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E-ZPass For Airports? Sign Me Up

Listen to a version of this blog -- as part of a Daily Newsletter podcast -- here. Here in New York and other Northeastern states, we have a wonderful system called E-ZPass that lets those with prepaid accounts buzz through highway and bridge tolls with little or no wait. If you've ever driven through any of the bridges in and around New York City, you can appreciate the time this system saves.

Where I live near our country's border with Canada, there's a similar express system for pre-approved, low-risk people who frequently travel between the States and Canada.

Now, there's more than one initiative in the works for letting frequent fliers get through airport security in an expedited way. One is a program called Clear, which is a privately operated version of the government's recently ended "Registered Traveler" test. In both cases, about 10,000 travelers signed up and, in the former case, paid $79.95 for a one-year "pass" that lets them complete security checks with little or no delay.

A few thoughts on this system, which relies on finger and iris scans as well as background checks:

1. When will it be broadly available and where do I sign up? I don't travel that frequently, but I do travel enough to see immediately the appeal of this system. And if they wanted to charge $150, I'd still be first in line.

2. Undoubtedly, some privacy advocates will be unwilling to have the government or a private company collect and maintain this information about them. My past and present aren't all that interesting, so if volunteering this information saves me a 15-minute wait in a security line, I'll tell them everything they want to know.

3. This is an excellent, practical, real-world use of technology to solve a problem that stands to benefit business and leisure travelers alike.

4. The system's prospects for broad deployment are anything but a slam dunk; even key figures in the Homeland Security Department haven't been big proponents. I, however, would like to see the Transportation Security Administration, and the federal government, more broadly, use its authority to make travel safer and easier.

Would you be willing to submit personal information and agree to finger and iris scans? Share your thoughts on the pros and cons of this concept.

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