A friend of mine was riding his bicycle, albeit in the “wrong” direction, in a bike lane in the City a few weeks ago. He was stopped by a policeman for riding the wrong way and was asked for identification. Unfortunately, my friend didn't have any identification on him or in his bike pack.

One thing led to another -- although I have no reason to believe that my friend instigated anything -- and soon there were four police cars on the scene and he and his bike were thrown into cars and taken to the Police Station. He was put into a holding cell while they verified his identity. He is not sure how they finally checked that he was who is claimed to be, but after an hour-and-a-half he was given a ticket for riding his bike the wrong way and released.

He paid the ticket on line. (He then learned that the ticket carried three points on his driver’s license!)

I remember traveling to Brazil many, many years ago when the country was just coming out of years of military rule. I was with a Brazilian who panicked when he realized that he had forgotten his wallet and identification. He drove back home to get it. I remember thinking about how nice it was to have the freedom not to have to carry identification.