Oh, our benevolent dictator is so, so, benevolent that after hours of discussion, he allowed the commuters of DC to use their (tax-payer funded) HOV (High Occupancy Vehicle) lanes. Whoo hooo.
Bush gets DC out of a jam Before President Bush attended a Wednesday evening fundraiser for Sen. George Allen (R-Va.) of “Macaca” fame in a Washington D.C. suburb, the Secret Service had asked Virginia authorities to shut down “high occupancy vehicle” or HOV lanes so they could be used for the presidential motorcade to get to and from the fundraiser at the home of Ed Gillespie, former chairman of the Republican National Committee.Virginia officials pointed out that if they closed the HOV lanes for seven hours as would be required since you just can't easily close them and reopen them for the president's drive down, then do the same for the president's return drive, the travels of tens of thousands of people would be affected.
Such a nice King we have. Article semi-lifted from the Washington Post
On Tuesday, the Secret Service asked Virginia officials if they would be kind enough to shut down all of the HOV lanes on I-395 from 1 to 7 p.m. the next day so President Bush could get where he needed to be, according to state officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of discussing the president's travel.The request was made ahead of a fundraiser for Sen. George Allen (R) held at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday at a house near Mount Vernon -- a good hour's drive from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. during a typical rush hour.
..
All day because they couldn't shake the image of what closing the HOV lanes would do: Buses that normally use the high-speed lanes would have to be rerouted or canceled; commuters who hitch rides in carpools would be stranded; and thousands of cars would be added to the congested regular lanes of I-395.An e-mail prepared by state experts who monitor traffic captures the issue:
“There will be approximately 8,600 cars using the HOV lanes over a three hour period (4 to 7 pm). This equates to approximately 20,000 to 22,000 people. If the HOV lanes are closed, according to the District's estimate the back up of traffic in the general purpose lanes will not be cleared until 10 p.m.”
In other words, a nearly endless traffic jam.
Tags: Impeachment, /Worst_President
