Airport Security Lines

James Joyner | Monday, September 29, 2008

Seth Godin has a number of “random travel thoughts,” several of which relate to airport security:

• When I go through security, why do I need to remove a cardigan sweater but the woman standing next to me can keep her cashmere blouse on? Are certain kinds of wool inherently risky?

• What would happen if Imagineers from Disney designed the security line? Why not let them try?

• After inspecting more than twenty million pairs of shoes, have the screeners found even one dangerous pair?

• After seven years, why is random yelling still the way that TSA screeners communicate their superstitious rules to people in line? Will this still be true in twenty years?

Good questions all.

About the Author: James Joyner is the publisher of Outside the Beltway and the managing editor of the Atlantic Council. He's a former Army officer, Desert Storm vet, and college professor with a PhD in political science from The University of Alabama. He lives just outside the Beltway in Alexandria, Virginia with his wife and infant daughter.

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Tags | Bureaucracy, Government, James Joyner airport, security, TSA

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My wife and I actually had a good experience with the TSA at Detroit Metro Airport. My wife was traveling and had a hair conditioner and toothpaste tube that were determined to be too big. After determining that the contents were benign, a TSA person carried the two items out to me (outside the secured area). It was certainly in their ability to just discard the items, but in this instance they did no.

Posted by rodney dill | September 30, 2008 | 08:07 am | Permalink

 

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