On the back of my Volvo, I have a license plate frame that says “Go Vegan.” I’ve never been a big fan of bumper stickers, but I usually have some sort of statement on the frame that surrounds the license. (My front frame is the standard Cal Alumni one, made of faux brass.)
I’m not a bad driver, but having a statement about veganism on my car makes me a better one. I know that there are others out there who connect the political messages on a car with the courtesy (or lack thereof) with which the car is driven. If I’m swerving all over the road and cutting people off, I know that it’s possible that someone will look at my plates, and, cursing under their breath, say “That vegan’s an idiot.” I doubt I’m going to win any converts to a plant-based diet solely by virtue of having this frame on a well-driven car, of course! But I know that when someone with a slogan on their vehicle has been particularly courteous towards me on the road, it affects — if only for a second — my feelings about the politics they’ve endorsed. If, say, someone with an NRA sticker ends up letting me into their lane, and we end up exchanging friendly waves, it helps lessen some of the antipathy I normally have towards the pistol-packing set.
Back when I was first getting sober, twenty years ago, I tooled around town in a beat-up Honda Accord. When I got my first thirty-day chip in my sobriety program (I got far too many of those), I went out and bought a little bumper sticker with the famous triangle inside a circle, symbolizing the Twelve Step program with which I was affiliated. I later got the diamond within a circle, which symbolized another program. I felt as if I was honoring the anonymity of the program while still sending a message; I know that when I was frustrated in traffic, it helped calm me down if I saw another car with one of “our” messages (One Day at a Time, Easy Does It, Live and Let Live) or the Triangle itself. And it helped me drive better, knowing that I was “representing” the program. My first sponsor told me “Your recovery will manifest in your driving”, and I kept that in mind.
So now I’m reppin’ the vegan life with all that it entails. And it carries with it a responsibility to be attentive and courteous.
How do you readers feel about messages on cars? Does how the car is driven connect with how you perceive the message on the bumper sticker or the plate?
This is pretty similar to what we tell new members when they start to receive sorority letters as gifts. Letter decals (and necklaces, and hoodies, and flip flops) make you an ambassador of our “brand” and what we stand for. Don’t be “that dumbass sorority girl who can’t follow any rules on the road.” Be “that patient sorority girl who let me into her lane.” My favorite sister has refused to put letters on her car at all, saying that she doesn’t feel her driving is “good enough” to represent our founders’ ideals of womanhood out loud for the whole world to see.
As a student of psychology, I wonder how self-fulfilling prophecies affect our perception of drivers’ behavior. I favor group X over their direct opponents, group Y. I suspect it’s pretty possible that, given the same bad driving behavior, my reaction to the behavior might change based on the group I associate the driver with. If I had to guess, I’d say you’d get a more inflamed, accusatory reaction to the driver who holds an opposing view, versus more rationalizing or forgiving attitudes towards the driver who holds views in agreement with my own. Ohhh, how I would love to see numbers on that!
I had a pretty good laugh once seeing a good-sized SUV with a “No War for Oil” bumper sticker. I wasn’t quite sure if that was meant as a joke, but I had the sense that it wasn’t. It was in a part of town and driven by a person whose apparent social position didn’t suggest a great appreciation for that level of irony.
I’ve got one Cal and two Marine Corps stickers. The Marine Corps ones make me a little self-conscious about not washing the car as regularly as I should. Aside from that? I do my best to drive courteously, particularly with lane-changers, though I have a bit of a lead foot from time to time. I’ve wondered at times what message my car itself conveys. I drive a slightly jazzed-up black ‘96 Impala SS, with a 2 1/2 inch cat-back, crossover-pipe, and Spintechs (waiting to find a decent set of CA smog legal headers that’ll work, they don’t make the SLPs anymore), so my car is big, loud, fast, and tends to get looks (the exhaust note often sets off car alarms).
I used to have a pro-life bumper sticker on my car. I had a fender-bender once and had to get the bumper replaced, and I never replaced the sticker. I found that it made me quite self-conscious having a sticker blaring my pro-life convictions for all to see. I have very strong opinions on some things, but I’m quite reserved about expressing them and careful not to hurt the feelings of people with whom I disagree. Like you said, if I’m driving badly (not that I ever drive badly, ahem) I don’t want people to think “that pro-lifer is an idiot!” I don’t want to give pro-lifers a bad name by my driving. :) Driving in the DC area is stressful enough as it is. Now I have a sticker from the college I went to, and that’s it.
I have my college decal on my top rear window, a Human Rights Campaign small logo on one side of my rear bumper, and a small TriBeta (biological honors society) crest on the other side of the bumper. I’m all about simplicity with my stickers!
It seems to me that a majority of the cars I’ve encountered acting like complete jerks on the road around me have american flag decals on them.
Am I surprised? Not at all.
The trick is having a sticker with a vague meaning. My truck, for instance, has a “Partnership for an Idiot-Free America” sticker. Now, I know full well who I’m referring to, but without any indication of that, I don’t represent anyone (besides “people with bumper stickers”).
Also, you know that meme about people with Jesus Fishes on their vehicles being the most horrifically bad drivers on the planet? I live in the Bible Belt, and, believe me, it’s completely true. They’re either slow and erratic or monolithic assholes. No gray area that I’ve seen. This effect seems to multiply with the number of fishies too. I recall this one lady with about eight of the things; she honestly seemed to think she was in a demolition derby.
I have a “Just say no to sex with pro-lifer” bumper-sticker on my little Ford Escort. I like having bumper-debates with people on the road, since this is a heavily pro-life area. It’s fairly easy; on an interstate, you read their woman-insulting bumper-sticker, wait to catch their eye, smile politely, and then speed up a bit so that you are just a little bit ahead of them. Wait for them to read your bumper-sticker, watch the expression change, and drive off.
This, of course, is dependent on it being, good weather, a two-lane highway, and not a lot of traffic. I always makes sure that this is done in safe conditions.
Antigone, I’m a woman and I find “Just say no to sex with pro-lifers” extremely insulting.
I find it smart. Why would I sleep with someone who doesn’t believe I have any rights to my body?
This makes me chuckle because I have an “Obama ‘08” sticker on my car and I often wonder if people who tailgate me are just impatient or the message on my car bothers them because they may not share the same belief. When I see other cars with Obama stickers (there are a lot) I get excited, try to pass the person, smile at them, and even give the occasional wave. I don’t connect how a car is being driven with the message portrayed on the car. I connect it with the person driving the car. How a person drives (whether good or bad) should not have any reflection on their beliefs. And anyone who judges a message someone is passionate enough to display on their car for everyone to see based on their driving ability needs to get a life.