Driving while mayor De Blasio has to obey the traffic laws, just like everyone else

Stop signs aren’t optional.

Mayor de Blasio redefined the term limousine liberal Thursday as his chauffeur blew stop signs and exceeded the speed limit, just two days after the mayor announced that he would require New Yorkers to slow down and drive safely.

Never in memory has there been such an immediate and yawning gap between a mayor’s orders for the city and his enforcement of the rules as they apply to Hizzoner personally.

This would be hilarious were it not for the deadly seriousness of de Blasio’s stated goal of reducing traffic fatalities. Then, too, his driver’s blithe regard of the laws as de Blasio sat beside him strengthens the image of the mayor as one who picks and chooses the standards he and his friends will live by.

Go back to Tuesday and there de Blasio is, calling for reducing the general speed limit to 25 mph from 30 and promising a speeding crackdown. He points out that 70% of pedestrian deaths are the fault of drivers, most of whom were speeding or failed to yield.

“We want the public to know that we are holding ourselves to this standard,” de Blasio says.
Not really.

Come forward to Thursday and there’s de Blasio’s SUV going through two stop signs, going 40 to 45 mph in a 30 zone and 60 mph in a 45 zone, and failing to signal when changing lanes. All caught on tape by Channel 2 reporter Marcia Kramer.
As for accountability, de Blasio’s office shifted responsibility to the Police Department, presumably because a cop was driving. Brave guy.

For its part, the NYPD laughably claimed that de Blasio’s drivers get “specialized training in driving based on maintaining security as well as safety.” None of that applied in this case.

The episode follows hard on the heels of de Blasio’s phone call to the NYPD to inquire about the arrest of Bishop Orlando Findlayter, a supporter and inaugural committee member who had been arrested on outstanding warrants after being stopped for — it just had to be — failing to signal on a left turn.

Findlayter was released shortly after the mayor inquired. So much for the mayor’s pledge to make us one city, with one set of rules.
De Blasio is fond of claiming a mandate for his progressive policies. At this rate, it won’t last very long.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/driving-mayor-article-1.1621829#ixzz2twyhzosx