I'm ready for security in the United States. My laptop is easily accessible, my coins and phone are in the pockets of a jacket I have to take off anyway, my shoes are untied ...

But, I can't actually do anything until I reach that one little table just before the X-ray machine, and there already two people there trying to get their stuff into plastic bins also. I have a carry-on and a backpack, and I need three bins: one for my laptop (can't put anything else in that one); one for my jacket, belt (heavy metal buckle) and so on; and one for my shoes. The other two are similarly encumbered, perhaps with a purse as well.

No matter how much we know what is needed, no matter how prepared we are, there is simply no way we can do this efficiently in the space provided. If the TSA put two tables ahead of the screening machine, so we could get fully ready for screening before the person ahead of us passes through, it would speed things up greatly.

That said, the bottleneck more often than not is the X-ray screening itself. No amount of advance preparation will make that go faster, as it is driven by the speed of the X-ray operator. Faster preparation will just mean more standing around with cold feet and dirty socks.