On Friday afternoon, Mayor Bill de Blasio irritated New York City’s political reporters by walking out of a press conference without answering questions about his chauffeur’s infamous Thursday speeding incident. If his exit was an attempt to make the story away, he failed: Capital New York spoke to some former De Blasio aides who claim that the mayor’s clean driving record is just a lucky break. According to those people — none of whom would speak on record — De Blasio is “an awful driver” with “some of the worst road rage I’ve ever seen, seriously.” They also said that he was a backseat driver who would “direct staff driving him to drive fast.” (Given the mayor’s tendency toward lateness, these revelations aren’t exactly surprising.) Of course, Capital’s report doesn’t prove that De Blasio ordered anyone to blow through any stop signs this week, but it does seem to add yet another tortured layer to his effort to improve the city’s traffic safety, if nothing else.
