DMV Can Help You Avoid the Number 13

On this Friday the 13th, the Virginia DMV is offering triskaidekaphobics a chance to avoid the number 13 on their cars all of next year.

The DMV is reminding customers that license plates can be renewed for more than one year.  So if someone is truly fearful of the number 13, they can order license renewal stickers that will be good now until 2014.  Multi-year renewals also save a little money in the long run.

DMV spokesperson Sunni Brown tells me they have not received any complaints or concerns from customers about the 2013 license plate sticker, so the idea of avoiding the number 13 is simply a marketing gimmick.  I'll never understand marketing.

Still, a lot of people do carry a superstition about the number 13.  Dr. Donald Dossey, founder of the Stress Management Center and Phobia Institute in Asheville, North Carolina, estimates that more than 17 million people have triskaidekaphobia.

The good news:  I can keep my license plates free of 13.  However, it does nothing for me the next time I'm driving up U.S. Route 13 on the Eastern Shore...on August 13th...at 1:13 in the afternoon.

Trivia:  the fear of the Friday the 13th also has a name...paraskevidekatriaphobia.

Link:
The DMV's press release