# How often does the president drive while in office? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 20, 2009, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-does-the-president-drive-while-in-office/490112 "2009-03-20T02:55:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ChrisBooth12](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e95f7d/32.png) [@ChrisBooth12](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChrisBooth12)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-does-the-president-drive-while-in-office/490112/1 "2009-03-20T02:55:49Z")
Does he ever drive a vehicle while in office? Wouldn’t not driving for 4-8 years make you loose the feel for it? Does the old saying its like riding a bike hold through? I would imagine a president driving is not unheard of. I am sure Bush drove on his ranch on vacation, but how often does the average drive? ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-does-the-president-drive-while-in-office/490112/2 "2009-03-20T03:15:22Z")
The modern-day president is allowed to drive a car while in the totally protected grounds of Camp David and I believe nowhere else. I don’t think Bush ever drove at any time in Crawford, though I may be mistaken. I don’t know when the last time was that a president drove in public while in office. It may not have been in my lifetime. ---
**Author:** ![Fake\_Tales\_of\_San\_Francisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8491ac/32.png) [@Fake\_Tales\_of\_San\_Francisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fake_Tales_of_San_Francisco)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-does-the-president-drive-while-in-office/490112/3 "2009-03-20T03:31:47Z")
As someone who goes without driving for extended periods of time, I can say it’s a skill very much like riding a bike or swimming in this regard. Sometimes I’ll need one or two minutes to get used to the clutch in a manual, especially if it’s one I haven’t driven before, but generally you don’t forget how to drive. You may forget the road rules though. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![happywaffle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ee59a6/32.png) [@happywaffle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/happywaffle)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-does-the-president-drive-while-in-office/490112/4 "2009-03-20T03:34:15Z")
I remember reading that JFK got in trouble for driving while in office. As for forgetting, it would only take you half a day to get the feel for it again. ---
**Author:** ![cardinal\_fang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal_fang/32/15316_2.png) [@cardinal\_fang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cardinal_fang)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-does-the-president-drive-while-in-office/490112/5 "2009-03-20T03:43:01Z")
Bush did [did make the news](http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/US_President_George_W._Bush_caught_driving_without_a_seatbelt) while driving “very slowly” in Crawford. Maybe sitting presidents are only allowed to drive (very) slowly. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-does-the-president-drive-while-in-office/490112/6 "2009-03-20T03:44:56Z")
I’d imagine the Secret Service would have fits. Don’t they have authority to tell the president “HELL no, you can’t do (whatever)”? ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-does-the-president-drive-while-in-office/490112/7 "2009-03-20T03:49:18Z")
I seem to remember stories of LBJ driving his Cadillac convertible around his ranch, possibly with terrified reporters sitting next to him. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-does-the-president-drive-while-in-office/490112/8 "2009-03-20T04:01:05Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > The modern-day president is allowed to drive a car while in the totally protected grounds of Camp David and I believe nowhere else. “Allowed” and “not allowed” by whom and on what authority? Is there some law or Federal regulation which states this? > [@Equipoise](#): > > I’d imagine the Secret Service would have fits. Don’t they have authority to tell the president “HELL no, you can’t do (whatever)”? Certainly it is often _assumed_ that the Secret Service have this authority, and maybe they do, but I’ve never really seen it backed up by anything. The first part of the statement (“the Secret Service would have fits”) is undoubtedly accurate, and as a practical and political matter, having a bunch of Secret Service agents threaten to resign _en masse_ on the grounds that the President was acting in such a way that they could no longer carry out their [legal duties](http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/usc.cgi?ACTION=RETRIEVE&FILE=$$xa$$busc18.wais&start=4289008&SIZE=41838&TYPE=TEXT) because the President was insisting on going bungee-jumping off of Mount Rushmore or on driving himself around town in his cherry-red convertible with the “POTUS” personalized license plates would make the President look like an utter jackass. No one bright enough and politically savvy enough to have been elected President is at all likely to refuse the “recommendations” of the Secret Service over anything as trivial as wanting to drive his own car. (If the Secret Service were to say “You can’t go to the summit meeting in Ruritania because we can’t guarantee your safety there”, I can imagine the President insisting on having his own way, since presumably the summit meeting with the Premier of Ruritania is a bit more important than driving a car.) But to say the Secret Service would have conniptions about something is not quite the same thing as saying the Secret Service actually has the legal authority to tell the President “No, you can’t do that”. I mean, what are they going to do if he insists? Arrest him? On what charge? ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-does-the-president-drive-while-in-office/490112/9 "2009-03-20T04:14:00Z")
