Senator Patrick Leahy was an hour and 40 minutes late for a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing yesterday and when he finally arrived, he took the opportunity to rant about driving in the District of Columbia:
“We go through a city that will spend millions of dollars and enforce parking meters and get fines, and pay for speed cameras which mainly make out of town companies rich, and so on,” Leahy said after arriving at a hearing about 10 minutes late. “But they can’t coordinate their street lights when their street lights are broken.”
Leahy, while pouring himself water on the dais of the Senate Judiciary Committee, observed that “the main thoroughfares have a green light that will go on for one second and go 10 minutes red.”
That prompted Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) to joke: “Aren’t you sure the problem probably is that they purposely don’t coordinate?”
“I know the street lights are coordinated,” Leahy responded. “They seem not to be coordinated to the benefit of either pedestrians or drivers, so I’m not sure. Maybe there’s some other reason.”
Senator, perhaps you need to consult OTB’s guide to driving in the District of Columbia.
