Sept. 21st: Noobs in Nice Cars!

When I first moved to Vancouver I became really confused when I saw a lot of cars on the road with stickers of the letter N.  Eventually I came to learn that this N meant that the driver of the car was a new driver.  Yes - British Columbia actually has a law requiring drivers to share with the world that they are inexperienced and ... well ... noobs.  It's kind of funny to watch a car with an N sticker drive by, but it is also kind of sad.  Where in Ontario you could blend in with the experienced drivers and no one would know the difference, here drivers can assume that they are better than others simply because they don't have to drive with an N on their car anymore.  And let's face facts: experienced drivers can be just as bad or worse than inexperienced ones.

One of the ways I really appreciate the N decal, is when it is used to even out the playing field.  In Vancouver there are a lot of nice cars.  I remember a game my brothers and I made up while roadtripping to Florida where we took the premise of the punch buggy game and applied it to nice cars (ie. Mercedes, Lexus, BMW), but instead of punching we decided to poke each other to cut down on the pain.  Well, even the poking was enough to leave us bruised, and I think Vancouver would cause just as much bruising had the game been played here - possibly more.  However, in Florida a 16 year old can be gifted one of these nice cars and actually drive around in it showing off to friends and family, while a Vancouverite being gifted the same car is being forced by ICBC to be a little more humble about their nice new vehicles.  Today while I was waiting for the bus I saw a Porsche drive past me with an N decal, as well as a very loud and well-maintained Mustang that loved the attention it got anytime it revved its engine.  Little did the driver know that all of my attention and appreciation was going to the Green N on the cars backside.

I definitely do not think that I am better than these new drivers (particularly since I take the bus), but I appreciate the fact that I do not envy them in the slightest.  Sure, they might have nice cars, but I have the freedom and independence to move around freely without any labels, or more specifically decals.  I kind of feel bad for these Noobs in their nice cars, but I also know that in a couple of years they will be driving around in their Porsches without any decals, and their world will be back to normal.  So for now I will be a horrible person and say: "Hooray for status equality"!