo is just illustrating how the registration appears fairly obscured. Even when the bus is close up it appears similarly blanked out due to reflection on the glass over the registration plate.

The bus in front of this one has a clearly visible reg despite not being directly in line of fire of the camera because the reg is on the exterior.

Would be curious to know if same result for car dash-cams as well.

Anyway will have a look on the journey home and see if the reg is clearly visible to the naked eye under various lighting conditions although most buses on this route are the older type.

TheBandicoot

Why does it matter?

This is a standard bus body from Alexander Dennis- do a quick Google Image search for "Enviro 400" and you can see other examples. I would assume the design has been signed off on by various authorities in the UK and Ireland and this has never been a problem before.

monument

TheBandicoot wrote: »

Why does it matter?

It goes against the principals of clarity and uniformity across Europe.

Political Wall Map

Get a life for yourself

mickdw

monument wrote: »

It goes against the principals of clarity and uniformity across Europe.

I'd be more interested in seeing the footage of it nearly knocking you down.
Was it a case of bad bus driver, bad cyclist or a bit of both.

GTE

mrcheez wrote: »

Yep I'm not showing a photo where you can clearly see the other car registrations for privacy reasons, but this photo is just illustrating how the registration appears fairly obscured. Even when the bus is close up it appears similarly blanked out due to reflection on the glass over the registration plate.

The taxi reg doesn't matter in this respect, the advert at the back of the bus is not distinguishable with your camera.

As you said you will do, the trip home will be more enlightening as it will show how your eye can deal with things differently to the camera, which is the basis of the problem in my opinion.

If dash/cycle cams ever become mandatory then you may have a point as the significant quality differences of the models available will make reg detection more difficult, but at the moment that is not the case.

dfx-

It's not possible to read the EV rear reg plate even close up - it's an issue I've brought up in this forum years ago here . A good few EVs now have their fleet registration typed in small writing in the top right corner. For example, I was standing inches behind EV93 tonight, could not identify it by the rear.

Harristown's EVs had the fleet number in huge, very visible font beside the rear route number (EV65-EV74), but apparently people were getting them confused with actual routes. Most of them were on the 40 for example, but someone mistook the big "EV67" as being route 67.:pac:

mrcheez

Have to agree. Did the naked-eye test this morning and reg was visible up to approx 5m behind the bus, but as it was a nice sunny morning glare obstructed the reg as it went further on so it's no wonder I thought there was no reg plate on the video.

It's not too bad if you have the time and route as the bus can probably be traced, but if you were a pedestrian trying to catch the reg of a speeding bus (and didn't happen to know the time), better run fast to get within 5m of it.

Losty Dublin

OP, have you raised this matter with Dublin Bus and the Garda PSV office in Dublin Castle?