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| Right to travel and driver's licenses by Commander Tansin A. Darcos 11/17/2018, 6:55pm PST | ||||
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| There are some people who try to argue that you should not have to have a driver's license in order to operate a motor vehicle. They refer to the "right to travel," and a license restricts that right. Not so; the requirement to have a driver's license restricts only those who wish to use a motor vehicle for traveling on public highways, and anyone who can pass the written and road tests and have reasonable vision can get a license. Those who do not have drivers licenses can still legally travel on foot, operate a bicycle, on horseback, on a manual or powered wheelchair, powered scooter, and even a golf cart. Consider this for a moment: the only things being restricted to licensed drivers are high-speed transport on public roads, the types of conveyances that are extremely dangerous if operated by an untrained person.
You don't even need a license to drive a train, even if operating on rails running on a public highway, because the rail right-of-way is considered privately owned. Same for motor vehicles operated on private property. This is why kids who are members of family farms and ranches will be taught how to drive as soon as they can reach the pedals and see over the steering wheel, say 12 or so. They can't drive on a public highway except for short spans to cross from one part of the farm or another, but they can often help with moving things around like driving bales of hay to feeding zones. Pickup trucks can be cheaper to operate than horses and can carry lots more. And in air-conditioned comfort, too! The mandate to have a license to operate a motor vehicle on public roads has nothing to do with abridging people's "right to travel." The purpose is to ensure the person driving has at least a minimum level of competence to operate that vehicle in a reasonably safe fashion. A person with proper training can drive daily for years and never have an accident. I would not want to guess how long an untrained person could drive before damaging their vehicle, someone else's, and/or injuring themselves or others. Even at that, licensed drivers kill more than 15,000 people a year in the U.S. alone. |
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Right to travel and driver's licenses by 11/17/2018, 6:55pm PST  What? NT by 11/17/2018, 9:45pm PST "You don't even need a license to drive a train" by 11/17/2018, 9:56pm PST Legal matters before the big Caltrops bicycling the highways end of days meetup by 11/18/2018, 7:45am PST Re: Legal matters before the big Caltrops bicycling... by 11/26/2018, 10:56am PST Re: Legal matters before the big Caltrops bicycling... by 11/26/2018, 2:42pm PST |
