The Art of the Motorcade

[jamessb]

>British police do not push through congestion with parping, wailing sirens. Instead they somehow unzip it, opening and closing a rolling, convoy-sized gap in the traffic. The clever work is performed by a swarm of police motorcycles, which zoom ahead, blue lights flashing, to halt traffic at the next two or three junctions. Sometimes they create temporary chicanes so that the convoy can cross to the wrong side of the road for a few hundred yards. (Passing through north London, I felt British pride as pedestrians asked motorcycle officers just who we thought we were – a wholly reasonable question. I felt a stab of embarrassment as we hit the M11 motorway and headed at speed up the hard shoulder, leaving stationary commuters to fume in our wake.) In the absence of sirens the loudest noise is the buzz of motorcycles catching back up with the convoy then overtaking it at speed, on their way to close off new junctions ahead.

There's an interesting short documentary about the Metropolitan Police Special Escort Group: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5TkSE_5GsE

[bryondowd]

This sort of makes me wonder about how driverless cars could be designed to handle this sort of situation. Or any situation where an authorized human is temporarily modifying traffic rules using gestures and verbal communication. Especially in edge cases where they might be giving non-trivial instructions to individual cars.

[jgrahamc]

Living in London I've seen this many times for VIPs of the Royal Family and it's quite something to watch. The description of the Met unzipping traffic and then closing it up again is accurate.

[jagot]

This is a video I took of Obama's (empty) motorcade passing through Walthamstow in North East London on it's way to collect him at Stanstead Airport:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHXH2fEyUnc

[wildrhythms]

Police in the Netherlands use this exact same method. The Hague police have an entire YouTube channel dedicated to showing how they keep entire routes clear for an ambulance: https://www.youtube.com/user/TeamVerkeerDH/

[sfifs]

I'm guessing from the Delhi experience Mr. Carter doesn't quite figure high enough in the priority list for India or wasn't thought to be much at risk. Convoys arrangements of elected leaders tend to be more elaborate.

[sanjeetsuhag]

This is a great read. Going off a tangent to this, if anybody is looking for a breakdown of the US Presidential motorcade, Tyler Rogoway does a great job in this article :

http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/4518/the-fascinating-an...

[lostboys67]

There is a memoir of a Security Service (Mi5) operator Soldier Spy and he goes into how they where trained to drive when tailing people.

[21]

Cool video of the Japan prime minister motorcade merging into traffic - https://i.imgur.com/Fz11DuI.gifv

And a parody of motorcade abuse in an African country - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbDgJN-j-PM

[sandworm101]

I dont think anyone really debates the need for such escorts, the prez needs to get to the airport securely. But perhaps due to my locatuon ive witnessed many ridiculous uses.

Training. A good number of these police escorts are training senarios. Police need to train, but the use of force to detain members of the public during training is a step too far imho.

Some VIPs arent very vip in my book. After concerts downtown, in the traffic chaos, it is not unussual to see police escort performers to the airport or hotel. Taylor Swift doesnt qualify as vip imho.

Questionable destinations. Taking someone out to lunch doesnt need the police convoy. Send for take out. Dont block a bridge or manhandle me off my motorcycle just because a visiting vip feels like italian tonight. Let the food come to him.

[LanceH]

Football team entering Dallas on I35 had a police escort. Fortunately I was headed the other way. Without the escort it would just be a couple buses going the same speed as everyone else.

[joezydeco]

Do stars really hang around after a concert is over?

From documentaries I've seen, they're on the bus and on the road before the applause is over. All the meet-and-greet is done before the concert.

[Humdeee]

I'm not a big music person in general, but it's interesting you would mention one of the biggest celebrities in the past few years in pop music as someone who doesn't make your list. What is your criteria for those that do?

[kalleboo]

Motorcades also put on out an air of legitimacy, even when they're completely fake https://youtu.be/N3zKuLgH_l8

[DanBC]

Here's a Youtube video showing police motorcycle escort of an ambulance. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXTDnYIHQBE

It's interesting to see how much direction they need to give to drivers - "Don't slow down here, keep driving"; "stop there until we've gone through".

[sandworm101]

Do ambulances and fire trucks need police escorts? I would think it could do more harm than good. I've driven through several red lights to give way, but if there was a cop in sight i'd probably hesitate. Seeing a cop, but perhaps not the ambulance, would trigger drivers to pull over thinking they were getting a ticket. In my area ambulances and fire trucks have no issues. Everyone gives way, even when they dont have lights on.

[cafard]

Living and working in Washington, DC, I have thought for some years that a new administration brings in a increase in the number of motorcades, until the novelty wears off. I am fortunate to live within walking distance of work (extended: about three miles), and wouldn't be surprised to find myself walking home more this spring.

[flavor8]

Rumour has it that Trump's planning to spend significant time in NYC, so it may turn out that there won't be as many as you fear. Trump Tower is being reglazed with bullet proof glass.

[amalag]

The Indian and Japanese versions were the same, but in India they pretended to have a motorcade.

[davidw]

Pordonone should be Pordenone. Interesting read, in any case.

[irrational]

This is not the kind of escort I thought I would be reading about.

[dang]

That was clearly a bit of cheekiness by the Economist that doesn't translate particularly well to the front page here, so we did a s/escort/motorcade/.