I was driving home the other day in the middle lane when three cars came zooming past in the outside lane, well over the speed limit, jockeying for pole position. All three cars had really stupid personalised number plates.
I’ve noticed that there seems to be a general correlation between stupidity of personalised number plate and recklessness of driver. The more ridiculous the personalised number plate, generally, the more reckless the driver. So people who just have their initials on their number plates are usually pretty much like any other drivers, but someone who has a red number plate with SPRMAN* on it is pretty much guaranteed to be a hoon. I’ve noticed a number of trends in personalised number plates:
- Young girls with pink number plates saying MISS21 (obviously a 21st birthday present) or BARBIE or something like that;
- Cars with cartoon character name plates - for example, a yellow car with a number plate saying TWEETY;
- Guys with some macho number plate, like ZOOMER, or FREEEK, or HANSUM (the cars tend to have spoilers, those little lights underneath and the low profile alloy wheels as well);
- People of all sorts with incomprehensible personalised number plates, for example GFRICK (what the hell does that mean? why get a number plate that no one will understand?);
- Business vans - for example, a van for a cleaning company with a number plate like CLEENA (this one I can understand, and have more sympathy for).
I wonder if anyone has done a statistical analysis of personalised number plate drivers and traffic violations? Do personalised number plate drivers have a greater amount of speeding tickets than the rest of us, or is it just my imagination that there is a correlation between personalised number plates and stupid driving habits? My husband was theorising that personalised number plates stick in the memory more, and thus, it’s easier to remember hoons with personalised number plates than those without. But even taking into account that effect, I still think there is some kind of correlation.
If there is a correlation between personalised number plates and reckless driving, why would this be so? Perhaps it’s something to do with pride in one’s car and in one’s driving skills - a person with a personalised number plate is more likely to put extra care into his or her car, and perhaps to think that they have driving skills and capabilities beyond that of the average bear.
What do other people think? Is this something about which others have speculated, or is it all in my imagination?
* NB: Any number plates cited in this post are ones I have invented, not real ones I have seen, and any likeness to a real personalised number plate is purely accidental.
Update
A commenter has pointed out that a psychological study has actually concluded that people who personalise their car (with personal number plates, stickers and the like) are more likely to be aggressive on the road. So I’m not delusional.
Drivers who individualize their cars using bumper stickers, window decals and personalized license plates, the researchers hypothesized, see their cars in the same way as they see their homes and bedrooms — as deeply personal space, or primary territory.
Unlike any environment our evolutionary ancestors might have confronted, driving a car simultaneously places people in both private territory — their cars — and public territory — the road. Drivers who personalize their cars with bumper stickers and other markers of private territory, the researchers argue, forget when they are on the road that they are in public territory because the immediate cues surrounding them tell them that they are in a deeply private space.
“If you are in a vehicle that you identify as a primary territory, you would defend that against other people whom you perceive as being disrespectful of your space,” Bell [one of the researchers] added. “What you ignore is that you are on a public roadway — you lose sight of the fact you are in a public area and you don’t own the road.”
Update 2
Now I can’t help wondering what other generalisations can be drawn about car decoration! What about people who have religious symbols on their cars (eg, “fish” drivers)? If a person is sufficiently devout to put a symbol of her belief on her car, perhaps she believes that God will look after her, no matter how she drives?
What about people who have nodding dogs and collections of stuffed toys on the rear car windowsill? (I tend to think that’s a sign of insanity, but maybe I’m just mean).
24 Comments
There are lots of MISS21 versions of the genre. So many, in fact, that I don’t know how they can still call them ‘personalised’.
Best personalised number plate I have seen:
COMPO
I’ve seen WAS HIS on a fancy BMW.
JC and John, they’re actually funny ones - as long as they don’t take themselves too seriously I don’t mind. It’s the ones that are code for “DIKHED” that I don’t like…
The correlation you observe is the subject of a recent academic study
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/15/AR2008061501963.html?sid=ST2008061502199
The best plate I’ve seen lately was KY8HPA.
