Air travelers across the U.S. are keeping their shoes on as they move through security, after TSA reversed its policy of requiring many people to remove their footwear and run them through scanners with the rest of their carry-ons.
The policy of having to take shoes off started in 2006 after a terrorist tried to detonate a bomb hidden in his shoes.
Brett Snyder, also known as the Cranky Flier, runs a blog of that same name and joined The Show to discuss.
Full conversation
MARK BRODIE: So I would imagine that this rule, maybe, does it make you a little less cranky as a flier?
BRETT SNYDER: Well, I have TSA PreCheck so I haven't had to take my shoes off for a while anyway. But yes, it's good news.
BRODIE: So what actually precipitated this? Like, what led the federal government to say, “oh, we don't really need to do this anymore?”
SNYDER: Well, it's a good question. You know, the technology has been in place with the millimeter wave technology and the different types of gates that people have to walk through now, as opposed to the old metal detectors that should be able to detect these things, on their own anyway. It's been there for a while, so this seems like the government finally getting out of its own way, maybe?
BRODIE: I mean, yeah. I mean, I suspect you're talking about the devices where you walk through and you sort of put your hands above your head, you know, and touch your middle fingers together.
SNYDER: That’s right.
BRODIE: And, you know, they have the footprints on the ground. It seemed as though those devices were far stronger and maybe more reliable than what we had to do. Which raises the question of why we had continued to take our shoes off all this time?
SNYDER: Yeah, I think there are a lot of questions, you know, why can we only have 3 ounces of liquids still and all of that? There are many questions about, why is this still here?
You’ll certainly hear some people refer to this as security theater — makes it feel safer, whether it actually makes things safer or not. Certainly up for debate, but, you know, this was something that was a response to the shoe bomber from more than 20 years ago.
BRODIE: Yeah.
SNYDER: And I'm actually not familiar with any attempts since then to use shoes as a dangerous weapon.
BRODIE: Do you think that this might as you kind of alluded to with the liquid size and everything, might this be a harbinger of further changes to come in terms of what we are allowed to bring on planes?
SNYDER: Well, that is certainly the hope. I think the liquid rule to me is far more disruptive. You know, taking your shoes off is an annoyance, but you can still bring your shoes with you. The 3 ounces of liquid is a real challenge for some people. You end up having to check a bag, or you have to find small containers for shampoo or whatever it may be.
And so, you know, the technology is there. They’re slowly rolling that out for the machines that screen your bags when you go through security. It's not everywhere yet, but it is there to be able to detect any potential threats with liquids as well. So how long that will take to get fully rolled out? I suppose that's up to Congress and how quickly they want to fund the effort.
BRODIE: Right. What have the conversations been in sort of the world of travel, the world of aviation, about this policy change? Like, what are people saying about it?
SNYDER: It's funny because normally I think you'll hear some people on one side, some people on the other side. Everyone I've spoken with, it seems to be more just relief. Like, “finally we're doing this.” That's what it seems like because it never really made a ton of sense anyway. You already have all the people with TSA PreCheck that have been doing this and going through it with their shoes on.
And so, you know, this just felt like one thing that wasn't necessary that they could take away from the process to make it easier for travelers. Of course, you may still have to take your shoes off in secondary screening or anything like that, but yeah, for everyone else, they should speed things up and just make it easier.
BRODIE: Has this led to shorter security lines? Are people getting through TSA more quickly? I know this is just a week or so since they announced this, but has it led to shorter lines already?
SNYDER: I actually don't know the answer to that. I would think that it would, in the sense that we've all been in that line where you're waiting and the person in front of you didn't take their shoes off, and then they hold up the line and all that happens. But it also will make it easier for everyone when you get on that other side. And people have to put their shoes back on.
BRODIE: Yeah.
SNYDER: You know, find a bench and do all this. It'll just help get people out of the area quicker and make it easier for everyone, regardless of speed. But it should help in every way.
BRODIE: It kind of speaks to the balance, right, between security and I guess, ease of transport and convenience, right? Like you want to make sure that you are legitimately screening people going through TSA. You don't want anything dangerous getting on the plane. But at the same time, when people are fumbling, as you say, for their shoes or trying to put their belts back on or get everything and shove it back in their bags, it does hold things up and slow things down a bit.
SNYDER: Yeah, that's right. And it is something that I think has had a real impact on travelers. You know, we've seen right after 911, you know, we're approaching 25 years now since that – it's 24 years this year. There was this reaction of, “oh, no, our security was completely inadequate. Let's do all the things.”
And so, you know, individual pieces started being lobbed on top of each other. You had the shoes, you had the liquid rules, you had ever-changing rules. And it was something that really made it hard for travelers to understand. How early do I need to get to the airport? How do I pack? It was a hugely stressful thing.
And we saw short haul travel actually decline because people found that it was easier to drive for some shorter flights and use alternate ways of doing it. And so anything that can be done here to really weigh the risk of actual security threats with the inconvenience for travelers could have an impact on people's travel habits.
