I’ve read the numerous reasons why people don’t carry an ID and, on any of the many ordinary and uneventful days of our lives, they are quite acceptable. Thing is, sometimes “shit happens” in a totally unexpected and shockingly rapid way. Thus the counter reason, “just in case”.
“Chance favors the prepared mind.”
I don’t know how common this is, but as soon as I get home my shows and pants come off. Pants are worn only for company.
Re: the “just in case” folk - that is a mindset I am careful not to cleave to firmly to. I don’t want to style my life assuming the worst possible thing is going to happen to me at any instance. Not saying carrying an ID isn’t reasonable, but it is not an instinctual reaction for me. Further, in this era of seemingly increasing intrusions into privacy/anonymity, I get a sense of pleasure out of being relatively anonymous.
My job required a reasonably significant security clearance, so my fingerprints are in numerous databases. So my dead body would not go undetected for long.
There was a local case last year or 2, where an elderly woman went to a suburban gym. On the way home, on a busy suburban road, she dropped dead. She happened to fall in a way that she rolled down an embankment into an area of unmaintained brush. I forget whether she did not have her cellphone, or if it was off or dead, but she lay there - feet from a heavily trafficked sidewalk and road - for DAYS!
When I used to run, at times I would go out in nothing other than shorts/socks/shoes. I considered the utility of some durable ID tag that could be affixed to one’s shoelaces… I later began slipping my license into that tiny pocket inside running shorts.
Well, no ID when I’m outside working around the house, of course. But also when I go for a walk.
At other times, since I will be driving, I have to have it.
On those rare occasions when I’m riding with Mrs. FtG I take my wallet since I might have to take over driving. On the incredibly rare occasions I’m riding with someone else, I have my wallet so I can pay for stuff or whatever since we’re generally going to something like a restaurant.
My guess is that this is about making sure they don’t hand you a prescription for someone with the same or similar name, but who would probably have a different birthday.
These days when I go to the doctor I have to recite my birthdate for each successive person I see in the office. They’re not trying to proof me, they’re doublechecking that they’re about to run the test on, or look at the records of, or whatever, the right person.
I’ve had it happen at least once that when they heard the birthdate they looked back at the file and said whoops, wrong Firstname Lastname.
Not unless I forgot it (almost never).
Here in Florida, if you cannot produce the license on the spot or otherwise convince the officer that you are licensed, the officer can charge you with driving without a license. Before or during your court appearance, for a $5 fee, you can take your license to the county clerk and dismiss the charge. Fla. Stat. § 322.03(6) (2019).
~Max
I had an experience with this, back in the 80s. When I was in college I got pulled over on my way to work. When I got my wallet out to show my license, I discovered it missing, along with my school ID. I had two choices: go to jail and wait to see the judge, or pay the fines for speeding and driving without a license in cash - but if I could produce the license within X (I don’t remember how many) days the no license ticket would be dismissed and I’d get my money back. I had no cash, but the officer was kind enough to follow me to the bank. And no, I didn’t give the cash to the officer. He provided an envelope addressed to the city court house and watched me put the cash in and mail it. I got my license back by calling the school, where I was told I’d left them both in a store where I’d written a check, and my fine for no license was refunded. (But not the fine for speeding).
I once pulled into a gas station and immediately realized I’d forgotten my wallet, so I pulled right back out onto the road again. A cop then pulled me over for evading the redlight. I explained that I was out of gas (and showed him my gas gauge) but had forgotten my wallet, so I immediately exited the gas station. No evasion.
Then he asked for my license. I reminded him that I’d forgotten my wallet. He initially told me I’d be getting two tickets (one for evading the light and one for no driver’s license) but then he realized that there was a Catch-22 here. Eventually he let me go, laughing.
Yep, when I come home my shoes come off at the door along with my pants. In the winter I wear pajama pants, in the summer I wear shorts. Pants are what I wear to work.
I go out without any ID virtually every day for my 5k run. No way would I bother to grab my DL as it would take extra time and I’d have to remember to return it to my wallet when I came back.
I also occasionally make quick runs to the transfer station without taking my purse, if my arms are full of garbage bags and I don’t want to take the time to go back to the house. I’ve been told the HI police will look you up in their data base to verify you have a license, if needed, and the transfer station is about 2 minutes from the house anyway, so no big deal.
In all other circumstances, I make sure to carry ID, health insurance info, a little cash, and possibly a credit card. My wallet has everything, but my purse is awkward if I’m doing an outdoors activity like hiking, so for that I will throw the essentials into a backpack or fanny pack, being sure to return them when I get home.
What I find weird about buying liquor while claiming not to have ID is that, if I’m carrying money or a credit card, I’ll also have ID.
It depends on what you mean by “out.” I never walk farther from my house than to empty my trash, and if I am driving, I carry my ID if for no other reason than it is also my driver’s license.
Yep, except for when I dress specifically for sleeping or exercising (or undress for showering). I wear jeans to work, and they’re comfy enough I don’t need to change for home.
Murray, is that you?
When I’m driving I normally carry my drivers license — unless I’ve lost it again, which does happen. But when taking public transport (and I didn’t own a car for many years) probably not. And the same is still true for a lot of other people. But it’s interesting to see that when university students get challenged for not using a ticket — they use their phone for ID. The ticket inspectors will ask for ID, they can arrest you if you don’t provide ID, but they will accept calling up somebody from your phone, asking the other person what your name and address is.
Is that just for citizens? I ask because I’m American and my son is attending university in the UK. As part of applying for his Tier 4 (student) visa, he had to get pictures and fingerprints taken at a US Homeland Security office which were transmitted to the UK and put on a Biometric Residency Permit (BRP), which he then had to pick up at a UK post office within 7 days of arrival. It’s a plastic ID card about the size of a credit card/driver license. He needs this to reenter the country legally. He also needed it at his GP to prove he was eligible to access National Health Services.
For anyone who doesn’t take any ID with them, please start. Not for you, but for the healthcare workers who have to call someone and tell them you’re unconscious in the emergency room. We’re grateful our kid did after he was hit by a car.
Since I’ve been hit a few times commuting by bike, the wife often yells “Have a nice ride! Gotcher ID?”
So if you don’t drive and you don’t have a passport, how do you prove your identity/age/residence etc.? It’s hard to believe it never comes up.
I’m going to take a wild guess - but I’m going to assume that adults who don’t have a driver’s license get a passport. I think in the US, the main reason people get non-driver IDs is the difference in cost. It’s actually easier for some people to meet the documentation requirement for a passport than for a non-driver ID as proof of residence is not needed for a passport.
Here in Louisiana we have an app for that.
so, I have an official ID whenever I have my phone. But since I always have my meatspace wallet when I have my phone, it is kind of redundant.
But the la wallet is kind of cool. Apparently its major intended use is proving one’s identity when entering bars. Since that isn’t something I do, I got it for the novelty.
I don’t. I never leave the house without my wallet, which contains driver’s license, credit cards, health insurance card, and various other stuff.
But my wife *never *carries ID. Ever. She drives me nuts. She says it’s afraid she’ll lose it (and she probably would), but it’s a bad idea. And her fear of losing stuff doesn’t stop her from carrying a credit card or two, and cash, and a key card to get into her office (all of which she loses semi-regularly).
And she drives like that. No license with her. She does not carry her green card. I believe resident aliens are required to carry the card (not that circumstances are likely to arise in which she’d have to present it). She does not carry a health insurance card. If she ever had an accident that rendered her unconscious, it would be a huge problem.
She will carry her green card and passport when leaving/returning to the US, obviously, but that’s the only time she will ever carry ID.