I’ve come across an ‘Attorney’.
“If there is a correlation between personalised number plates and reckless driving, why would this be so?”
I think you are hanging around universities too much. Try thinking about what you get when you combine the following four times: “Low IQ”, “male”, “testosterone”, and “Holden”
Oooooh, Ford man are we Conrad?
[BTW the spam bin is hungry, and I'm having to let you out of it one at a time. It does this from time to time]
Conrad, that explains the ones with the macho number plates, but not the others…
I think the article that Peter linked has a good point - the extent to which you personalise your car indicates whether you consider your car personal territory or not. I don’t really consider my car personal territory - it’s just a thing to help me move around. I don’t have a single bumper sticker on it.
Frangipani stickers are a related phenomenon. My experience is that frangipani drivers are more than usually selfish - especially the older ones. This goes for personalised plate drivers too: 50 year old Betty Boop platers are to be avoided. Older personalised plate male drivers also seem more dangerous than their younger brethren. They’ll cut you off deliberately rather than thoughtlessly.
When I start collecting sports cars I’d like to get “WANKER” for the loudest, brashest one in the collection.
I mean that’s what people will say anyway.
How about “WANCAR”??
I am all in favour of personalised plates. It’s a voluntary tax that I do not pay.
There ought to be more of them.
How about financing the ABC by subscription?
GFRICK could be from a divorce settlement with a guy named Rick, as in “G.. F….. Rick!!!”
Ken, when I looked up personalised number plates in Google, the main references I found were to how much money they brought in for governments…
Dave - tee hee - who knows? I made it up. But today I saw one which was equally cryptic - can’t remember what it was, but it made no sense at all. So I amused myself by thinking up whacky possibilities…
Most of the PNPs I’ve seen are daft and/or pathetic. How much individuality do you ghave if the best you can do is your date of birth.
There are the occasional cool ones tho’. I saw a Jeep Wrangler with the license plate: MUD. And it was covered in to too. Parked in Fitzroy.
Interesting correlations…
* Agressiveness and personalized number plates
* Agressiveness and antisocial/criminal behaviour.
Therefore, as there may well be a positive correlation between personalized number plates and criminality, (although I’d imagine mainly of the big $$$ thefts - white collar crime), has there ever been a personalized number plate on a getaway car?
I wouldn’t put it past someone to be stupid enough to drive a getaway car with a personalised numberplate - you’d really have to be pretty silly though…
#18 - it would be a stolen car in any event …
Best one I have seen is “Rubbish” on a top of the line merc.
I do not like the bronze colour ones as they are very difficult to read in any conditions. The transport ppl have put making money ahead of public safety (re identifying vehicles etc).
One famous incident was a girl (escort) who had a rude word spelt backwards (so when seen from your rear view mirror it made perfect sense), and it got thru! They eventually caught on and she had to give it up. Forgot the word
I’ve seen “ULOOKD”, which has to be the sign of a wanker.
What is really amazing is the money people spend on these things. A client asked me to go to an auction to bid for him on Q3 or Q2. Not really my line of work but I thought it would be interesting. anyway, I think I stopped at $350k and the vendor still would not sell it. Plenty of others did sell for thousands and 10s of thousands of dollars.
I drive a car with GAY666 on the plates. I inherited these from my late partner, who originally had plates that said GAY111 until someone stole them. She justified replacing them with 666 on the basis that she might as well annoy as many people as possible. She once drove into a car yard and a salesperson rushed up and greeted her as Gay. She advised him it wasn’t her name, but rather a position statement. He didn’t make the sale.
M-H, that is acceptable because that is hilarious. I can’t help laughing - gotta love it when people stir the pot…
I love pp’s and collect photos of them.
http://www.personalisedplates.blogspot.com
Awesome - the good plates are fun. Heck, even the silly ones are fascinating too.