welshTerrier2

Changes are likely just around the corner in Massachusetts regarding enforcement of the license plate visibility law. If you use a rear-mounted bike rack on your car, you might be affected.

From Massachusetts General Laws: Chapter 90, Section 6 (Display of Number Plates)

“The said number plates shall be kept clean with the numbers legible and shall not be obscured in any manner by the installation of any device obscuring said numbers, and during the period when the vehicle or trailer is required to display lights the rear register number shall be illuminated so as to be plainly visible at a distance of sixty feet.”

For quite some time in Massachusetts, law enforcement officers often have looked the other way when the visibility of automobile license plates was obstructed by rear-mounted bike racks and bicycles. With the advent of a new automated tolling system coming to the Mass Pike this October, that may be about to change.

The new “gantries”, an overhead electronic system that will record license plate numbers for billing purposes on cars that do not have E-ZPass, will not be able to invoice tolls incurred on Massachusetts roads if the plate is obscured, or even partially obscured, by a rear-mounted bike rack with or without a bicycle on it. This will inevitability require enforcement of the often overlooked license plate visibility law for users on the Mass Pike.

Even those users with E-ZPass transponders are likely to be subject to this enforcement as the law does not provide an exemption for those with E-ZPass devices. If a state trooper sees an obstructed plate, you’re going to get a ticket whether you have an E-ZPass or not.

It’s not hard to imagine that once this more rigorous enforcement begins on the Mass Pike (and on other electronically tolled areas such as the Tobin Bridge), it will only be a matter of time until enforcement will spread to non-tolled roads.

There is a second component to the license plate visibility law that requires lighting of the license plate when other vehicle lights are required. This is likely to lead to some complicated and potentially expensive engineering for the cycling community.

In South Australia, special cycling license plates can be purchased that allow a plate to be attached to the bike rack itself. Once the plate is attached, however, it has to be lighted so that it is visible at night. This could become a costly proposition.

What will be the Massachusetts cycling community’s response to these changes? Is it reasonable to seek exemption from the law? What’s to stop anyone who just seeks to evade easy plate identification from just throwing a bike rack on their car to obscure their plate? It doesn’t seem likely that cyclists will be granted a special exemption.

Changes are coming in Massachusetts and they are coming soon. What’s your solution to this problem?

night mission

As an occasional user of a bike rack, I understand and appreciate the dilemma this puts bike owners in who transport bikes. On the other hand, I'm not happy with people who deliberately obscure their identity by covering (usually with some sort of smoke colored plastic) on their license plate(s). I think we can all appreciate that bikers, being at a special risk on the road, do not need drivers who feel their identity can be concealed while driving. We benefit more than we loose by everyone being able to have at least a fleeting chance of positively ID-ing bad road behavior.

Homebrew01

I've always wondered how that's legal.

Archwhorides 

I suppose one could figure out a way to mount a duplicate plate and illumination on a trailer hitch bike rack, just like any other trailer. It's tricky though when the rack is folding, might need two duplicate plates mounted on the rack. That will be fun.

jon c. 

They don't seem to enforce plate obstruction laws here at all. Florida does have a similar system on toll roads, but those are in other areas of the state, so perhaps there's more enforcement there. Although we do have red light cams here and that didn't seem to increase enforcement.

Hokiedad4

I'm fairly certain the priority is nailing cars that try to cheat the toll system. Makes perfect sense. Pulling over every Tom, Dick and Harry with a bike rack is nonsense.

When it becomes an actual problem for the cycling community, which I rather doubt, I'll adjust.

rumrunn6

we are required to have front and rear plates. just take a picture of the front plate. problem solved

autonomy

I always wondered about this myself. But considering that we all consistently drive 70mph and above on roads posted at 55mph with little repercussions, given how many people regularly blow through red lights, block intersections, and other such M******* things, I'm going to guess that this one is going to be a very low priority for the police.

Steve B.

The problem will rear it's ugly head quickly as toll systems move to either an EZ-Pass electronic pass system, or will send a bill with surcharge to vehicles with no EX-Pass and have no cash collectors.

The non-EZpass users will be tracked using license plate readers at the toll booths. They are already cracking down in the NYC area with motorists who use the EZ Pass lanes yet have no device.

Thus I suspect the cops will start to be more aggressive in enforcing this as it's a money issue.

Outnumbered

This law has existed for some time now and is nothing new. In the world we live in now law enforcement officers have to choose what to let go and what to enforce, too many laws - too many idiots. If they were to enforce every vehicle law in the books they would never get more than 1 mile from the barracks/station and spend their whole day there. This will never become a problem for cyclists as I doubt they will ever waste their finite resources going after the cycling community.

Over 3 million cars registered in Mass in 2010 and 1500 uniformed troopers, this will be very low on their list of things to do.