By Elizabeth Cohen
Press & Sun-Bulletin
March 16, 2008
It's not all that surprising when a guy in a red Corvette, who just cut you off, is "2COOL4U." Sometimes, you might feel like you want to get in on the action and tell him to "MVE OVR."
Vanity license plates, those popular custom-ordered auto accoutrements, sometimes seem to offer up a quickie psychological profile of the people driving the cars upon which they're installed. But for the 9.3 million vanity plate owners -- 287,000 of them in New York alone -- they can have a special, even deep meaning. And usually, they have a pretty good story behind them, too, says Stefan Lonce, a graphic artist who is completing a book, tentatively titled "LCNS2ROM -- License to Roam: Vanity License Plates and the Stories They Tell."
"They're a new form of selling ourselves that people are comfortable with," says Lonce. "But when push comes to shove, they're fun. They're fun to spot going down the street; they're fun to figure out."
..."All state DMVs face that challenge in trying to determine what is appropriate and what is offensive before they put that plate on the roadway," says Jason King, spokesman for the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators.
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