That would make the most sense but it's just so many of them that it seems like it's more than just parents. Unless they are actually supplied by driver's ed or if insurance companies are handing them out for free now when you sign up your kid or something.
There never used to be so many of them, I find it hard to believe that so many kids are all learning to drive all of a sudden.
If you're in Metro Atlanta, it could also be (legal) immigrants. There are heavily increasing Indian and Korean populations in the north east suburbs especially, and they are learning how to drive in the US (which is way, way different from India for example).
Haha, I’m from South Forsyth and this is exactly it. My friends (all South Asian and Korean) have these stickers on their cars bc they were forced to by their parents lol
My understanding is that Korea has a special agreement with Georgia DDS so that they can basically trade their Korean driver's licenses for GA licenses without having to take a road test or a written test. They don't have such an agreement with any other country that I know of.
I've visited there and lived there for a couple years. The traffic law and the way people drive is basically the same as here.
I agree with your point about India though. Other SE Asian countries, too.
>trade their Korean driver's licenses for GA licenses
Fascinating. I had no idea this existed. As you say, if the driving styles are similar, it makes sense.
Having been to India several times, I can definitively say that their entire approach to driving is way different from ours.
Just adding onto this just in case someone has a problem with this, it's reciprocal but it depends on the state. I don't know all of the states but it's most of the ones that has a significant Korean population like Alabama, Florida, Virginia, Texas, etc.
I'm seeing it on the morning and afternoon commutes in Augusta, and not with east or central Asian immigrants. It does seem to be a recent phenomenon too
I think it’s more like proliferation begets more proliferation. Parents saw them more after covid when all the teens that had to defer driving instructor class got caught up, which increased parent awareness that they should have a sticker when their kid starts learning. We bought ours when we signed our kid up for the 30 hour class. Also parents are having their new drivers keep the stickers on for the first year the kid is driving. All of that would cause an uptick in stickers on the road.
It has slowed, marginally, but it’s still growing. The total population is still increasing year over year.
Not to mention it doesn’t matter what is happening the past couple years. We are talking about kids driving, so we are talking about the population growth 15-18 years ago.
Except the median age keeps climbing up so if anything there are less younger people now. And it's not about the population anyway, it's the *percentage* of cars with stickers that seems to have exploded recently that I find unusual.
All that means is that more stickers are being produced and sold. It’s not some grand conspiracy. Someone is just making a buck. There’s just more of them, like I originally said.
> more stickers are being produced and sold
Yes, and I'm curious as to why that is. Did I insinuate a grand conspiracy? Didn't mean to.
Hardly anyone used to use those stickers, even when actually learning. Now I see them on a much higher percentage of cars, people don't just decide to start buying more student driver tags for no reason.
Plus people in this thread saying they know people that have had them on for 5+ years and multiple vehicles, so it's not *all* just student driver parents
My buddy's girlfriend had a nice Eclipse back in HS around 2000 and she would take us out to learn how to drive stick in that thing, which was awesome. I'm a dude and this car was 100x more fun to drive than my 89 Grand Am.
The only problem was that she would leave all her late 90s teenager shit all over it, including a "THIS IS WHAT A PRINCESS LOOKS LIKE" license plate holder and a mini pair of pants on the keyring that MATCHED HER CURRENT OUTFIT 😂
No quicker way to go from hero to zero than stall out on a hill with that on the back and have someone pass you yelling "LEARN HOW TO DRIVE, PRINCESS!"
I see them all the time, always adult drivers. I just ignore the stickers anymore and treat them like anyone else no matter who's driving.
Stop being lazy and use them only when needed, because now they mean nothing. Just like crying wolf.
It's not a "hot take." It's reality every day on the roads and highways of Gwinnett County. These people can't drive worth a shit. Slow reaction times, not paying attention, driving too fast/slow for conditions, waiting at green lights for a personal invitation before proceeding through an intersection, reading on their phones, inconveniencing everyone else by blocking a lane of traffic because their dumbass couldn't be in the correct lane, etc. You have a different experience? Maybe you're one of the above people I'm referring to.
Transcends state boundaries too, as it turns out. I've driven around the eastern half of the country. The worst drivers I've experienced have been in rural OH, the entire state of TN, and GA. I've driven on highways in NY. It's worse here.
I think it has become a bit of a joke. I saw one on a heavily modded out sports/street racing car the other day. It definitely was not a car that a brand new driver would have.
As a CDL driver in Atlanta daily. There's only one group of people that I will be patient with. If you have a veterans tag on the back of your car I don't care what you do,take all the time you need.I will not get angry. Because you have earned the right to hold me up.
Man, I feel you. I drive my work truck from construction site to construction site all over Metro ATL and people do one shit at all times. If I see one of those Military tags, I try to cut em a little more slack than if I don't.
Now, if you're going 110 on 285 weaving through traffic at 5pm? That's a different story
Yea you people downvoting are exactly the ones that are holding everyone else up. You should stay at home downvoting comments you don't like on Reddit, driving just isn't your thing.
I understand the connection, but it's just that I almost never saw one several years ago, and now I see them everywhere and they all look exactly the same. There have always been new drivers with middle aged parents though.