There was an episode at Camp David one time, humorous in retrospect, where Nixon presented the visiting Brezhnev with a Lincoln Continental. Brezhnev got behind the wheel while Nixon, at his urging, got in the passenger seat. Brezhnev then stomped on the gas and sped away down the twisty road, leaving the Secret Service agents behind. If memory serves, Brezhnev even blew a stop sign and shot out onto the highway (outside the installation) at high speed, heedless of any other traffic. Imagine the international incident if they’d wrecked. ---
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-does-the-president-drive-while-in-office/490112/10 "2009-03-20T11:16:33Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > There was an episode at Camp David one time, humorous in retrospect, where Nixon presented the visiting Brezhnev with a Lincoln Continental. Brezhnev got behind the wheel while Nixon, at his urging, got in the passenger seat. Brezhnev then stomped on the gas and sped away down the twisty road, leaving the Secret Service agents behind. If memory serves, Brezhnev even blew a stop sign and shot out onto the highway (outside the installation) at high speed, heedless of any other traffic. > > Imagine the international incident if they’d wrecked. This is such an obviously fake urban legend that I could not resist looking it up in Google. But with almost no effort at all ([try it yourself](http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22Camp+David%22+Nixon+Brezhnev+%22Lincoln+Continental%22&btnG=Google+Search&aq=f&oq=)) I see that it really did happen! [Here](http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,879208-2,00.html) is the July 1973 article from Time magazine, for example. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-does-the-president-drive-while-in-office/490112/11 "2009-03-20T12:08:08Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > The modern-day president is allowed to drive a car while in the totally protected grounds of Camp David and I believe nowhere else. I don’t think Bush ever drove at any time in Crawford, though I may be mistaken. I don’t know when the last time was that a president drove in public while in office. It may not have been in my lifetime. I remember a Segway incident… 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-does-the-president-drive-while-in-office/490112/12 "2009-03-20T12:10:15Z")
If a golf cart counts as a vehicle, I believe we saw G.W. Bush drive a few times while in office. It’s not the same as driving a car on the open road, but it’s driving. ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-does-the-president-drive-while-in-office/490112/13 "2009-03-20T12:12:56Z")
I’m rather glad Presidents aren’t allowed to drive - even on a bicycle they can cause trouble! [Gleneagles Summit, 2005](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4756054.stm) ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-does-the-president-drive-while-in-office/490112/14 "2009-03-20T12:56:45Z")
Reagan drove on his CA ranch while he was in office. I remember seeing pictures of him , I think he had a jeep that he drove out there. ---
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-does-the-president-drive-while-in-office/490112/15 "2009-03-20T12:57:31Z")
> [@Meurglys](#): > > I’m rather glad Presidents aren’t allowed to drive - even on a bicycle they can cause trouble! I thought your link was going to refer to [this](http://westwing.wikia.com/wiki/POTUS_in_a_bicycle_accident). 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Bluffcityguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ebca7d/32.png) [@Bluffcityguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bluffcityguy)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-does-the-president-drive-while-in-office/490112/16 "2009-03-20T13:07:39Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I seem to remember stories of LBJ driving his Cadillac convertible around his ranch, possibly with terrified reporters sitting next to him. My memories concur with yours, which means either that he did indeed do so, or that both of us are hallucinating in parallel. Remember, though, that LBJ would regularly confer with his aides while sitting on the crapper. Obviously he was his own man to a degree that the electorate would never feel comfortable with today. 😃 Cheers, bcg ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-does-the-president-drive-while-in-office/490112/17 "2009-03-20T13:17:21Z")
Jebus – is driving a car around _on private property_ seriously considered that much of a security risk? Maybe stats don’t back this up, but ISTM that boarding Air Force One has a level of danger all its own. Yeah, yeah, “planes are safer than cars” and all that. Tell that to my primate brain. ---
**Author:** ![BrandonR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@BrandonR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrandonR)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-does-the-president-drive-while-in-office/490112/18 "2009-03-20T13:27:49Z")
> [@Equipoise](#): > > I’d imagine the Secret Service would have fits. Don’t they have authority to tell the president “HELL no, you can’t do (whatever)”? Nope. The way I’ve always heard it, the Secret Service can attempt to strongly dissuade the president from doing something, but ultimately the decision to do it is the president’s and the SS will just have to work around it. Of course, it’s in the president’s best interest to do what the SS tells them so it’s usually not a problem. ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-does-the-president-drive-while-in-office/490112/19 "2009-03-20T13:33:06Z")
just out of curiosity: how often does the President travel in _any_ car, other than his official bulletproof limo? (which is equipped with zillions of James Bond gadgets, weighs 4 tons, and presumably needs a specially trained driver) ---
**Author:** ![sweeteviljesus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/898d66/32.png) [@sweeteviljesus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweeteviljesus)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-does-the-president-drive-while-in-office/490112/20 "2009-03-20T13:45:13Z")
Bush was at the controls for a while of the plane (an S-3 Viking IIRC) that carried him to his infamous “Mission Accomplished” speech. He didn’t land the plane as far as I know, though. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-does-the-president-drive-while-in-office/490112.md?page=2)