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Most Americans always carry their licenses because it is their
main form of identification, and is used for a number of things
such as cashing checks, opening bank accounts, and proving a
person's age when buying alcohol or entering a bar. The DMV can
also issue identification cards to nondrivers that look just like
driver's licenses but clearly show that the person is not allowed to
drive. Licenses have to be renewed periodically, every four to six
years.
Many states operate a penalty points system for traffic
offenses. Drivers who accumulate a certain number of points in a
year may have their licenses suspended, which is a fate worse than
death to the car-dependent American.

TRAIN TRAVEL

The United States has one of the largest railroad networks in
the world, yet it is used mostly for freight. The number of passen-
gers carried on those railroads is very low. Because distances are
so great, air travel has replaced train travel for most people. After
all, why travel for three days when you can fly across the country
in about six hours?
However, trains provide a comfortable and leisurely way to see
the country for passengers who have a lot of time or hate flying.
Long-distance railroads are operated by Amtrak, a company
formed in the early 1970s to take over and run all the dying
railroad companies around the country. The cheapest tickets on
trains are known as coach. Tickets for all types of transportation
are known as one way, for single tickets, and round trip, for return
tickets.
Train tickets should be bought before travelling; on longer
trips, you can't get on the train at all without a ticket and on
commuter trips, you usually have to pay a higher fare if you buy
the ticket from the conductor on board the train. (The person who
drives the train is an engineer.) Arriving and departing trains are
announced by track number, rather than by platform number,
although the area passengers stand on while waiting for a train is
still referred to as the platform. The compartments on a train that
passengers travel in are known as cars or coaches; for long trips,
you can book a berth in a sleeper.