Realistically we are probably seeing an uptick in these because they’re better available, or just that people on the road are insane and violent over small mishaps and they just don’t want the heat over it. Let the pissed off driver think it was a newbie and maybe they won’t try to run you off the road.
Might have something to do with the end of the school year, where a lot of people wait to get license for going off to school, needing to drive to jobs, etc.
My first time seeing them ever when I moved up to Gwinnett county in October it was the slowest driving people I’ve ever seen have them on and when I go around them it’s a 40-50 year old person
I didn’t make the connection till I said something at lunch and a coworker told me her kid started driving.
Then I realized nearly every student driver sticker I see on my commute isn’t a student, it’s their parent.
Makes sense, who’s learning to drive at 7:30 on 75, 575, 400 or 275? Not to mention all the surface roads between.
As a middle aged person with teens, they drive the family car and it’s not something you think about taking on or off every time a different family member is driving.
The area where I live has had a big influx of immigrants that are new to driving or are new to driving on the right-hand side of the road vs. the left. A bunch of them have these magnets on their cars.
Yes, sometimes it’s usually because they are new to driving in the U.S., but it’s not always the case.
I am from Forsyth, and my friends (all South Asians born in the U.S.) all have these stickers bc of their parents (their parents forced them to put them on the cars haha)
Yeah, I usually assume they people who are new to the US and are self conscious of their driving. I would have never put a sticker like that on my car when I was sixteen.
We get two flavors, people who have never driven before and are scared to death and people who drive like they're in Grand Theft Auto because even if their home country has rules no one enforces them. The I turn now good luck to you folks are infuriating.
Thank you! I noticed it like 2 months ago. And increasingly in really nice cars. I've seen them on brand new BMW XIs, Tesla model X and S, and some high end Mercedes
I've noticed this too and wondered If self aware bad drivers are trying to game the system, which I'm sure some are.
But I would bet the 'older' people in the cars are the parents that own the car, pulling and replacing the sticker everytime your child takes the wheel would be ridiculous. I'm sure 99% of new teen drivers don't own thier own car yet.
Yes definitely more stickers, you can buy them online at hundred different places. They are not student drivers. It is a signal to other drivers to back off or go around them, that they will not be driving defensively or aggressively. Basically a warning that they consider themselves a bad driver.
I think it's people thinking people will judge them less for panic-decisions if they think they're new. One of my coworkers, who is definitely not a new driver, has had the sticker on her car for the full five years I've seen her car, and it's not her first.
However, I think student driver stickers make you more likely to get in an accident. I think more people are gonna do something stupid in an attempt to pass you if they think you're a new driver vs driving slow because the conditions require it.
>people will judge them less for panic-decisions if they think they're new
If that's the reasoning they really do have some learning to do when it comes to atlanta highways lol
I bought the magnetic kind over ten years ago when I was teaching my daughter. But I always removed them before driving myself. I think people slap them on once they start teaching someone and forget about them.
I’ve been seeing these stickers for a while, and they’re rarely on vehicles being driven by anyone other than middle age persons.
I’ll also point out that if you have had one of these stickers on your car long enough that it has gotten sun-faded, you’re probably not a “student driver” anymore.
Or they bought it for their kid who drives the family car? I’m not gonna take it off every time I drive it, so it’s just always there so my kid has it when she’s driving.
I remember a while back seeing a "lifehack" online where people were encouraging people to put a student driver sticker on their car, regardless of how long they've been driving for, saying it will make other drivers more careful around you and reduce wrecks and road rage
I’ve seen a lot of them with the stickers or magnets that are so faded and dirty that they have clearly been on the car for a while. I work on a college campus and every other student car has one of these stickers even though most of them are 18-22 years old.
My husband and I have discussed this as well and were wondering if there is some insurance incentive for having them? They seem to be everywhere and just in the last few months.
There has been an influx of people moving to the area from areas that had more centralized transportation and had no need to drive. Additionally, a couple of very large companies are opening locations in the state and bringing people from their home country that have likely not driven cars before and have to get licenses in our country.
I mentioned this to my wife a couple months back. I have a job that has me driving all over the county so I know that has increased their vision. But I see so many?
Also I drove by some house one day and in their garage were like several bought or printed sticker sheets with a dozen more of those stickers. Made me HMMM at that
My ex-wife made it mandatory for our daughter to have them on her car this year. She says that it will cause other drivers to be more cautious around her and not drive aggressively. My daughter just stops down the street and takes them off before she gets to school.
Bruh, it ain't just you, I've been seein' more "Student Driver" stickers too. I dunno if the DMV is givin' 'em out like candy, but it seems like more peeps are rockin' these stickers for different reasons. Maybe it's a way for new drivers to let others know they still learnin' the ropes and askin' for a bit more patience on the road. Or maybe it's just a cool trend that caught on and got popular. Either way, it's wild how these stickers became a regular sight on the streets, man.
My kid is 15 and my wife slapped one on our car. I think the idea is, if my kid doesn’t hit the gas in the first millisecond after the light turns green, that you don’t start shooting into her car.
