Big Brother Is Leading You

For California's motorists heading east to Las Vegas, the gambling often began at San Bernardino, where a 225-mile superhighway starts across the Mojave Desert. The speed limit is 55 m.p.h., but so many drivers chanced dodging the California highway patrol that on holiday weekends an average of 450 persons ended up losers with traffic tickets.

On one recent weekend, the desperate highway patrol put in a new system that was reminiscent of an oldtime cattle drive. During the peak travel hours, 45 "pace cars," each with a large sign reading "It's 55" bolted to its roof, straddled traffic lanes on an assigned section of the highways. The patrol cars drove at a steady speed of 55 m.p.h., forcing cars to stay in line behind them. One patrolman would escort a caravan for a distance and then turn the cars over to the next officer

The strategy was an enormous success. Only 79 drivers were so frantic to get to Las Vegas that they took the chance of making a run for it. Spotted by an airplane and a helicopter hovering overhead, they were soon ticketed by other patrol cars lurking on access roads. Normally, a dozen accidents take place on a big weekend, but only one occurred during the experiment: a drunk mistook a drainage ditch for an exit ramp.

Word of the plan's success spread so fast that 25 states, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and transportation men from Canada, France and England have already called to request details about California's caravans. "I'm really pleased this idea works," says Highway Patrol Inspector Walter Pudinsky, who thought up the new scheme. "We're all sick and tired of arresting people."

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