Cars in San Diego

A few thoughts about the cars here in San Diego, especially from the perspective of someone from the East Coast. First, there are LOTS of them...but that's not news to anyone. Traffic gets pretty bad, especially on the freeways at rush hour, but Boston can be pretty hairy too (was just there last weekend and had a reminder of the Boston rush hour traffic) - if you have ever been in downtown Boston and stuck in gridlock, you know what I mean. And I imagine many of you have heard that at least in LA there are more cars than people - pretty scarey thought. Not so in boston - there isn't room to park them.

There seems to be many more BIG cars here - Bostnonians need SUVs for the snow, but out here it seems to be more for show, and tearing up and down the freeways at 80+ mph. And I've noticed many more high-end cars in general - beemers, Mercedes, Jags, and a few Bentleys, Maserati's, Rolls, and Ferraris to boot. And in general cars are newer. In Cambridge, MA where I lived most recently, the mark of a true Cantabridgian is driving a 20+ year old Volvo (or something similar).

The other difference is that more people in California drive cars with vanity plates (and far more in LA). Some are fun, others are business-like and probably reflect the nature of the driver's employment or are for advertising, some describe the drivers, and some are a bit more obscure. I noticed this right away when we arrived but for some reason have started paying more attention - I was so impressed I even joined the trend myself. As you can see above, mine is SELS HMZ - betcha you can tell what I do for a living!

Saw INKED recently - big SUV being driven by a guy with tatoos on the arm. Also saw WAN IT, CA THNDR (on a new Thunderbird convertible), SCUBA, MY MIKEY, and RSFBRAT (someone from Rancho Santa Fe, I expect). Will add to the list as I see them.

What vanity plates have YOU seen?