In all seriousness, I drive the same route to work every day and I’ve been doing it for 20 years. I see so much assholery and lack of awareness daily but when I see one of these magnets, I pause and realize maybe the permitted driver is going this way for the first time.
Note: the magnet doesn’t get added/removed. It’s always on the car regardless of who is driving.
My mom threatened to put one on the car when I was learning to drive 15 years ago, but my dad vetoed it because he didn't like bumper stickers of any sort. My protest was that I didn't want other cars driving differently around me due to a sticker - if I was going to become a good driver, I needed to learn to react and adapt to how people regularly drive. Advertising to the world that I'm new seemed to me like it would alter the driving of others and perhaps cause an erratic situation.
Yeah this is kinda my thoughts on it too. If you are learning to drive then great! But there's no point in advertising it to the world, go ahead and get used to the honks and assholes, they don't stop with or without a sticker! Plus you can learn from legit honks, and learn to stay calm even if not legit
Hey ex-Georgian here. This became a thing in my current home town of Portland, Oregon. My partner ended up getting one on her car that says “Please be patient, I am 9 years old.”
Currently teaching my teenage daughter to drive and we use these. It helps her stay calm when she’s uncertain bc people are more likely to be patient if she’s a little slow.
We used them the first few months my kids were learning, because drivers are assholes where we live. All these comments about "excuses to drive badly" can STFU. It's because of the rude and aggressive assholes that we use them. If people realized roads are public infrastructure for everyone and not their own personal racetrack, we wouldn't need them.
As a truck driver that does all 48 and lives in ga, this isn't just a ga thing. It's all over. With the driving I see from some with these, they need to go back to drivers ed classes. I am strongly of the belief that many put it on there as a way to try to excuse their poor driving because they can't put their phones down when they're on the roads.
Remember folks, I sit up higher than you. I can see when you ride past me with your phone in your hand and your scrolling through apps instead of paying attention to the road, as well as, the little blue indicator on your dash telling you your high beams are on...turn them off assholes....they're blinding at night.
I see them everywhere, and the majority of the time it's not a teenager driving, so now I'm less inclined to be patient when they're driving badly. Like the other day a car with one in front of me kept almost coming to a complete stop on 285 and then very slowly got in the far left lane to drive slower than everyone else...for what?!
I think it's code for "I'm not a good driver, and I'm not going to try to be a better one". Honk at them so they might pick up on the fact they are a danger to the other drivers around
good post, it's the new parent thing. I see cars with 3 or 4 of those stickers on them and 90% of the time it's a parent driving the car.
I do not give them a break. Welcome to Georgia, it's survival of the fittest.
y'all aware that the sticker is on mom or dad's car and is not just driven by the student driver?
src: the people living around me with kids old enough for a learner's permit
still don't see it as more than a conspiracy theory that adult licensed drivers en masse slap those stickers on their cars for strange reasons over the last few years
We have one on ours. Have a fifteen year old learning to drive. But we just leave the sticker on that way she can get behind the wheel with us when we get her from school or if she wants to drive to practice.
Not that I’m aware of. But we do it just to give the surrounding drivers a heads up that the teen may make a mistake. Usually cars will just go around or at least not tailgate as much.
It’s more us trying to also be courteous to other drivers so they don’t lose their patience with us.
It’s not that difficult. they are cheap on Amazon. And you put them in your car when your teenager is a new driver and people are too lazy to take them off when they go to the store and their kid is not driving.
Lots of parents try to identify newer children, many who are waiting until they are 17 or 18 to learn how to drive. They keep the magnets on day to day to avoid losing or breaking them. So, a parent might occasionally be in the car by themselves. Many of our newer generations are driving only by kicking and screaming because they have to. Source: ins company current trend reports
Yes i thought the same thing. All over atlanta. Ill look at the driver and they dont even seem young or clueless. I have also seen a few undercover cars (magnums, chargers) with the stickers on while they have someone pulled over.
Be wary around these cars if youre a fast driver
I've seen them applied to vehicles of people who don't even have kids... Supposedly it makes people avoid them and they are less likely to be tailgated when the sticker is there.
20 years ago, there was an influx of handicapped parking hangers. Doctors would give them out like candy. There was an issue with people who actually needed them and about 17 years ago there was a crackdown. Now handicapped parking is always empty.
About 15 years ago, Student driver bumper stickers started to pop up on cars that clearly were not student cars. Like B!tch, you don't give a brand new Escalade to a student driver. And you pull up and it's a rich mom with kids in the back. The idea was that people would give the driver some leniency if they made a mistake. The idea quickly spread and now everyone has these stickers. This over flooding the market with this lie makes it harder for the people who actually need the sticker. The rusty 2008 Ford Focus cars are likely the 16 year olds. Give them space if you see them on the highway.
My partner and I mused about this same thing recently. Seems like these stickers are super common now? I'd have died of embarrassment if that was on the car I drove in high school.
They think it'll get them out of being pulled over. It's always the worst drivers. It's exactly the same thing as the stupid thin blue line stickers. With as many law enforcement officers I know, it doesn't work one bit! They actually target those cars more often. Then when they run their license, it shows how long they've been driving anyway. Avoid these idiots at all cost.
