Road to Moscow

Under the blazing Greek sun, near the temples of Hera and Zeus, the Olympic torch was lit last week. For the next month, 4,820 runners--one for each kilometer of the route via Bulgaria and Rumania--will carry the flame to the newly refurbished Lenin Stadium on the Moscow River. When the torch gets there, the path should be clear. Moscow police are seeing to that, with zealous traffic control in preparation for the Games. Their strategy has totalitarian simplicity: no drivers, no traffic. Although Moscow motorists usually cruise at about 50 m.p.h., police have begun stopping cars going over the legal 37 m.p.h. limit.

Even if a driver is obeying the speed limit, he still has worries. Many policemen have started to make impromptu safety inspections. Punishment for violations is swift:

the offending car is stripped of its license plates on the spot. A cracked brake light, a worn-out windshield wiper, a dented bumper--any of these can take a car off the road. Plates can be, and often are, lost because a car is dirty.

The antitraffic offensive has had the desired effect. Motorists are thinking twice before venturing out on the highways, since each trip behind the wheel is a motorist's version of Russian roulette. Still, the police may have been needlessly thorough. With the U.S. and perhaps as many as 50 other nations bypassing the Moscow Games, a lot of traffic removal will have taken care of itself.

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