Getting rid of the personal sign – after 30 years

Lasse Adolfsson, 73, from Uppsala has had the personal sign “RAPIDA” for 30 years. 

Now he is not allowed to continue using his sign, after the Swedish Transport Agency decided that it could “cause offence”.
– The decision is just silly, he says. News, reports and analyses in Sweden and around the world.

Lasse Adolfsson has worked with graphics his whole life. He has traveled around Sweden and Finland selling printing presses. One of the companies he represented had a printing press program called Rapida – hence the idea for his personal license plate. – At first it was more of an advertisement for what I was doing. Then it became more personal, with people nodding and waving when they saw me, says Lasse Adolfsson. In 1995, Lasse was first granted the right to use his personal plate. But then this spring, the news came that he was no longer allowed to use the plate, something that UNT was the first to report. – It’s a bit sad, I’ve been associated with this plate for 30 years, I’ve been Mr. Rapida in Sweden, says Lasse Adolfsson.

Rejected – after 30 years

In April, the Swedish Transport Agency decided that Lasse could no longer use his license plate. One of the criteria for rejection is that the license plate alludes to speed, the authority writes in the decision. They also write that a personal license plate may not be designed in a way that could cause offence or inconvenience.

The decision cannot be appealed, which is what Lasse Adolfsson is most upset about: “It is astonishing that it cannot be reconsidered in a democratic pioneer country like Sweden,” he says.

The Swedish Transport Agency’s response

Investigator Daniel Augustini from the Swedish Transport Agency was not involved in making the decision, but tells the newspaper UNT that the authority is behind the decision: – There are certain types of hints that we do not think are the most appropriate to have in traffic, for example hints to drive fast. Driving fast is not something we as an authority encourage. The fact that the name of the sign refers to a printing press may be something that has been considered in previous decisions, according to Daniel Augustini: – But if you were to say “rapid” to the common man, I think most people would think of the English word “rapid”, and not of printing presses. Decisions on registration plates cannot be appealed, Augustini tells UNT. It is possible to formally submit an appeal to the authority, which in turn will forward it to the court, but the court will most likely not take up the issue.

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