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Comment by pronlover723 | Hacker News Reader

It drives me crazy to see laws like this unenforced. An unenforced law is basically a law that is only used when someone power doesn't like you. It's something they keep in their back pocket to either have you pay them off or for them just to kick you out. They don't like company ABC, enforce the law just on ABC's trucks.

Sure there are some dumb laws, and they should remove them. But, if they have a law it should be enforced IMO.

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> Sure there are some dumb laws, and they should remove them. But, if they have a law it should be enforced IMO.

But the dumb laws aren't removed, so now what do we do? There aren't enough resources to enforce all the laws, it would require major tax increases, and it would stifle life in the city for no benefit. Why would we enforce them all? Humans are not robots; we can make intelligent decisions about what is needed in a situation.

The one that gets me the most is Keep Right Laws[0]. I've never been in a state (I've been in a lot) where these are enforced. There's small patches where people do this, but never more than a 50 mile stretch. It's simple: "If you aren't actively passing, stay out of the left/PASSING lane." I really do believe that people think being in the left lane makes you go faster. But these laws, if enforced, can dramatically reduce highway accidents.

[0] https://www.mit.edu/~jfc/right.html

Slow people in the left lane can easily make a calm and peaceful drive into a chaotic nightmare as people cut each other off trying to get around. Another bad one is when a big truck is passing a slow car but then the people behind the big truck won't let it move back into the right lane.

It is enforced in Germany. There is a culture which takes driving seriously.

I was highly contemplating adding a joke about the autoban to my comment. Didn't take long for someone to mention Germany lol. But even though it is enforced in Germany, it doesn't help that most people (including police) don't know that these laws are even on the books.

There's at least one other type of unenforced law: a law whose opponents were unable to block its passing, but were able to block funding for its enforcement agency or block appointment of a head of that agency.

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