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Comment by brewdad | Hacker News Reader

Of those examples, bicycling is the only one I've never seen taken away. Drivers licenses are required to drive and they get taken away for violations all the time. Fare Evasion or gross misbehavior can have you "excluded" from my city's mass transit system. Walking on the interstate is generally forbidden except in emergency situations.

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There's a difference between driving a car/plane and being a passenger in a car/plane.

I don't know of a case of someone being barred from being a passenger in a car, and doubt very much that this would stand up to legal scrutiny. The state does have a public safety interest in mandating who can operate fairly heavy machinery in public though.

The right to bicycle in general is not licensed in the US. However, some roads allow bikes and some do not. This seems to mostly be done in a way to not overly restrict freedom of travel. For example, in densely populated places like the Northeastern US, it's not allowed to bike on Interstates, but that's deemed okay because there's usually a parallel smaller highway that allows bikes. While in sparsely populated parts of the Western US, it's sometimes allowed to bike on the shoulder of Interstates, because it's the only road. However, governments aren't perfect, so there are gaps in the logic, like some bridges that don't allow bikes even though they're the only way to cross a large body of water for miles and miles. I'd like to believe that a legal challenge to allow bikes on such bridges, or to require the government to ferry bicyclists over such bridges, would succeed.

I got stuck on the non-downtown side of Shanghai once because I assumed that I'd be able to walk or bike across at least one of the bridges. But I couldn't find any way to get across. I had to wander around until the metro opened back up in the morning to get back across (and make it to flight in time).

When i first visited Shanghai in 1989, there were no bridges or tunnels between the Bund sid eof the river and the Pudong side, only the ferries. (pudong was mostly farms.) The ferries are less used now, but there are still some in operation, incluidng some that run 24 hours a day:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_Ferry

The ferries are especially useful if you want to take a bicycle across the river.

> Walking on the interstate is generally forbidden except in emergency situations.

It is actually prohibited even in emergencies. Pedestrians absolutely have no right of way in an interstate. You must ask for rescue if you get stuck as a result of collision or a car failure.

That depends on the state and the section of highway. There is no Federal prohibition on walking or bicycling along an Interstate highway right-of-way. State laws vary.

In California, for example, bicycling or waling on freeway shoulders is permitted except where specifically prohibited and signed. Bicyclists and pedestrians are prohibted from most California Interstate highways where there are alterantives bicycle and pedestrian routes, but there are mnay California Interstates on which bicyclists and pedesrians are allowed, including sections of I-5, I-10, and I-80.

In California, state law expressly allows walking along a freeway in an emergency:

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySectio....

Bicycle registration (for a fee) is mandatory in some states. Bikes can be seized and impounded if they are not registered.

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