GB2339950A

GB2339950A - Number Plate Providing Information About The Vehicle Driver

Info

Publication number: GB2339950A
Application number: GB9815478A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Duncan Morriss Butlin
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1998-07-17
Filing date: 1998-07-17
Publication date: 2000-02-09
Also published as: GB9815478D0

Description

- I - 2339950 NUMBER PLATE FOR THE PUBLIC DISPLAY OF THE SEX OF VEHICLE

DRIVERS This invention relates to the way drivers of motor vehicles communicate with each other, and its effect on the frequency of road traffic accidents.

Traffic accidents often involve more than one vehicle, and in such cases the interaction between drivers preceding the accident is often a contributory factor leading to the accident. Poad manners in general are a determining factor in overall accident rates of a country. People interact most congenially and effectively when they know each others sex. Public manners (walking on pavements, through parks, encounters inside buildings, gestures at eating places) are firmly grounded in sexist conventions that yield clear rules of precedence and deference, thus regulating behaviour in a convenient and efficient manner and avoiding much confusion. Even in the absence of feedback, people can predict the behaviour of others better if they know their sex. Finally, modern vehicle design, uni-sex clothing, smoked-glass car windows, and uni-sex hairstyles, all make it difficult or impossible to determine the sex of a driver at a safe distance in a reasonable period of time - it really is quite a haphazard affair.

According to the present invention, a convention is established whereby the sex of a driver is made obvious on the outside of a vehicle, so that it is easily determinable at a distance by other drivers, and thus allowing sex to play a sure part in driver interactions. Several consequential changes in road behaviour are claimed, which together should result in a dramatic and permanent reduction in the incidence of road traffic accidents.

A specific embodiment of the invention will now be described by way of an example, with reference to the accompanying drawing in which:

Figure I - shows the arrangement whereby a double-sided number plate is reversed to show different background colours, denoting the driver is of one sex or the other.

Figure 2 - lists typical traffic situations where knowledge of the sex of the drivers involved should lower stress, increase politeness, and reduce accidents.

Figure 3 - lists typical traffic manoeuvres where prediction of vehicle movement based on sexist insight will increase clearances between vehicles, reduce speeds, improve positioning on the road, and thus significantly reduce accident rates.

Claims

It is noted that it is current practice in the UK to employ the background

colour of number plates to denote the front and back of a vehicle - white for front, yellow for rear. It is also noted, however, that only a small minority of road users know this rule, and an even smaller number make use of the information. It is claimed, therefore, that under current usage the two colours are almost redundant, whereas significant benefits will accrue if the new usage required by the present invention is adopted. It is, accordingly, the inventor's intention to persuade the Department of Road Transport to change the law governing licence plates to take advantage of the present invention and to dispense with the front/back distinction the old convention achieved little, whereas the new convention will be of great benefit to the public and the government alike, in reducing suffering and costs.

Other countries may benefit in a like manner from adopting the present invention, and additional benefit will accrue to all, if the same convention is adopted. It is therefore suggested here that white denote male, and yellow denote female - men preferring things in black and white, while yellow is a prettier colour. White, if used for females, might be taken to indicate virginal, which could be misleading.

3 WRITING FOR FIGURE 2 Figure.two is intended as a visual prompt to illustrate the sort of driving situation where competition between drivers is a factor.

Competitive Situations where precidence and deference reduce competition and danger abandonning over-taking, when allowing greater lea-way opportunity narrows. to opposite sex.

yielding at round-abouts, after 9 wide berth to competing entry mistakenly started. men.

pausing for on-coming traffic, when road is obstructed WRITING FOR FIGURE 3 Figure three is intended as a visual prompt to illustrate the sort of driving situation where sexist responses between drivers are a factor.

Sexist Responses to various events and manoeuvres retaliation or excessively 9 reducing speed and deferential, when mistake increasing clearances for made against driver. opposite sex.

willingness to admit fault by less likely to assume a adopting humble road position challenge, if opposite sex.

and non-aggressive style.

recognising when helping could be chivalrous, not weak.

CLAIMS 1. A convenient and prominent symbol displaying driver sex on the exterior of a vehicle, comprising a reversible, dual-background-colour number plate, and an appropriate fixing arrangement allowing for quick, yet secure reversal.
2. A convenient symbol of driver sex as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the reversing is achieved under remote control from within the vehicle - said reversing mechanism being automatically disarmed when the vehicle is in motion.
3. A convenient symbol of driver sex as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the reversing is achieved under remote control from an independent device said mechanism being coded to an individual controlling device, and disabled while in motion.
4. A convenient symbol of driver sex as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the change in background colour is achieved using some other physical mechanism, such as electro-luminescent, liquid crystal, electroreflective panels.
5. A convenient symbol of driver sex as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein some other symbol, other than licence plates, is used to carry the sex information, is easily changeable between two easily distinguishable states, and is capable of being standardised accurately from vehicle to vehicle.
6. A convenient symbol as claimed in Claim 1, wherein other socially relevant information about the driver is advertised, such as age, marital status, etc..
7. A symbol as in Claim 1, whose state is continuously variable while driving, and is thus able to reflect, in real time, driver emotion, facial expression, and gestures, such as a tv screen or an animatronic model of a man's or woman's head.