From “Brickbats” (Reason, March 2006):
When the Olympics come to London in 2012, members of the “Olympic family,” including athletes, government officials, and corporate sponsors, will have special traffic lanes set aside for their use. Ordinary drivers will be herded into the remaining lanes, and those who attempt to drive above their station will face 5000 (British Pounds) fines. That’s five times the maximum fine for most other traffic offenses and 33 times the fine for driving in a bus lane.
Pragmatic? A veiled measure of security? A perk for the important folk? Interesting questions, all.
Luckily, we’ll be receiving answers relatively soon after the event (provided London still stands, of course), from filmmaker Steven Spielberg, who has already announced an ambitious and sure-to-be controversial unnmamed project slated for Christmas, 2013—a project he says will “question whether or not those who receive permission to drive in the Chosen People’s lanes can be said to share a certain troubling moral and philosophical kinship with those are being forced to join the teeming masses in the occupied territories of the remaining thru-ways, a situation that leads, inexorably, to road rage and political calls for territories of their very own.”
Ahhhhh, I paid bigger fines than that for running a stop light in Pittsburgh,…… and carrying a gun.
How was I supposed to know that the hooker was holding coke?
Big misunderstanding really…..
A four-stroke-combustion cycle of -um -violence?
Twice today I’ve tried to comment but it disappeared. Sorry if I double-post on two threads.
Pragmatic? A veiled measure of security? A perk for the important folk? Interesting questions, all.
I would say that’s another sign of the idea that America is full of the people who left Europe because they didn’t feel that anybody was their better.
This fairly screams of “Clear the way! Here comes the Lord of the Castle! Now tug your forelock or feel the lash!”
Olympics in London 2012? Bring your Kevlar.
This situation sounds like the measures LA took to control traffic. Have you driven in London? It’s worse than Manhattan. Businesses in LA closed down for the duration; I don’t know if that’s possible in metro London. You have to do something and this sounds okay to me.