Do not enter. One way. No left turn. No U-turn.
Without any hyperbole, I can confidently say that every single time I hop into my car, I watch another driver violate one or more of these laws, and get away with it scot-free. I ask myself if I could get away with it, and convince myself that I would be the one who gets caught for attempting such blatant disregard for posted laws. And before I can decide to be a rebel and break the seemingly-inconsequential of inconsequential laws, I’m already headed in the correct, legal direction instead.
Even in Midtown, near where I work, where it’s a veritable maze of detours, where arriving at point B, a block away from point A requires four blocks of driving to circle around closed streets, using detours and congested paths rampant with stupid Georgia Tech students, I opt to take the legal route, because I like to believe that I’m somewhat of a paragon. Meanwhile, I pull into the parking lot only to witness numerous cars ignore the signs that state DO NOT ENTER and DETOUR and come the route they want to use, and get away with it without any reprimand.
High-occupancy vehicles only. No texting while driving. No jaywalking.
More laws that go completely ignored and unpunished on a regular basis. Also on a regular basis is my attempts to earn privilege into HOV lanes, by carpooling with my housemate or my girlfriend, only to watch single-occupant assholes cut me off to get into the HOV lane, only to cruise past the nightmarish congestion Atlanta deals with on a daily basis; and get away with it.
The greatest feeling in any morning, are the very rare and sparse instances where the City of Atlanta Department of Public Safety has sent cars out, and one out of a hundred violators is actually caught. But the frequency in which that actually happens is so minimal, that violators have zero fear or concern of risk of doing it on a regular basis. I’ve gotten to the point where I recognize vanity plates of repeat offenders, and they get away with it every single morning.
Adding to the list of things that I witness on a regular basis, is the veering car, the car slowing down irrationally, the car lazily swaying into the adjacent lane, the car standing still at the green light, or any or all of a combination of above. Because they’re on their fucking cell phones, reading twitter, composing text messages, or engaged on social media when they should be paying attention to the road. All across the city are signs and billboards stating the illegality of phone use while driving, but without absolutely any enforcement happening anywhere, nobody cares, and far too many people violate without repercussion.
Limit 10 items or less.
This sounds so trite, but I happen to value my time tremendously. Besides, it’s the principles of it, not to mention those who violate either look like assholes for disregarding a requested rule and/or plain fucking stupid for their inability to count items.
Every time I go into an express lane, hoping for an actual express transaction and express route to my car, and I see some asshole with a cart with 13 items, I hate them. I hate the cashier that lets it slide, and I hate the store’s system for not automatically cutting off the transaction at ten items. My time, my precious time is now being compromised, and I’m left with a feeling of dissatisfaction with the world that can’t seem to follow simple rules, and the sheer lack of any regulation of them.
No smoking.
Chalk this up to the list of things that I see every single (work) day without hyperbole. Placards are all over the building, the support beams, and the walls adjacent to the parking deck walkway. In spite of the repeated symbolism of the rule that smoking is prohibited in said areas, it doesn’t stop people from lighting up their obnoxious and stinky cancer sticks, and polluting the air for those around them. Naturally, they get away with this on a regular basis, and the building workers sit idly inside, without reprimanding them or pointing them in the direction of where they can actually smoke.
So I ask, what ARE the point of having rules?
Nobody respects them because nobody enforces them, so why bother having them in the first place? There’s no merit to those that adhere to them, and there’s no repercussion to those who defy them. Yet, there’s plenty of merit to those that defy that those who adhere do not get.
People who break moving laws get from point A to point B quicker and more expedient than those who follow them.
People who ignore item limits get their transactions finished faster than those with 11 or more items in the standard lanes do, waiting behind the other people with 11+ items.
People who jaywalk shorten their walking efforts by however much percent, by crossing where they want instead of seeking out a crosswalk to legally cross a road.
People who smoke wherever they want enjoy the luxury of smoking wherever they want, while those who wish to breathe clean air suffer the inconsiderate behavior of others.
Basically what I think is that it boils down to the fact that society as a whole right now, is so afraid of confrontation, that in spite of the fact that there are rules and laws all over the place, because people don’t want to confront other people, everything is basically allowed to let slide.
I can’t say I blame everyone, because the world is so riddled with weapon-carrying psychopaths, that getting in someone’s face for jaywalking probably has way too high of a chance of turning violent, and aside from avoiding confrontation, avoiding violence is vastly more paramount.
That, and in the more “law” related realm, there’s always debates about how police is understaffed and/or Obama has lost the favor of the police, and/or because society hates police or something or other that lead to police presence being near invisible.
Why have rules when nobody enforces them?
One of my fantasies is that a degree of vigilanteism would be allowed, and common people could take it upon themselves to enforce the “lesser” rules and laws of the world, especially since nobody else is apparently willing to do such.
Granted, this would apply to myself, and the fact of the matter is that I’m not a very intimidating individual, and confronting people on infractions of laws would probably go awry if the majority of people I confront would want to confront me back.
Basically, the fantasy would have to involve me being Superman, so that even when a confrontation goes sour, fists, knives, bullets, and any other sort of physical harm would be incapable of stopping me from enforcing the rules.
Basically, I’d want to be the Superman that didn’t fight amongst the Justice League and save the galaxy from destruction, I’d want to be the Superman that just busted all the ticky-tack rules of the world that everyone seems so content to get away with violating on a regular basis.
