Personalised plates ha ha ha.

[bonk man]

Some cretin nearly caused a pile up,, overtaking a car that was overtaking me [ on my bike ] on a B road, the inside car was actually giving me a wide-ish gap and the Audi that was being driven badly could easily have lost control with a wheel over the edge of the road.....

I got his number and reported it, the local cops phoned me up and have promised to pay the idiot a visit.. and in-fact sounded like they were looking forward to it B)

The job of getting the number of the car was helped by the fact it had a personal plate on it, easy to read and short....

I find the modern number plates are difficult to remember, anyone else find this?

 

[snorri]

I find the modern number plates are difficult to remember, anyone else find this?

Yes I do.B)
I'm convinced the decision to adopt the present style of number plate was influenced by petrolhead types keen to avoid detection.

 

[briank]

Yes I do.
I'm convinced the decision to adopt the present style of number plate was influenced by petrolhead types keen to avoid detection.:troll:

Now that does sound a little paranoid! Of course, as the man said, just because you're paranoid doesn;t mean they're not out to get you...

 

[snorri]

Now that does sound a little paranoid! Of course, as the man said, just because you're paranoid doesn;t mean they're not out to get you...

Well OK, perhaps I over egged it a little, but I certainly find the current style more difficult to memorise than the previous style.

 

[skrx]

Well OK, perhaps I over egged it a little, but I certainly find the current style more difficult to memorise than the previous style.

The first two letters are something to do with the location (list of possibilities. London is 'L', which unsurprisingly is what I see most often. (I only noticed this link when I went to Scotland, and most of the cars were 'S').

The last three letters are random, and someone has written on Wikipedia "In the case of a police investigation of an accident or vehicle-related crime, witnesses usually remember the initial area code letters — it is then quite simple to narrow down suspect vehicles to a much smaller number by checking the authority's database without having to know the full number." (but there's nothing to back this up)

 

[snorri]

witnesses usually remember the initial area code letters

In future I'll try to concentrate on the first four characters then, as you say the first is usually an S anyway in my part of the world..

 

[ChrisKH]

Would agree on plates being harder to remember. The plate for my car starts EO04. No one is ever going to catch me.......

 

[ufkacbln]

They are called "Prat Plates" for a reason!

The Police delight normally means that the vehicle and driver are already on the radar and a reason for a visit is welcomed.

 

[twentysix by twentyfive]

Any news Bonk Man?

 

[Armegatron]

They are called "Prat Plates" for a reason

I have one

 

[srw]

The last three letters are random, and someone has written on Wikipedia "In the case of a police investigation of an accident or vehicle-related crime, witnesses usually remember the initial area code letters — it is then quite simple to narrow down suspect vehicles to a much smaller number by checking the authority's database without having to know the full number." (but there's nothing to back this up)

When they were first introduced there was a fair bit in the papers about how the designers of the system had to balance a number of criteria - and one of the important criteria was to make as much as possible memorable. It's more useful to the police to be able to say "a KA53-reg purple Ford" than "a V-reg purple Ford".

 

[potsy]

I have one

prat

 

[ufkacbln]

I have one

You're supposed to have two, one on the front and one on the back!

 

[Armegatron]

You're supposed to have two, one on the front and one on the back!

Doh, thats where Ive been going wrong!

I bought it back when the car was my pride and joy... Now its the bike thats getting the attention. I even named her today in a emotional ceremony... "Magpie"

 

[yoyo]

I have one too! It makes me drive more carefully as I know it might be easy to remember. My car is also a bit unusual too.