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Travel in the USA Requires ID

neil.fraser.name

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Re: Travel in the USA Requires ID

#81

Post by ubernostrum »

mikeash wrote: post #33
rhino369 wrote: post #17

Comparing an ID with "travel papers" is silly. An ID is an identification device given to everyone who wants one. "Travel papers" are licenses to travel. IDs are a tiny restriction on your freedom. Travel papers are a major restriction on your freedom. The stupid airfare taxes are a much bigger restriction on our freedom, IMO.

What's the difference, exactly? "Travel papers" are used to control whether or not you're allowed to travel. ID checks are also used to control whether or not you're allowed to travel. (For example, one use of ID checks for air travel is to check the traveler against the government's no-fly list.) Are you just saying that the requirements aren't currently restrictive enough to be worth complaining about? Because I on…

Airlines tend to like having ID checks pseudo-imposed upon them, as a way of enforcing non-transferability of tickets.

Re: Travel in the USA Requires ID

#82

Post by varikin »

JoshTriplett wrote: post #55
mherdeg wrote: post #34

I think you can still travel long distances anonymously using a bicycle. Stephen King treats bikes as the canonical post-apocalyptic transit method — roads are too crowded with abandoned cars for automobile travel to be effective, and motorcycle travel is very dangerous (there is no ambulance if you have a high-speed accident). But you can do a hundred miles in a day on a bike. That's not bad. I've also never been as…

Motorcycles also need gas.

And motorcycles need constant maintenance.

Re: Travel in the USA Requires ID

#83

Post by mikeash »

rhino369 wrote: post #59
mikeash wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the difference, exactly? "Travel papers" are used to control whether or not you're allowed to travel. ID checks are also used to control whether or not you're allowed to travel. (For example, one use of ID checks for air travel is to check the traveler against the government's no-fly list.) Are you just saying that the requirements aren't currently restrictive enough to be worth complaining about? Because I on…

Permission vs. just to identify who I am. I can drive to the airport right now and fly wherever I want. I don't need it approved by government.

I can drive to the airport right now and fly to China without doing any prior paperwork. That doesn't mean I don't need it approved by the government, that just means I already got it approved and the approval is still valid.

If I didn't have that visa, I'd have to go get one before I can fly to China. Likewise, if you didn't have an ID, you'd have to go get one before you can fly at all. But I do have that visa, and you do have that ID, so we don't have to do anything more.

You need papers, and you can be prevented from flying if they don't want you to. I don't see the qualitative difference, just the quantitative one that a state ID is a lot easier to get than a visa.

Re: Travel in the USA Requires ID

#84

Post by derekp7 »

mherdeg wrote: post #34

I think you can still travel long distances anonymously using a bicycle. Stephen King treats bikes as the canonical post-apocalyptic transit method — roads are too crowded with abandoned cars for automobile travel to be effective, and motorcycle travel is very dangerous (there is no ambulance if you have a high-speed accident). But you can do a hundred miles in a day on a bike. That's not bad. I've also never been as…

It's funny you mention that, because he doesn't bring up bicycles in several of his post-apocalypse books (I'm thinking of The Stand as one specific example -- the characters all walk from one end of the country to the other).

Re: Travel in the USA Requires ID

#85

Post by lwhalen »

beeworker wrote: post #7
jameshart wrote: post #6

"We have literally reached a point where the only way to travel long distances anonymously is to use a horse." Sure about that? Brief Googling on regulations around moving horses between states indicates that "under ... federal regulations, horses moving interstate must be identified and accompanied by an Interstate Certificate of Veterinary Inspection (ICVI)."

There's always personal BigDog robots...

until those have to be licensed, with appropriately-displayed plates.

Re: Travel in the USA Requires ID

#86

Post by ComputerGuru »

derekp7 wrote: post #84
mherdeg wrote: post #34

I think you can still travel long distances anonymously using a bicycle. Stephen King treats bikes as the canonical post-apocalyptic transit method — roads are too crowded with abandoned cars for automobile travel to be effective, and motorcycle travel is very dangerous (there is no ambulance if you have a high-speed accident). But you can do a hundred miles in a day on a bike. That's not bad. I've also never been as…

It's funny you mention that, because he doesn't bring up bicycles in several of his post-apocalypse books (I'm thinking of The Stand as one specific example -- the characters all walk from one end of the country to the other).

I'm fairly sure The Stand uses bicycles as the primary mode of transportation? Unless I'm mixing that up with Under the Dome, but I don't think so?

Re: Travel in the USA Requires ID

#87

Post by albedoa »

rhino369 wrote: post #52
rmxt wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The post's entire point is that IDs are de facto travel papers. The reasons why we object to photo ID at vote time should also apply to general intra-US travel (or at least intrastate travel).

And my point is that travel papers aren't just something you need to travel with. It's a permission for specific travel. You can argue that requiring an ID for traveling on a plane is too restrictive, but it's not travel papers.

Not trying to argue here, just trying to understand you. At the point where ID is required, it becomes de facto permission for that specific travel, no? Without ID, that travel is denied. (Or at least, that's the author's point.)

Re: Travel in the USA Requires ID

#88

Post by fapjacks »

Zikes wrote: post #5

Not to mention the random checkpoints various states can set up in the name of immigration or DUIs.

Recently there has been an interesting method of getting around this, which at least is interesting: http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/01/03/see-this-guy-get-...
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