Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for February 05, 2017

I am so happy I can renew my license online!

Drink, then vote, or is it the other way around?

Eh, those driverless cars don’t work so well on unmaintained roads. And I don’t see them getting any better in the near future.

(The roads, not the cars. Those will get better than ever, but we won’t be able to afford them.)

In some states you don’t HAVE to go to your nearest DMV. I remember one time living in California and seeing where the Riverside DMV was and how bad it would be to get there, much less wait in line. The next closest was in Hemet. It took about the same amount of driving and I was in and out in less than a half hour.

Of course that was in the eighties.

“… and not necessarily in that order.”

She’s complaining about waiting only two hours in line at the DMV when she’ll be waiting a whole lot longer in line to fly. What gets me is how many lives are put at risk by not having any TSA checkpoints at the DMV.

Good idea. Have a separate ID for nondrivers issued by the state. Or just have the banks, bars and police take our word for whatever we say.On the other hand, am I the only one old enough to remember when driving a small responsive car on a back road was actually a pleasure?

Get a passport. Good for 20 years.

I’m so glad I live in a smaller city, in and out in under 30 min.

Do Governments still issue ID? I remember back in the 70’s/90’s we had something called the Age of Majority card issued by the Government that was just as good as a licence

I have a driver’s license but I will not buy a car until I can safely let it do the driving. The driver’s license can be renewed using the internet. Life is easy these days. I love the 21st century.

I have a government issued ID to show the Gestapo .. er Authorities when they ask for it. Heil Big Brother!!

Yes, my teen daughter has a nondriver license and my 95 year old mom also has a nondriver license. My daughter is now at savannah college of art and design where it would be impractical to drive so she didn’t bother. My mom can’t drive anymore. They still need to get from place to place so car services will probably become a big part of the future. People find ways to work around. Scad Atlanta seems much more convenient since it is a smaller campus even though Atlanta is much bigger than savannah.

Given that she is in Virginia, easy workarounds — go to Frostburg (MD) or Bruceton Mills (WV), using address of an acquaintance/relative in the respective state.

Unfortunately, Savannah College of Art and Design, (where my teen attends), has a terrible transportation system. The buses are often late if they come at all. They are always overcrowded. My daughter will get there extra early in hopes of getting on the old rickety bus and rude others come along and brush past her even though she has obviously been there long before they arrived. Many other campuses have the same kinds of problems. In theory, public transport is great, but it depends on how efficient or inefficient it may be. The campus of SCAD is located at Savannah, GA, a lovely place, but it is too bad they can’t figure out their transportation system. She will relocate to Atlanta, which might not be as charming, but a lot more convenient as their campus is smaller, with buildings closer together. She also wants to check out the campus at Hong Kong, but I am not sure that is a good idea given the shenanigans of the current administration. She thought about their campus in Lacoste, France, but they depend on bikes. Although she tried to learn to ride a bike her entire life, she never got it. She seems to have some balance issues. I am not sure bike transportation is all that safe anyway. Most American kids use bikes as recreation rather than transportation. She was a high school exchange student in Japan and almost all the kids rode bikes on very crowded streets. She was not in Tokyo, where the kids are not allowed to ride bikes on streets, being far too dangerous. Her host family accommodated their American guest by driving from time to time, and other times she rode on a very crowded bus. Public transport is like anything else it needs to have the occasional upgrade and unfortunately that doesn’t always happen. I have heard that the reason we keep hearing about the occasional train accident on the east coast is that the railway system is over a hundred years old. Meanwhile, our crumbling interstate highway system is also due for an upgrade.

I suspect that the DMV with the hour long lines is a myth, or at least an anomaly. I have never waited more than 5-10 minutes and that’s in Illinois, Missouri and Texas, over the years.

I have experienced it in St. Louis, Mo, Kansas City, Mo. and Mission, Kansas. It has gotten better though in recent years. They have added more automation to the set up. Though it still depends on what location you go to and what time you go. Forget trying the one Saturday morning they are open a couple times a month at Mission, Ks., for example.

NV has a neat system. You call ahead and let the system “log you in”, so to speak. You’re officially in line at that point. If you time it right, you’re “next” when you walk in. Plus, I have the option of Reno, at which there seems to always be a wait, or a small town in the other direction at which I’ve never had to wait more than a few minutes. Not bad, really.

