'Mad taggers' leave their mark on SUV culture

CORTE MADERA, Calif. - For four months, it's been hunting season for a pair of mischievous middle-aged men in the Bay Area. Their prey is the far-from-elusive sport-utility vehicle. Their weapon: homemade bumper stickers.

Robert Lind, who runs a deer-repellent business, and Charles Dines, a construction worker, say they're tired of watching SUVs suck down fuel at gas stations and flood rear-view mirrors with blinding headlights. But mostly, the ''mad taggers'' are mad about the SUVs' impact on the environment.

To make their point, they've scampered all over the region and slapped homemade bumper stickers onto hundreds of SUVs that read: ''I'm changing the environment! Ask me how!''

''We look at the bumper sticker as a way to punish these people,'' said Lind, who drives an old BMW car. ''They think their status trinket is more important than the environment we all share.''

Dines, who rides a BMW motorcycle, likens it to the public pillories of old, where offenders were exposed to public shame.

But judging from a recent hunting expedition in a mall parking lot, it's not shame that SUV drivers are feeling - several pulled out cell phones and called police, and Lind and Dines were twice confronted by security and police officers.

''You don't know the facts!'' one mother snapped as she pushed a baby stroller near her Chevy Tahoe that had been tagged for a second time. ''There's no other car that has enough shoulder belts for booster seats and has cargo space. I don't want my kids sitting 12 inches from the back of the car against glass, like in a minivan.''

From a legal standpoint, tagging cars with stickers can be considered vandalism, a misdemeanor.

''I understand your cause and everything,'' Twin Cities police officer Mark Reischel told them, ''I just think that adhering this to a car would make people mad. I know it would make me mad.''

Lind says the facts about SUVs support the taggers' cause.

This year, U.S. drivers bought 2.8 million SUVs through November, about 17 percent of all vehicles sold. Sales were up 4.6 percent from last year, according to Ward's Automotive Reports.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, average fuel economy for the SUV, van and pickup truck category is just over 18 mpg, compared with 23.6 mpg for cars.

''There's always a certain faction that's going to be looking at the negative attributes of SUVs,'' said Carl Calvert, editor of the magazine Today's SUV. ''I think you can look at any automotive vehicle and see negative aspects.''

Lind and Dine's stickers do include a Web site, www.changingtheclimate.com, that helps owners of tagged SUVs remove the stickers. It also invites them to have their say.

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On the Net:

http://www.changingtheclimate.com

http://www.epa.gov/autoemissions/allsuv-01.html