I got a lot of email yesterday reacting to my FaceTime video decrying, specifically, people who make left turns at corners where signs clearly say “right turn only.” Though Sansolo called me yesterday to point out that I’ve turned into an old man standing on street corners yelling at cars, I thought the point was a good one – small violations like these lead to the unraveling of society.
One MNB reader wrote:
I totally agree with you. In my neighborhood we have many 4-way stop signs. No one stops anymore they just roll through. Same applies to right turns on red or at stop signs, I guess you don’t have to stop at those anymore either! Nothing causes more irritation to me than these “Higher than mighty rule breakers”.
Another MNBv reader wrote:
I recently moved to Atlanta in 2018, which has one of the highest accident rates. Drivers here run red lights, pass on the left, don’t use turn signals, speed, cut in and out, etc. etc.
I ‘m hoping for more roadside cameras.
From another reader:
Guess I would have the same rant if I saw what you saw. But how do you expect people to follow the “small” rules when no one is held accountable for breaking the “big” rules. Recently, had a car of young men traversing our neighborhood at 4 am breaking into cars. The neighbor across the street had a visitor’s car window broken. As he was telling me the story he mentioned his son’s work as a State Patrol officer. He said when his son arrests thieves, vandals, and the like, they are basically laughing in the back seat as he takes them to jail. They know within hours they will be released, with little to no consequences. “What are we teaching?”, is a good question.
We’ve had the same problem in our town and on our street – we’re not far from I-965, which makes for easy escapes. We’ve been told that the police only are allowed to go 75 MPH when giving chase, which means, I guess, that if you want to elude capture, you just have to drive 80 MPH.
From another reader:
You really got my blood pressure to rise with your rant today about “Right Turn Only.” Similar to this, I can’t believe how as a society red lights at intersections are disregarded by so many drivers. When I went to driving school, many, many years ago, we were taught green means go, yellow meant to stop if safe to do so otherwise proceed with extreme caution, and red meant stop. That is a complete stop do not enter the intersection. Today I observe a total disregard to the red light that often leads to a just miss or an actual accident. Common drivers, truck drivers, even school buses filled with children I observe blatantly running red lights. I worry about what the future will be when as a society we can’t follow simple rules that exist for our safety and protection.
MNB reader Joe Axford wrote:
Great rant KC, I couldn’t agree more! I see this behavior daily driving to work. People blowing through lights, rolling “stops” at stop signs, tailgating, speeding – if you’re going the speed limit it’s like you’re standing still out there! By the time I get to work I’m stressed out! What happened to rule of law? Since Covid it seems as if it’s gone away…
MNB reader Gail Ginther noticed one thing:
I noticed that as you talked, cars coming along Rt 1 seemed to be letting the people turning on to the road into the line of traffic on a regular basis. Almost every time a car pulled up to the stop, the oncoming traffic let them in. If that’s normal behavior, you’ve got a fine community.
Another MNB reader noticed something else:
Couldn’t help but see the equally ironic cars that rolled through the stop sign around the one minute mark of your video. To me, that is also the issue. People make a moral judgement what rules or laws are acceptable to follow or not follow.
I didn’t see this one coming:
It would be interesting to know why the sign is there in the first place?
Obviously to me wrecks have occurred and someone in the position to make decisions said “were changing this”. But I also wonder if that someone took this to a vote? Not a vote of citizens. A vote of experts internally that know about why?
I’m sure you can go two blocks north or south and there is no signs.
I’m not sure what the process was, but it is a place where the sign makes common sense. (It prevents accidents, but also, ideally, prevents morons from pulling out into the street and blocking traffic from going south while trying to get into the lane going north. Which they often do anyway.) There are other places within blocks in either direction, where you can make left turns – but those corners have traffic lights.
In our story yesterday about the Target in downtown Portland, Oregon, closing because of crime, I wrote:
The Portland location is particularly interesting to me, since it is a city I know pretty well. If I’m not mistaken, that store only has been open for about a decade, and it was a matter of local pride when it opened its doors (hiring a bunch of folks who were students at Portland State University).
But it also is across the street from a brand new Ritz Carlton Hotel, which would appear to be opening in the wrong neighborhood at the wrong time.
Prompting one MNB reader to write:
You don’t think crooks stay at the Ritz Carlton?
Not the crooks stealing from Target.
Alexander Mundy probably stays there. But he’s not stealing from Target.
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