19th
traffic blog
Two days ago during rush hour, at the corner of Sretenka and the boulevard, near the Krupskaya monument, the southbound and northbound traffic light turned red and stayed red. The radial traffic up Sretenka—meaning, outbound from the Kremlin—got a permanent green. On the northbound half of the street, a traffic cop waved people through the red. But there was no analogous cop for the southbound traffic; all they had was their red. They started honking. And honking. Eventually the traffic cop came over from the other side of the street, angrily; a woman in one of the cars waved to him to let traffic through. Instead he shook his traffic baton at her and said, “I’ll show you how to wave! I’ll wave too! You’ll see!” That is to say, he was going to hit her with the baton.
The woman rolled up her window. A few minutes later, three government cars sped quickly through the green light. Why’s everyone always complaining about the traffic? they must have thought. What a bunch of complainers. We should get an extra prize for having to govern these people. A government prize.