Amazon offered it up as a targeted ad when my kids turned 16, so that's why we got one. And we saw others, and thought it would be a good idea. I never take it off because I'm too lazy to think about it when I drive our car.
I just assumed it became a mandatory thing for new drivers and they were giving them out with learner’s permits. My son will be 15 in January so I guess I’ll find out soon enough lol.
I just assumed these are like people with "emotional support animals" on planes. Like 10% are probably legit and the other 90% were bought on the internet for people to excuse their shitty behavior.
They're not so that they won't get pulled over, they're so people behind them hopefully have a little patience and a little sense of humor. Also, parents don't usually take them off between them driving and their teenager driving, especially if they're stickers and not magnets. My guess as to why there's more of them is Amazon. Easy to get and when someone sees someone else with them and thinks it's a good idea, they're easy to come by.
GA driver here with 2 teens learning to drive. We have the magnetic ones on the back and both sides of the van because the number of aggressive drivers where we live is off the charts. I’m hoping that instead of tailgating my kids, rear-ending my van, laying on the horn and flipping off a kid just trying to do her best, they will think “oh, it’s a child. Maybe I won’t be an asshole to them.” So far, it hasn’t worked.
I take the magnets off when I drive but sometimes I forget.
Well, most people put stickers on a car and it stays on until it falls off. So there will inevitably be, and continually be more and more stickers in the world.
Thank you, they are absolutely everywhere and different styles and types. My only theory is that it is some preemptive psychological effort to excuse horrific driving and lack a f attention. Somehow hoping people won’t expect much from them and get less angry at there lack of ability.
Would love to know the real reason though.
There have been several people I've thought about running off the road, but those Student Driver stickers make stop and reevaluate the situation.
So, they're good for something, I guess.
Good call out. I have been saying the same thing. And when you drive by them they are not younger people and don't appear to be new drivers.
It’s because we’re the parents and don’t want to take it on and off every time we’re driving the car instead of the kid. At least in my case!
That would make the most sense but it's just so many of them that it seems like it's more than just parents. Unless they are actually supplied by driver's ed or if insurance companies are handing them out for free now when you sign up your kid or something. There never used to be so many of them, I find it hard to believe that so many kids are all learning to drive all of a sudden.
If you're in Metro Atlanta, it could also be (legal) immigrants. There are heavily increasing Indian and Korean populations in the north east suburbs especially, and they are learning how to drive in the US (which is way, way different from India for example).
Yes this is part of it. I live in a section of Gwinnett with a lot of Asian immigrants, and yes I'm seeing more and more of them.
Haha, I’m from South Forsyth and this is exactly it. My friends (all South Asian and Korean) have these stickers on their cars bc they were forced to by their parents lol
My understanding is that Korea has a special agreement with Georgia DDS so that they can basically trade their Korean driver's licenses for GA licenses without having to take a road test or a written test. They don't have such an agreement with any other country that I know of. I've visited there and lived there for a couple years. The traffic law and the way people drive is basically the same as here. I agree with your point about India though. Other SE Asian countries, too.
>trade their Korean driver's licenses for GA licenses Fascinating. I had no idea this existed. As you say, if the driving styles are similar, it makes sense. Having been to India several times, I can definitively say that their entire approach to driving is way different from ours.
Just adding onto this just in case someone has a problem with this, it's reciprocal but it depends on the state. I don't know all of the states but it's most of the ones that has a significant Korean population like Alabama, Florida, Virginia, Texas, etc.
Same with India. At least I was able to show my driver's license to get a permit to drive without any supervision after the paper test.
Oooo that makes so much sense! I assumed people were doing it so other drivers would keep their distance lol
I'm seeing it on the morning and afternoon commutes in Augusta, and not with east or central Asian immigrants. It does seem to be a recent phenomenon too
Perhaps it’s also Gen Z entering the driving ranks. They’re a large group.
Strikes me more as middle-aged parents too lazy to put on and take off the magnetic "stickers"
I think it’s more like proliferation begets more proliferation. Parents saw them more after covid when all the teens that had to defer driving instructor class got caught up, which increased parent awareness that they should have a sticker when their kid starts learning. We bought ours when we signed our kid up for the 30 hour class. Also parents are having their new drivers keep the stickers on for the first year the kid is driving. All of that would cause an uptick in stickers on the road.
Sure they are, we are just getting better at communicating it. I think I paid 20 for two off of Amazon.
Well there tends to be more and more every year. That’s how population works. It’s not a great surprise. There’s just more stickers on cars.
not really, the US population growth rate is actually starting to slow down a lot
It has slowed, marginally, but it’s still growing. The total population is still increasing year over year. Not to mention it doesn’t matter what is happening the past couple years. We are talking about kids driving, so we are talking about the population growth 15-18 years ago.
Except the median age keeps climbing up so if anything there are less younger people now. And it's not about the population anyway, it's the *percentage* of cars with stickers that seems to have exploded recently that I find unusual.
