Truckers And Fellow Travellers Launch ‘People's Convoy' Go-Slow Round US Capital

A long line of huge trucks, recreational vehicles and cars was circling the US capital yesterday, in preparation for what their drivers have pledged will be a week of traffic disruption aligned around a loose collection of demands, including the end to all coronavirus -related restrictions.

- Edward Helmore

From its temporary base at a speedway racing site in Hagerstown, 80 miles north-west in Maryland , organisers of what they call the “people’s convoy” of about 1,000 vehicles have said they plan to start the working week by driving slowly around Washington DC on the already notoriously-congested Beltway ring road at the minimum legal speed, in an attempt to get their message across to national politicians.

The convoy, a spin-off of trucker protests that have snarled up Ottawa and disrupted Canadian transport arteries to the US, began assembling in California last week. As it has made its way east, it has picked up mobile, ideologically-aligned, fellow-travellers along the way.

But America is already rapidly releasing its citizens from a patchwork of pandemic restrictions and Covid mandates, as the most recent surge of infections subsides in many states , prompting the organisers to adapt their demands to a more free ranging basket of aspirations.

Some participants said the destination was reason enough to make the trek. On Friday night, a man who described himself as the lead trucker told a cheering crowd he would drive into the heart of the American capital.