On Pole Position

I've blogged before about street racing, so I thought I'd pass along this neat story from today's New York Times. It's about how the city of Lodz in Poland has become a beacon of the Polish automotive boom by setting up sanctioned, legalized, and safe street drag races:

As a result, municipal leaders in Lodz (pronounced 'Woodge'), deciding that if you can’t beat them, organize them, set up events in which proud car owners, overwhelmingly young and largely male, could challenge one another head to head over a quarter-mile of closed road downtown. The city government even spent close to $20,000 to buy timing equipment, with the local emergency services providing fire trucks and ambulances free of charge.

On a recent Sunday afternoon, thousands of people turned out to watch the organized races, called Street Legal, with the earsplitting roars of tuned-up engines and the brimstone scent of speeding tires. The monthly events, which are open only to local residents, have made Lodz’s racers the envy of others in Poland and earned the city the unofficial title of the country’s street-racing capital.

I don't necessarily advocate cities spending money to sanction races - private groups are perfectly able to do that. But the Lodz experience shows that the best way to deal with street races is to channel their need for speed into constructive events.

As for the Poles, membership in the European Union has created the economic atmosphere conducive to a car culture and a national hero in Canadian GP winner Robert Kubica to rally behind. Good for them!