7.07.2005

A moment of silence

I had a few rants in mind for today, but they all seem insignificant following the mass transit bombings in London. While I will continue to go about life as normal, I don't think it is right of me to post about Boston drivers today.

Early readers of this weblog might recall that I went, with Mrs. Boston Crazy Driving, to London this past April. It was a pleasure trip to see a new place. We fell in love with the city. It wasn't very well-planned compared to the grid designs of New York City and the U.S. Midwest, but it was very clean and well taken care of. Also, our primary mode of transportation was the subway, which the Londoners call the Tube. It far outpaces the Boston subway system in cleanliness, ease of use and functionality.

It's hard to believe that something like this could have happened. There were transit police and very friendly transit workers in most of the stations we used. The ones with the highest volume of passengers were well traveled by transit officials; in the substation and on the platforms. Despite warnings of pickpockets, we felt very safe at all hours.

What's more, for the first time since the days after Sept. 11, 2001 have I felt worried about my safety. I was driving home through the 93 tunnel sitting in traffic and the thought that came to mind was: This would be an ideal target. There were no police in the tunnel, but one state trooper was parked near the tunnel exit. He fell in behind me and shortly exited at Mass. Ave. In general, I don't believe there is an immediate threat, but I would have liked to have seen more police during a heightened security level.

My condolences to the people of Britain. Their jubilation over winning the 2012 Olympics yesterday has been supplanted by mourning their brethren. I hope this is the end of it, but I fear it is just the beginning.

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