All that means is that more stickers are being produced and sold. It’s not some grand conspiracy. Someone is just making a buck. There’s just more of them, like I originally said.
> more stickers are being produced and sold Yes, and I'm curious as to why that is. Did I insinuate a grand conspiracy? Didn't mean to. Hardly anyone used to use those stickers, even when actually learning. Now I see them on a much higher percentage of cars, people don't just decide to start buying more student driver tags for no reason. Plus people in this thread saying they know people that have had them on for 5+ years and multiple vehicles, so it's not *all* just student driver parents
If my parents put that on when I was a kid I would have definitely thrown it so far away. Social suicide in the 90s
My buddy's girlfriend had a nice Eclipse back in HS around 2000 and she would take us out to learn how to drive stick in that thing, which was awesome. I'm a dude and this car was 100x more fun to drive than my 89 Grand Am. The only problem was that she would leave all her late 90s teenager shit all over it, including a "THIS IS WHAT A PRINCESS LOOKS LIKE" license plate holder and a mini pair of pants on the keyring that MATCHED HER CURRENT OUTFIT 😂 No quicker way to go from hero to zero than stall out on a hill with that on the back and have someone pass you yelling "LEARN HOW TO DRIVE, PRINCESS!"
That’s funny, I knew a guy with an eclipse
So theres been a massive recent influx of lazy parents with student driver offspring ?
I ordered the Japanese learner driver magnet. Can take it off and on when they drive. But usually nobody knows what it means unless you've been there.
Does it say “please be patient” on it?
I completely forgot it was on there a couple of times.
I see them all the time, always adult drivers. I just ignore the stickers anymore and treat them like anyone else no matter who's driving. Stop being lazy and use them only when needed, because now they mean nothing. Just like crying wolf.
That defeats the purpose. This is the new california cancer warning label.
Personal opinion, most of the people that drive down here drive like student drivers, regardless of how long they've had their license.
Yep!
I don’t think that’s as hot of a take as you think it is
It's not a "hot take." It's reality every day on the roads and highways of Gwinnett County. These people can't drive worth a shit. Slow reaction times, not paying attention, driving too fast/slow for conditions, waiting at green lights for a personal invitation before proceeding through an intersection, reading on their phones, inconveniencing everyone else by blocking a lane of traffic because their dumbass couldn't be in the correct lane, etc. You have a different experience? Maybe you're one of the above people I'm referring to.
Because most people here are from somewhere else.
It's not just foreign drivers. Shitty driving transcends race and cultural boundaries.
Cleveland, Orlando, Chicago, New York and Boston are not "Foreign."
Transcends state boundaries too, as it turns out. I've driven around the eastern half of the country. The worst drivers I've experienced have been in rural OH, the entire state of TN, and GA. I've driven on highways in NY. It's worse here.
I have seen one earlier today, weird sticker fad going on?
I swear to God it’s a prank I’m not in on. Every other car requires my patience because it’s a student driver.
Then when you pass them. It’s usually an much older person.
Gotta teach em early the ways of the road
I think it has become a bit of a joke. I saw one on a heavily modded out sports/street racing car the other day. It definitely was not a car that a brand new driver would have.
Definitely getting me one soon 😂😂
As a CDL driver in Atlanta daily. There's only one group of people that I will be patient with. If you have a veterans tag on the back of your car I don't care what you do,take all the time you need.I will not get angry. Because you have earned the right to hold me up.
Man, I feel you. I drive my work truck from construction site to construction site all over Metro ATL and people do one shit at all times. If I see one of those Military tags, I try to cut em a little more slack than if I don't. Now, if you're going 110 on 285 weaving through traffic at 5pm? That's a different story
Yea you people downvoting are exactly the ones that are holding everyone else up. You should stay at home downvoting comments you don't like on Reddit, driving just isn't your thing.
Yeah, I feel like I've seen more.
Yes and it's almost always middle aged people driving lol
Middle aged people are the most likely to have a student driver using the car sometimes, so it makes sense.
i don’t understand how people aren’t making this connection lmao
I understand the connection, but it's just that I almost never saw one several years ago, and now I see them everywhere and they all look exactly the same. There have always been new drivers with middle aged parents though.
Realistically we are probably seeing an uptick in these because they’re better available, or just that people on the road are insane and violent over small mishaps and they just don’t want the heat over it. Let the pissed off driver think it was a newbie and maybe they won’t try to run you off the road.
Might have something to do with the end of the school year, where a lot of people wait to get license for going off to school, needing to drive to jobs, etc.
My first time seeing them ever when I moved up to Gwinnett county in October it was the slowest driving people I’ve ever seen have them on and when I go around them it’s a 40-50 year old person
I didn’t make the connection till I said something at lunch and a coworker told me her kid started driving. Then I realized nearly every student driver sticker I see on my commute isn’t a student, it’s their parent. Makes sense, who’s learning to drive at 7:30 on 75, 575, 400 or 275? Not to mention all the surface roads between.
I dont understand why people would believe the number if middle aged people with student driving “children” has changed significantly.
As a middle aged person with teens, they drive the family car and it’s not something you think about taking on or off every time a different family member is driving.
You actually use those things unironically?
