Ambitious Schedule Puts Fenty at Odds With Traffic

Sirens wail in the night. Emergency lights strobe red and blue through the windows as a Lincoln Navigator and Ford Crown Victoria rush through a red light in Northwest Washington, the cars ahead of them slowing, pulling to the curb. The big black vehicles speed past, straddling the solid yellow center lines, a mile or so from the White House.

Are they outriders for the president? Is he headed this way?

Is it the vice president? The king of Siam?

It's Mayor Adrian M. Fenty. And he's late for a citizens meeting near Anacostia.

At the moment, he should be standing before a police advisory council meeting in Ward 8, facing the packed pews of Faith Tabernacle of Prayer. But he and his police security detail are still more than eight miles away, barreling down 16th Street NW.

Thus the sirens and flashing lights.

Since taking office Jan. 2, the District's triathlete mayor has been determined to show up at as many community meetings as possible, and he won't let traffic get in the way. Crisscrossing the city to churches and neighborhood halls, schools and recreation centers, Fenty's entourage uses the sirens and lights to cut his travel time, running red lights and often exceeding speed limits, a practice that other big-city mayors say they try to avoid.

On a recent Monday night, standing outside a meeting of the Crestwood Neighborhood League in Northwest Washington, where he arrived with lights and sirens on, Fenty said he uses the emergency equipment "on a case-by-case basis." The D.C. police officers in his security detail, including the driver of the Navigator in which Fenty rides, use lights and sirens "so I can get from one place to the next in a timely manner," the mayor said.

Overhearing the mayor, Crestwood resident John Lewis said he was pleased that Fenty makes community events a priority. "It's his home ward," Lewis said. "I hope he gets to our meetings on time."

A Washington Post reporter observed Fenty traveling throughout the city several times in recent days, including to his appearance at Verizon Center for a women's health event.

As the Navigator waited on Seventh Street NW and Fenty roamed the exhibits, two Crown Victorias, their emergency lights flashing, drove fast along the street and parked behind the Lincoln. Fenty's wife, Michelle Cross Fenty, emerged from one of the cars and quickly made her way into the arena.

The mayor and his security detail departed minutes later, sirens blaring and lights flashing. They sped through a red light and made an illegal left turn onto H Street NW, as Fenty hurried to get to a luncheon awards ceremony at the Madison hotel a few miles away.