Inspiration
I recently relocated from New York City to the midpoint of Long Island, and with that change in locale so came with it the necessity of a personal automobile.
Personalized Plates
Personalized plates are also termed “vanity plates,” perhaps for good reason. All 50 U.S. States and the District of Columbia allow motorists to choose a custom sequence of letters and/or numbers for their license plate.
There are limitations to what exactly be used for the custom serial – generally, profane or obscene messages are prohibited. This year in New York, examples of rejected plates included UHOHUHOH, SUGDEEZ, NOTPOLICE, AND LOLLLLLL.
I could not easily find recent statistics on the number of custom license plates per state on either an aggregate or per capita basis; however, a survey conducted by the America Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators in 2007 found that Virginia had the highest “vanity plate penetration rate” at 1.07 million vanity plates per 6.56 million registered motor vehicles, or approximately 1 in 6 vehicles. Perhaps a contributing factor to the high rate of customized plates is that Virginia offers more than 200 unique designs for license plates, including by college, military (i.e. branch of service or units), special interest (i.e. groups and organizations), and an other category. Another likely driving force is the low cost of personalization at $10/year. Given that the Virginia DMV boasts of over 8.4 million registered vehicles, if 1 in 6 vehicles has custom plates, the state generates approximately $14 million in revenue from vanity plates.
When it was my turn to finally choose a set of New York vanity plates, I had to do a session or two or brainstorming. There are a few rules when it comes to vanity plates in New York:
1. 2 to 8 characters
2. The state image is allowed, but not required
3. Use @ to indicate the New York State image.
4. Use the space bar to indicate a space between the characters
With these restrictions in place, I came up with a long list of plate numbers. The actual list was much longer, but many of them were already taken.
T@SNOWY: Referencing The Adventures of Tintin, my favorite literature series growing up, and a subject of some previous posts I have made on this website: Me, the Tintinologist, Snowy Doorbell Cover, and The Common App, Revisited.
PLS@HAGD: Please Have a good/great day! Now, who wouldn’t feel better reading that one a license plate?
HAV@GR81: If the license plate reads “Have a great one!,” will the tailgater be less likely to road rage?
SAFE@DVR: Using this license plate on one’s car can replace the Safe Driver’s course.
PENN2017: An obvious reference to my alma mater. This is a vanity plate in the truest sense of the term.
FAH@451: Schools in the United States haven’t gotten around just yet to burning books en masse, but who knows!
DEWEYWON: A vanity plate that references one of the greatest newspaper headlines of all time.
J0 911 B: This is a very offensive rebus puzzle pointing to a controversial, spurious conspiracy theory. Certainly not a vanity plate that one should put on their car!
E Y E@ND: Another rebus puzzle that only works when living on Long Island.
TAKETAKE: I drive a Honda Accord that is several years old, so a “double-take” does not really apply in this case.
SIMPLTON: “I am so smart, s-m-r-t!”
KERRUNCH: A reference to my favorite board game – Blitz Bowl: Ultimate Edition which is also knolled here: Winter Gaming Frenzy.
GUANG@XI: The province in China from which that my father’s side of the family hails. I had returned the previous month from a three-week long trip to visit relatives, the first time I had gone to the country since 2007.
27B@6: The combination that I ultimately selected, this is a reference to a brilliant 1985 satire called Brazil. It refers to form 27B/6, a form required by the Department of Central Services of the Ministry of Public Works. A deeper reference goes to the address of George Orwell’s address at 27B Canonbury Square, an apartment where he wrote much of Nineteen Eighty-Four (on which Brazil is based).
I also selected this movie to represent the films of 1980s in the Home Theater Build.
Reflection
There are so many personalized plate combinations from which to choose. 27B/6 as an unlikely choice at first, and while my experience at the New York DMV did involve a number of forms to fill out, the process actually went much faster than I had anticipated.
However, something that did not exceed expectations was the driving ability of Long Island commuters, a characteristic felt both on the road while driving and also through high car insurance premiums!