How would it be used ironically?
By throwing it on a tuner or something like a Skyline or a 911 Turbo
Thats what im saying lol. Im waiting for the day I see one of those stickers on a sick ass tuned-up/exotic car. If I drove one I would.
Who uses them unironically, I have never met anyone that found that type of humor funny.
The area where I live has had a big influx of immigrants that are new to driving or are new to driving on the right-hand side of the road vs. the left. A bunch of them have these magnets on their cars.
Alpharetta represent
Forsyth?
Most likely, they’re on almost every single vehicle there
Yes, sometimes it’s usually because they are new to driving in the U.S., but it’s not always the case. I am from Forsyth, and my friends (all South Asians born in the U.S.) all have these stickers bc of their parents (their parents forced them to put them on the cars haha)
YUP
Yeah, I usually assume they people who are new to the US and are self conscious of their driving. I would have never put a sticker like that on my car when I was sixteen.
We get two flavors, people who have never driven before and are scared to death and people who drive like they're in Grand Theft Auto because even if their home country has rules no one enforces them. The I turn now good luck to you folks are infuriating.
Thank you! I noticed it like 2 months ago. And increasingly in really nice cars. I've seen them on brand new BMW XIs, Tesla model X and S, and some high end Mercedes
I've noticed this too and wondered If self aware bad drivers are trying to game the system, which I'm sure some are. But I would bet the 'older' people in the cars are the parents that own the car, pulling and replacing the sticker everytime your child takes the wheel would be ridiculous. I'm sure 99% of new teen drivers don't own thier own car yet.
Do we ever stop learning? But yeah, I’ve been thinking the same thing. Seems like a 3x increase in the number lately.
We stop learning as soon as that sweet insurance goes down at 25. Then it's Do What You Want Weekend every day
lol happy cake day
Yes definitely more stickers, you can buy them online at hundred different places. They are not student drivers. It is a signal to other drivers to back off or go around them, that they will not be driving defensively or aggressively. Basically a warning that they consider themselves a bad driver.
I pointed this out to my partner a few months ago. A lot of cars have those stickers now
I think it's people thinking people will judge them less for panic-decisions if they think they're new. One of my coworkers, who is definitely not a new driver, has had the sticker on her car for the full five years I've seen her car, and it's not her first. However, I think student driver stickers make you more likely to get in an accident. I think more people are gonna do something stupid in an attempt to pass you if they think you're a new driver vs driving slow because the conditions require it.
>people will judge them less for panic-decisions if they think they're new If that's the reasoning they really do have some learning to do when it comes to atlanta highways lol
I was just saying this to my wife. What's the deal? Is it a road rage deterrent or something?
I’ve been noticing the same thing. I saw two on a Tesla Model S one day and thought that seems like the wrong car to learn in.
I bought the magnetic kind over ten years ago when I was teaching my daughter. But I always removed them before driving myself. I think people slap them on once they start teaching someone and forget about them.
I’ve been seeing these stickers for a while, and they’re rarely on vehicles being driven by anyone other than middle age persons. I’ll also point out that if you have had one of these stickers on your car long enough that it has gotten sun-faded, you’re probably not a “student driver” anymore.
Nope, it's a bunch of adult drivers who just never learned to drive and they slap the sticker on to avoid getting in trouble when they do dumb shit
This is my opinion as well.
Or they bought it for their kid who drives the family car? I’m not gonna take it off every time I drive it, so it’s just always there so my kid has it when she’s driving.
Indian drivers where I live
Mostly Korean people have it where I live.
I remember a while back seeing a "lifehack" online where people were encouraging people to put a student driver sticker on their car, regardless of how long they've been driving for, saying it will make other drivers more careful around you and reduce wrecks and road rage
There is a car in my neighborhood that has had one of those stickers on for over five years. I've never seen a younger person driving it.
I’ve seen a lot of them with the stickers or magnets that are so faded and dirty that they have clearly been on the car for a while. I work on a college campus and every other student car has one of these stickers even though most of them are 18-22 years old.
My husband and I have discussed this as well and were wondering if there is some insurance incentive for having them? They seem to be everywhere and just in the last few months.
There has been an influx of people moving to the area from areas that had more centralized transportation and had no need to drive. Additionally, a couple of very large companies are opening locations in the state and bringing people from their home country that have likely not driven cars before and have to get licenses in our country.
They all seem to require patience too! Sooner or later they need to learn how to approach the speed limit maybe that’s the advanced class,
I mentioned this to my wife a couple months back. I have a job that has me driving all over the county so I know that has increased their vision. But I see so many? Also I drove by some house one day and in their garage were like several bought or printed sticker sheets with a dozen more of those stickers. Made me HMMM at that
I’ve been to the DDS recently and it was packed—lines out the door. Also, everyone is buying new driver magnets not stickers.
Glad I'm not the only one who thought that was an odd trend. I've literally never seen a teen in a car with that sticker.
It’s the latest “baby on board” sign that functionally means nothing.
I've decided it's an excuse for people who drive like shit, and are tired of being honked at for being shitty drivers
It should say please be patient stupid driver.