First ……. let ……. me ……….. tell …………… you …………… a ………. joke…… (Zootopia)

Driverless cars scare the heck out of me. You’re never going to be able to design one that can anticipate and deal with every single unusual event a driver encounters every day. I don’t think they will ever be commonplace.

Speaking of driverless cars replacing self-driven ones- what’s going to happen to all of the fragile egos of the young men (mostly) who depend on their noisy red neck mufflers on their cars to give them a sense of being SOMEONE? “I make a lot of noise, therefore I exist.”

Many countries, including Ecuador, where I live, have a National I.D. card called a cedula which has all your vital information and is used for everything !

A national driver’s license is a separate entity and accepted only as a secondary type of identification. You even use your cedula to make purchases in the stores.

If you’re a resident alien here, you must have a permanent residence visa to obtain a cedula.

If the U.S.A. went to a National I.D. card for every man,woman, and child in the country, it would go long way to curtailing illegal immigration. You can’t work, go to school, obtain a driver’s license or pretty much anything else, without a cedula.

Oh no! Heaven forfend that we should require ID to vote!

I live in a rural county, and you can only renew your license here on Thursdays. Of course the computer system doesn’t work properly half the time. And, before the Courts struck down NC’s voter ID law, I saw an older man bringing in his ancient father for a voter ID card, but the wait was too long for a ninety something, so they left.

Yes, some states issue ID cards and do not require a driver’s license for identification purposes.

A state ID would be the way to go then. They’re less expensive and require no test.

To drink, mostly, I would have to assume……….

Why are people in the U.S. so terrified about a National Identification Card ?

What Invasion of Privacy ? The Government already has all your private information, whether you like it or not.

This is the electronic age not the stone age !

newsflash – there are long lines at the dmv! very edgy observation today, gbt.

The same people who complain about government intrusion and oppose national ID, are the same that want voter IDs.

I’m going to piss off some people – I live in a less-populated area in Florida. The DMV where I go to get my state ID (since I don’t drive) is bright, well-staffed, and has minimal lines. The longest I EVER waited there was right after they changed the rules about what was needed to get an ID. It was a MESS, people were angry, but the staff was still competent and pleasant. I was there for nearly 40 minutes, waiting in a reasonably comfortable plastic chair for my number to be called.

No, not making this up. I don’t like a lot about this area, but the DMV office makes up for a LOT.

The idea of driverless cars makes me nervous, but Sam articulates EXACTLY the reason I’ve always hated driving.

Cute Roland tweets! Love it!

So get a passport. You don’t have to stand in line as long. Just make out the application, get an approved passport photo, send the application, your birth certificate and social security card to the State Department and you’ll get your passport back in 4-6 weeks along with your birth certificate and social security card. It is good for 10 years and the fee is less than that of a driver’s license for the same number of years. A friend of mine never learned to drive and used her passport for identification. With few exceptions by the ignorant, she was never challenged.

I don’t own a car and I don’t drive because physiological problems have left my legs necrotic and lacking in fine motor control so I don’t trust myself at the wheel anyway because I’m not sure of my control or reaction time in going from gas to brake and vice-verca, but I still renewed my DL last year because it’s the most accepted form of ID, some places actually refuse a state ID, but they’ll always accept a DL.

Getting a passport seems more involved than getting a DL, so it would sure be frustrating to lose a PP. Even more frustrating than replacing a DL. Lots of people have a PP but don’t want to drag it around everywhere unless you have to.

The heck with a drivers license when it comes to flying. My wife and I use our passports which is better to use than a drivers license. Of course at my age I do t need to ID to get a drink and in my state voting is all by mail only statewide. BTW Mr. Trump there’s been no fraudulent voting either except for a couple Republicans we caught years ago in a recount

Starting in 2018, Missouri driver licenses will be no longer valid as ID to fly according to the TSA. There are notices about this at KCI airport.

And if the computers are down, they send you away to come back when the system is working…my husband had to go all last weekend without a license because of this.

One does not require a driver license; however, one does require governmental identification. Your state/territory/district DMV will issue you the state/territory/district identification card instead of a driver license.