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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...

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

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.
arethuza
I've seen various members of the Royal Family in cars round Edinburgh and was always surprised at how low key the security was - usually a Jag with the VIP and a trailing black Range Rover.
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.
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.
gnud
Well, driverless cars will have to deal with unauthorized humans doing all sorts of weird stuff in traffic.

I think this is a smaller problem.

DanBC
These will be authorised humans, and thus will probably have some kind of (hopefully cryptographicly protected) id to tell the cars that this is an instruction it probably wants to obey.
pessimizer
So they will take OTA instructions through a backdoor?
nickff
More like a front door; one of the biggest problems with backdoors is that they are not supposed to allow the 'owner' to know what is going on.
bryondowd
Actually, I would think that handling unauthorized humans would be the smaller problem, similar to animals and other obstacles. Stop or maneuver as needed to avoid a collision, then you can try dealing with it, but always have the short term option of just staying put while things sort themselves out. In the case of a human authorized to give orders, you can't just sit still when the situation isn't understood, because you may be being ordered to move out of the way.
vastinfest
Would one simply stop if one were to encounter a intersection that has flesh-and-bones policeman directing traffic (like 'hey there's a meatbag on the road better stop')?
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.
knz
My wife had an ambulance ride with a police escort once. A 20 minute drive turned into about 8 minutes. Minutes and seconds saved can make a difference sometimes.
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.

sandworm101
In the case of one taylor swift concert last year, it was also fireworks night. The streets were packed before she ended. Stars can do what they want. Most leave asap, but i have heard of some overnighting at tge venue, or traveling to the next show with the crew. Helicopters are also an option, ussualy after the parking lot empties.
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?
sandworm101
World leaders. Public officials. People whose kidnap or assassination could destabilize nations. Not private citizens going to and from civilian work. Im in vancouver. If every a-lister in town to film a movie was escorted nobody else would ever get to work.
91bananas
She is easily classified as non-private.
sandworm101
Unless she is elected to or employed by government, she is a private citizen. It isnt about fame. Every buck private in the army is a public employee. Every movie star is in the private sector.
Humdeee
That's all very interesting, but before and after a concert, sporting event, big talk, etc., it makes no sense to not have protection to ensure so that the main attraction can perform once again. Them "going to and from work" is not the same as you taking your Ford Windstar to Initech after you drop off your kids at daycare.

Let me ask you something. Why do you insure your home? It's dispensable, and surely not as important as the World Trade Center, so why do you even bother? Because it's important to you, that's why. These high-status people, although meaningless to you as you sit at your keyboard in the presence of your monitor glow, are important to many people. Businesses, brands, even separate industries entirely all have a stake. Why wouldn't they protect that when their person or team of interest is minutes to hours after they've been in the spotlight? Co mon here...

These escorts are necessary and many, many people have collaborated for a reason to have them. What if someone stood up and suggested them unnecessary and a useless cost? Would they receive a large bonus from the money everyone will save? Or would they be laughed out of the room followed by a letter to clean out their desk by the end of the day?

If that causes downtown Vancouver traffic to be marginally slower from 6:00pm to 6:10pm and 9:00pm to 9:10pm on event night, sorry, you're off to the side shaking your fist.

Reserving it for the very top of human existence (and frankly, only of political interest) and anything under as unworthy and a waste of resources is... I have no words.

amalag
The Indian and Japanese versions were the same, but in India they pretended to have a motorcade.
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.
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/.
davidw
Pordonone should be Pordenone. Interesting read, in any case.