But Checkpoint Evolution is about comfort as well as security. Pleasant music, better lighting and open spaces are supposed to change the airport-security experience “in a way that lowers the general stress level,” Chertoff said. He failed, however, to mention a thing about checkpoints that drives stress levels to insurrectionary heights: the segregated security lines that certain airports and airlines permit. Many first- and business-class passengers, as well as frequent fliers, zip right to the metal detectors while coach passengers snake through lines for waits than can exceed half an hour. If Americans will put up with that, they’ll put up with being seen naked.

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It is hard to know whether to applaud Registered Traveler for allowing people who don’t fly first class to pay for quicker lines — or whether to deplore it for making a flawed system more widespread.

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For travelers, it seems, two lines are intolerable but one is unattainable.