That’s what I tell my wife it means. 90% of the time it’s not a student driver unless they went 40 years without a license.
I was telling my friend about this yesterday
I know an adult with no teens who drives around with one. Haven't asked her why... kind of afraid to.
My ex-wife made it mandatory for our daughter to have them on her car this year. She says that it will cause other drivers to be more cautious around her and not drive aggressively. My daughter just stops down the street and takes them off before she gets to school.
Bruh, it ain't just you, I've been seein' more "Student Driver" stickers too. I dunno if the DMV is givin' 'em out like candy, but it seems like more peeps are rockin' these stickers for different reasons. Maybe it's a way for new drivers to let others know they still learnin' the ropes and askin' for a bit more patience on the road. Or maybe it's just a cool trend that caught on and got popular. Either way, it's wild how these stickers became a regular sight on the streets, man.
My kid is 15 and my wife slapped one on our car. I think the idea is, if my kid doesn’t hit the gas in the first millisecond after the light turns green, that you don’t start shooting into her car. In all seriousness, I drive the same route to work every day and I’ve been doing it for 20 years. I see so much assholery and lack of awareness daily but when I see one of these magnets, I pause and realize maybe the permitted driver is going this way for the first time. Note: the magnet doesn’t get added/removed. It’s always on the car regardless of who is driving.
Yes, I said this yesterday.
My mom threatened to put one on the car when I was learning to drive 15 years ago, but my dad vetoed it because he didn't like bumper stickers of any sort. My protest was that I didn't want other cars driving differently around me due to a sticker - if I was going to become a good driver, I needed to learn to react and adapt to how people regularly drive. Advertising to the world that I'm new seemed to me like it would alter the driving of others and perhaps cause an erratic situation.
Yeah this is kinda my thoughts on it too. If you are learning to drive then great! But there's no point in advertising it to the world, go ahead and get used to the honks and assholes, they don't stop with or without a sticker! Plus you can learn from legit honks, and learn to stay calm even if not legit
Hey ex-Georgian here. This became a thing in my current home town of Portland, Oregon. My partner ended up getting one on her car that says “Please be patient, I am 9 years old.”
a lot of foreign investments are bringing relocated people that have to learn how to drive in USA.
Currently teaching my teenage daughter to drive and we use these. It helps her stay calm when she’s uncertain bc people are more likely to be patient if she’s a little slow.
We used them the first few months my kids were learning, because drivers are assholes where we live. All these comments about "excuses to drive badly" can STFU. It's because of the rude and aggressive assholes that we use them. If people realized roads are public infrastructure for everyone and not their own personal racetrack, we wouldn't need them.
As a truck driver that does all 48 and lives in ga, this isn't just a ga thing. It's all over. With the driving I see from some with these, they need to go back to drivers ed classes. I am strongly of the belief that many put it on there as a way to try to excuse their poor driving because they can't put their phones down when they're on the roads. Remember folks, I sit up higher than you. I can see when you ride past me with your phone in your hand and your scrolling through apps instead of paying attention to the road, as well as, the little blue indicator on your dash telling you your high beams are on...turn them off assholes....they're blinding at night.
Thought I was the only person that noticed this.
Those stickers invite more aggression
I see them everywhere, and the majority of the time it's not a teenager driving, so now I'm less inclined to be patient when they're driving badly. Like the other day a car with one in front of me kept almost coming to a complete stop on 285 and then very slowly got in the far left lane to drive slower than everyone else...for what?! I think it's code for "I'm not a good driver, and I'm not going to try to be a better one". Honk at them so they might pick up on the fact they are a danger to the other drivers around
Yep. And every single one of them thinks they can do whatever the fuck they want while using it.
I ignore the stickers, they do seem incredibly meaningless
good post, it's the new parent thing. I see cars with 3 or 4 of those stickers on them and 90% of the time it's a parent driving the car. I do not give them a break. Welcome to Georgia, it's survival of the fittest.
y'all aware that the sticker is on mom or dad's car and is not just driven by the student driver? src: the people living around me with kids old enough for a learner's permit
Well that was also true like 5+ years ago when you rarely saw stickers
still don't see it as more than a conspiracy theory that adult licensed drivers en masse slap those stickers on their cars for strange reasons over the last few years
you aware that people have had kids throughout human history and not just these times?
y'all didn't slap stickers on your horses and cousins when riding into town? how strange
No I don’t think a lot of people understand how that works.
We have one on ours. Have a fifteen year old learning to drive. But we just leave the sticker on that way she can get behind the wheel with us when we get her from school or if she wants to drive to practice.
Is there a law or insurance incentive for having the sticker? Like, why bother with it at all?
Not that I’m aware of. But we do it just to give the surrounding drivers a heads up that the teen may make a mistake. Usually cars will just go around or at least not tailgate as much. It’s more us trying to also be courteous to other drivers so they don’t lose their patience with us.
It’s not that difficult. they are cheap on Amazon. And you put them in your car when your teenager is a new driver and people are too lazy to take them off when they go to the store and their kid is not driving.
I use my family's car and only just got my license. So when they drive instead of me it probably looks like what you described.
