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The number of motorists sporting personalized tags fell more than 4 percent between January and December 2004, down from a record 236,000 one year earlier.
Four percent may not sound like a lot, though it equates to roughly 10,000 drivers who turned the plates back in to the Division of Motor Vehicles. It was the first decline in personalized tags in at least five years.
Why? Kay Hatcher, special license unit supervisor with the DMV, offers a few theories.
For starters, the fee for a vanity tag increased at the end of 2003. Prices jumped from $20 to $30, and that's in addition to the $20 you pay to register the vehicle.
"Any time there’s a change in fees, you see a little difference, and then it picks back up," Hatcher said. "It's pretty much been a steady trend. If you look at the figures from 2000, and then you go to 2003, it was a steady increase."
Then you have specialized plates, where a cut of the registration goes to a particular cause. With an ever-expanding list — about 100 various organizations, colleges and nonprofits — officials believe more drivers would rather their fee go toward a favorite charity than to a unique plate.
"We don't know what the drop is attributable to," Hatcher said. "Part of it could be because of the fees, or part of it could be because people decided to go with a special plate instead of personalized."
For some people, personality is worth the added cost.
Take Carolyn Corbett, whose plate "GRANDI" pays tribute to her six grandchildren. Corbett landed the tag 15 years ago following the birth of her first grandson. Recent price increases aren't what concern her.
"Now it bothers me because I wonder if I should have had 'GRANDIE,'" joked the Climax resident. "When you look at it, you might think it's 'GRAND-I.'
"It makes me happy; it makes my husband happy. And my grandchildren don't forget my name, let's put it that way!"
Then there's Michael Briggs of Greensboro. Briggs purchased a Ford Mustang Cobra in 1997. His tag? You guessed it. "HSSS!"
"A lot of people ask me what it means, but the Cobra name is right there under the tag," he said with a smile. "Life is too short to take yourself too seriously."
For the record, one of my favorites comes from a minivan — or maybe it was an SUV — that I saw in the parking lot of the Longhorn Steakhouse on Battleground Avenue this winter.
It's simple and true: "GOLF=NO$."

Interstate striping
Jacob Berrier, 10, of Greensboro, whose father works at the News & Record, asked me a question (via his dad) for a school project.
"Why are the white lines on the interstate a set length and a set distance apart?" he wrote in an e-mail.
First, some facts:
Each interstate highway stripe in North Carolina should be 10 feet long, said Stuart Bourne with the state transportation department. There is a 30-foot space between broken dashes. The average installed cost per 10-foot dash: $6 to $7 on concrete, $4.50 on asphalt. Installed costs include the material, manpower and miscellaneous expenses with diverting traffic so road crews can lay down markings. Differences in price arise because of the two separate materials for each kind of surface.
"Technically, it only has to be roads that receive federal dollars," Bourne said of the spacing requirements. "But North Carolina has adopted the same rules as federally funded roads."
Nobody seems to know why stripes are set for the "40-foot rule," named for the total distance between the start of two consecutive dashes.
One highway spokesman from Washington, who spoke on the condition that I not use his name (so I'll call him "Road Throat"), told me there's really no science involved. Still, for whatever reason, the spacing helps keep motorists paying attention to the road.
"Having them oscillate like that tends to create greater awareness," Road Throat said, apparently worried that he was giving away a state secret that could get him fired.
I should have reminded Road Throat that this is a question posed by a 10-year-old boy.
"Now, there's no science to make that up, no studies, but it's what we saw," he said. "If there's a better system, someone would have found it.
"It balances motorist attentiveness, but it's also cost effective with a finite amount of paint."

Final thoughts
Christine Macdonald of Greensboro comments on my driving, uh, "experiment" from last week:
"I read you article in the paper about traffic," she said on voice mail. "It was very good. But … you said one more thing: the Urban Loop needs additional billboards to hide all these subdivisions cropping up adjacent to the highway.
"Billboards are the main distraction on any road. Not only do I think they're a distraction, but they're ugly and intrusive. So I'm surprised that someone like you had this insight and would advocate billboards to hide anything. There's nothing that's worse than billboards."
Macdonald elaborated in a follow-up conversation.
"I don't know why I feel strongly about billboards, but I do," she said. "I just think there are other ways for businesses to advertise that are not as distractive."

Fast Forward runs every Saturday. Got questions you want answered or need to vent about transportation issues? Send 'em my way at 373-7008 or etownsend@news-record.com. Be sure to leave your name and a way for me to get in touch.