Flying clearly invokes much more irrational fears than driving. There are people who absolutely won't fly, no matter how many statistics you show them indicating the relative safety of flying versus driving. There seem to be far fewer people who refuse to drive/ride in a car.

It seems many people are willing to accept severe measures which give the perception of security when they fly. I am just not so willing to accept such things.

The thing I find so odd about all this is that so many people hate lower speed limits. There are studies showing how a 55 mph max would save lives and reduce gasoline consumption compared to 65 or 70, but it is very unpopular. Many drivers disobeyed it when it was in effect. The only reason I can think of to hate 55-mph is that it makes travel time take longer.

In the meantime, it appears the majority will accept nearly any sort of hassle at the airport, in the name of security. I suppose if you only fly a couple of times a year, what's an extra hour or two? But if you fly weekly or daily like some business people do, those hours add up to days of productivity lost.

I don't travel much for business, but I do take frequent weekend trips. I use the flight time to catch up on things on my computer or non-leisure reading so I can enjoy my time at the destination as much as possible. If I can't do those things, I will have to change the way I do things. One of the changes will be to fly less. The airlines will not be happy if their most frequent customers start driving more.

All that said, I did hear on NPR today that they are looking at ways to ease the inconvenience, but nothing specific was mentioned.