We here in Ontario did end up getting those new licence plates that Doug Ford promised us. They began rolling out at the start of this month, actually. They’re blue with white letters and numbers, which is the opposite of how they used to look, and apparently they say “A Place to Grow” on them. I say apparently because it appears that the same government that brought us stickers that don’t stick to things has now unleashed licence plates nobody can read if the light isn’t just so.
Ok, this was taken off duty in a relatively well lit parking lot with my headlights on. Did anyone consult with police before designing and manufacturing the new Ontario licence plates? They’re virtuallly unreadable at night. pic.twitter.com/CoLxnp3iTQ
— Sgt Steve Koopman (@SgtKoopman) February 16, 2020
The blue plates are being heavily criticized on Twitter with many people posting photos of them at night, when all that’s visible is a shiny blue rectangle. The numbers and letters are illegible.
Brian Patterson, president of the Ontario Safety League, a traffic safety organization, says it should be a basic requirement that a plate can be read at night. He says in some cases, the blue plates can’t even be read in daylight.
“You have to be fairly close to read them with precision,” said Patterson. “If you’re calling in an impaired driver you want to make sure you give the licence plate correctly… [this] multiplies the complexity of doing that and it may discourage people from reporting [drunk drivers] to police.”
Maybe that’s by design? This is, after all, the same government that’s spilled plenty of words and likely even more money once it’s all said and done trying to make sure that we can buy beer in every commercial space and then drink it no matter where we are or what time we’re there. They’re clearly relying on the drunkard vote, so it might be in their interest to take some of the pressure off of them.
Seriously though, how does this happen? Maybe I’m not the best person to be criticizing what with the total blindness and such, but if they were tested at all like the government claims they were, wouldn’t hey, we can’t read these things like at all be one of the first things anyone noticed? That seems like some pretty basic, day one stuff there.