When I am reading about "sobriety checkpoints", "drivers' licenses", or other statist nonsense, I notice some person always makes the comment that "driving is a privilege, not a right". What utter balderdash.
If the right to travel freely is not really a right, then there are no rights. And don't say that you can walk wherever you wish to go, but to drive a car you need government permission. If cars were a recent invention, and were not so necessary to integrate yourself into modern life, that might hold water. But that hasn't been true for many decades. Nope, operating your car without asking permission from anyone is a right. Neither can you claim that because the state has a monopoly on road ownership, that they can set the rules for travelling on their roads. If they didn't maintain that monopoly with coercion and theft, that might be true. Aggressors are not allowed to set the rules in a free society.
That doesn't mean that owning a car is a right. Just like the right to own and to carry firearms, no one is obligated to give you a car. However, if you can afford to buy one and fuel it, no control-freak has the authority to stand in your way. Get the coercion out of the equation and cars would be affordable enough for anyone, and fuel cost wouldn't be an issue.
If you own a car, or are loaned one for your use, using it to travel wherever you want to go, as long as you are not trespassing or harming innocent people or their property, is an absolute human right not subject to regulation by the state. Anyone who doesn't understand that is simply trying to give the state power over your life.
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Added: Eric Sundwall posted this excellent link on my Haloscan comments: http://www.voluntaryist.com/articles/119a.php
I recommend you read it.
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