January 10, 2006

Random Commuter Observation

I've frequently griped about the fact that Maryland drivers (UPDATE: I mean those in the Washington/Bal'mer corridor) are idiot lunatics compared to Virginians, but something else occured to me this morning when I noticed a Maryland vanity license plate: Whereas one sees many such plates issued by Virginia, one hardly ever sees them on Maryland cars.

Query - Why is this? It isn't the fee ($25 in Maryland as opposed to $10 in Virginia plus an annual $10 fee). It probably isn't the process (although in Maryland you have to mail in a form while you can do everything on line in Virginia). Is it some kind of Red State/Blue State phenomenon? Or is there another explanation?

Posted by Robert at January 10, 2006 11:34 AM | TrackBack
Comments

I remember when I worked in Peoria how just about every license plate was a vanity plate. Chicago was not devoid of such things, but every other car seriously had a vanity plate.

Posted by: Misspent at January 10, 2006 12:53 PM

I remember seeing a ton of vanity plates when I was at VMI and I wondered if it was a state law to have a personalized plate.

Posted by: GroovyVic at January 10, 2006 12:56 PM

Maybe Marylanders don't have anything to be vain about.

Posted by: DWC at January 10, 2006 12:59 PM

Vic, don't tell me you were a Keydet?

Posted by: Robbo the LB at January 10, 2006 01:10 PM

Misspent,

I have a friend who lived in Peoria for a while, and I believe that you see so many there because it doesn't cost any more than a regular plate.

Posted by: Brian B at January 10, 2006 01:39 PM

I have a vanity plate in Massachusetts. $70 a year.

Posted by: The Colossus at January 10, 2006 01:49 PM

I've had a few vanity plates over the years here in Virginia, although not now unless you count the Fight Terrorism plate with the randomly generated numbers to be a vanity plate. That one costs more that the regular plate, but the bucks go into a special fund, I think. I've noticed the same thing about Maryland drivers/plates.

Posted by: jen at January 10, 2006 02:05 PM

Ok...if you were one of the masses of the world's worst drivers (a.k.a. from Maryland) would you really want a license plate that singled you out from the herd, removing your awful-driver anonymity?

Posted by: beth at January 10, 2006 02:43 PM

Snerk! You know, that idea did occur to me!

Posted by: Robbo the LB at January 10, 2006 02:50 PM

Hey, hey, Western Maryland drivers are a lot better than most transplanted Yankee Virginians from around DC. On the other hand, does Maryland still have those idiotic "Please Drive Gently" signs at the border? In Montgomery County, I always thought those should read "Please be gentle while drivingup my @ss".

Posted by: John at January 10, 2006 03:01 PM

For a different take, I know a guy who was dating two women at once, and his vanity license plate made it obvious he wasn't where he told one of them he was going to be.

So maybe everyone from Maryland is simply oversexed.

Posted by: owlish at January 10, 2006 04:23 PM

So maybe everyone from Maryland is simply oversexed.

Yeah, that is the top of my list of problems, right above:

2) Too many video games.
3) Too much money.
4) Tired of all the free beer.
5) Bored of the Pats winning the Superbowl.

Posted by: LB Buddy at January 10, 2006 10:13 PM

OMG, no, I was there for the filming of Gods and Generals! I was a good Confederate lady that day. Very hot, very uncomfortable in my corset, but a lady all the same.

Posted by: GroovyVic at January 11, 2006 09:19 AM