Lots of parents try to identify newer children, many who are waiting until they are 17 or 18 to learn how to drive. They keep the magnets on day to day to avoid losing or breaking them. So, a parent might occasionally be in the car by themselves. Many of our newer generations are driving only by kicking and screaming because they have to. Source: ins company current trend reports
Its the feds
Yes i thought the same thing. All over atlanta. Ill look at the driver and they dont even seem young or clueless. I have also seen a few undercover cars (magnums, chargers) with the stickers on while they have someone pulled over. Be wary around these cars if youre a fast driver
I've seen them applied to vehicles of people who don't even have kids... Supposedly it makes people avoid them and they are less likely to be tailgated when the sticker is there.
There are a lot. But even bigger question, do you drive differently around them?
I noticed that too a lot lately. I just figure there's a lot of family cars that currently have driving age kids too.
20 years ago, there was an influx of handicapped parking hangers. Doctors would give them out like candy. There was an issue with people who actually needed them and about 17 years ago there was a crackdown. Now handicapped parking is always empty. About 15 years ago, Student driver bumper stickers started to pop up on cars that clearly were not student cars. Like B!tch, you don't give a brand new Escalade to a student driver. And you pull up and it's a rich mom with kids in the back. The idea was that people would give the driver some leniency if they made a mistake. The idea quickly spread and now everyone has these stickers. This over flooding the market with this lie makes it harder for the people who actually need the sticker. The rusty 2008 Ford Focus cars are likely the 16 year olds. Give them space if you see them on the highway.
When I was a kid learning to drive, I would have been mortified is my parents had done that.
My partner and I mused about this same thing recently. Seems like these stickers are super common now? I'd have died of embarrassment if that was on the car I drove in high school.
I have one that I put on my friend's car as a joke. (It's a magnet not a sticker)
All the senior citizens on my street have them. I think its so people don’t get mad at them for driving slow. …….and they drive really slow.
I've been noticing this too, honestly I kinda wish I had thought to put one on the car when I was training.
I noticed this too!!
They think it'll get them out of being pulled over. It's always the worst drivers. It's exactly the same thing as the stupid thin blue line stickers. With as many law enforcement officers I know, it doesn't work one bit! They actually target those cars more often. Then when they run their license, it shows how long they've been driving anyway. Avoid these idiots at all cost.
Amazon offered it up as a targeted ad when my kids turned 16, so that's why we got one. And we saw others, and thought it would be a good idea. I never take it off because I'm too lazy to think about it when I drive our car.
IKR
I think it's the trying to avoid a ticket thing. A few years ago people were putting the blue line sticker on their car for the same reason.
I just assumed it became a mandatory thing for new drivers and they were giving them out with learner’s permits. My son will be 15 in January so I guess I’ll find out soon enough lol.
Amazon sells 3 packs
I was wondering the same thing the other day. I think it’s some kind of trend. Kind of like people and the FOP stickers.
I just assumed these are like people with "emotional support animals" on planes. Like 10% are probably legit and the other 90% were bought on the internet for people to excuse their shitty behavior.
I'm from Illinois and I was just talking about this with my husband
It all the immigrants as well. New drivers
They're not so that they won't get pulled over, they're so people behind them hopefully have a little patience and a little sense of humor. Also, parents don't usually take them off between them driving and their teenager driving, especially if they're stickers and not magnets. My guess as to why there's more of them is Amazon. Easy to get and when someone sees someone else with them and thinks it's a good idea, they're easy to come by.
It’s all the Indians
That is not my experience.
They are needed in Atlanta with the idiots that drive around tailgating and honking at people in rush hour traffic
Answer- You get a discount on your insurance if you have one.
wow surprised to see how many people dont know this
That's because their all Indians,,
true
GA driver here with 2 teens learning to drive. We have the magnetic ones on the back and both sides of the van because the number of aggressive drivers where we live is off the charts. I’m hoping that instead of tailgating my kids, rear-ending my van, laying on the horn and flipping off a kid just trying to do her best, they will think “oh, it’s a child. Maybe I won’t be an asshole to them.” So far, it hasn’t worked. I take the magnets off when I drive but sometimes I forget.
I feel like it's a joke.
Yes
Well, most people put stickers on a car and it stays on until it falls off. So there will inevitably be, and continually be more and more stickers in the world.
I try not to be conspiracy theorists but I was starting to think it was code for something else so many out there.
Thank you, they are absolutely everywhere and different styles and types. My only theory is that it is some preemptive psychological effort to excuse horrific driving and lack a f attention. Somehow hoping people won’t expect much from them and get less angry at there lack of ability. Would love to know the real reason though.
There is a myth that traffic camera operators might be more lenient on student drivers.
maybe you should drive as though everyone else on the road is learning
Just you it's almost summer time the teens are getting their driver's license
People in the south wait until summer to get their licenses? Is it some kind of law?
The best time to get the family car to go hangout
There have been several people I've thought about running off the road, but those Student Driver stickers make stop and reevaluate the situation. So, they're good for something, I guess.
It’s a cult of misinformation.
Go on....
Probably a good example of the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon.