Lookout: a garbage can!

I recently heard a Czech driver complain "if everything in this country worked like our tow away services we'd be 25 years ahead of Switzerland". I knew what he was talking about. On my way to work every morning I see the police in action - progressing steadily down the street, taking pictures of licence plates and then pointing out one vehicle after another to the tow away truck driver. Those who don't get towed away get the Canadian boot. Despite this, the next morning the no-parking area is full of parked cars again.

The traffic police are so zealous that they once put a Canadian boot on a model car that appeared on Wenceslas Square within an outdoor exhibition taking place there. Don't get me wrong. I'm not complaining. Although I know that it is almost impossible to park a car in the city centre I also what a tough job the traffic police have with Czech drivers. Speeding and drinking and driving are the main cause of road deaths and despite repeated warnings many Czech drivers continue to disregard traffic regulations and play cat and mouse with the police. They use their lights to warn those going in the opposite direction about radars and road checks ahead and there's a radio station for drivers which devotes itself to the same thing.

Although they still lack tougher legislation which would put off drivers breaking the rules, the police now seem determined to enforce discipline by the sheer force of their presence on the road. In recent months, one road safety operation has followed another, drivers are being monitored by secret cameras on busy Prague streets and the police are going to a great deal of trouble to mask their radar devices. Right now Czech drivers are extremely wary of garbage cans, since the police are known to have placed their monitoring devices in a dozen or so garbage cans around Prague. In the countryside you can come across a police radar in a tractor with a traffic policeman dressed up as a tractor driver.

Crazy as it may sound, this tactic does seem to be producing results. This weekend the new strategy will face a trial by fire since for the first time ever the international Gumball race will sweep through the country with no regard whatsoever to traffic regulations. So Gumball race drivers beware! All garbage cans and tractor drivers are on alert.