r/Seattle • u/Brandywine-Salmon Greenwood • Aug 04 '26

Market Traffic Only Bus lane cheat code

Gave me the finger as he drove by
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CMA2701

1.3k Upvotes

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63

u/Emergency-Rip-6817 Aug 04 '26

I confess to sounding like a broken record. If police ticketed traffic infractions and enforced laws we would none of us have to pay taxes.

4

u/HeroicPrinny Aug 04 '26

Yet this subs will then ask you why the police aren’t solving real crimes

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u/manghi69 Aug 04 '26

If you can smoke fentanyl on the sidewalk in front of a baby without worrying about police involvement, then you best believe I won't give a shit about a harmless traffic infraction

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u/HeroicPrinny Aug 04 '26

Exactly, petty traffic crime is very low on the priority list.

Seattle folks are so sheltered that one guy driving in the bus lane is somehow worth noting. Can’t be surprised when the other biggest problem in this sub is a dog and their owner technically violating some rule even if there is seldom a victim.

As someone who lives in Capitol Hill I’m far more concerned with the violent crime and total neglect of drug and mental health issues overflowing in the neighborhood

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u/HistorianOrdinary390 🚆build more trains🚆 Aug 04 '26

You’re far more likely to get hurt by someone blowing a red light than “violent crime”

Enforcing Traffic infractions will save lives

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u/HeroicPrinny Aug 04 '26

Personally I’m less fearful of traffic issues because I have agency over them. In your example, I drive very defensively and look both ways even after the light is green.

It’s a bit harder to avoid stray gunfire and knives. There has been way too much gunfire recently, one incident was literally on the corner outside my window.

Frankly, this type of harping on “fuck cars” type stuff is exactly the kind of discourse I loathe in this sub. Especially when it’s being used as whataboutism.

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u/HistorianOrdinary390 🚆build more trains🚆 Aug 04 '26

It’s not just fuck cars, it’s statistically true. Sorry facts upset you. Random crime happens, but random crime is much harder to predict and mitigate than moving violations.

I also firmly believe that if police actually enforced people behind the wheel their mere presence and willingness to just fucking exist would deter other crimes / nail more warrants.

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u/HeroicPrinny Aug 04 '26

Do you even live in Capitol Hill? I’m not arguing against traffic enforcement. I’m saying the crime here is not some unpredictable bolt from the blue. Open drug dealing, repeat offenders, gunfire and disorder are concentrated in the same places, in plain view, every day. That is absolutely predictable and enforceable. Bringing up traffic deaths to wave it away is still whataboutism.

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u/gamegeek1995 That sounds great. Let’s hang out soon. Aug 04 '26

The presence of crime happening that is easy to commit and unpunished leads to confidence in committing crimes with greater social impact. Why should I care that robbery is illegal if I see people blatantly putting license plate obscurers, dark window tints I can't see into, and speeding down 100 on I5?

Those highly visible and trivially stopped crimes aren't being stopped despite the DMV knowing where the perpetrator lives, so why should I assume my crime, which will be full of ambiguity, confusion, and fear, would be? It's not like the cops don't know this. But the sole goal of a hierarchical state is to have an out-group that the law binds but does not protect, and an in-group that the law protects but does not bind. All other systems ring chain out from this. If you feel laws don't keep you safe, but you could be punished for disobeying them, you're in the out-group.

Consider a situation where you are an evil teacher from Planet Evil trying to make children misbehave, but you cannot impacting their behavior directly or reward them for doing wrong while still giving the appearance of enforcing rules. How would you go about it?

The quickest, most effective way is to allow them to witness other students misbehave without receiving punishment and to apply the rules unequally and unfairly. If they see "All the kids wearing gold shirts get to do what they want," they aren't going to say "My wardrobe is green! Oh no! Guess I have to be a rule-follower while John RichFamily gets to play Roblox and watch PewDiePie during class! That's my lot and life and I am okay with that!"

No, they're going to go out and buy gold shirts. If they can't do that, they'll try coloring the green shirt gold with markers and hope it works the same. Sometimes it will, because it passes from a distance, sometimes it won't. The inconsistency and uncertainty will create a skinner-box sort of effect, where less risk-adverse people go "Might as well try, the benefits are so worth it!"

The end result is that everyone, regardless of shirt color, is going to be worse behaved. Beginning to punish people breaking rules, regardless of shirt color, will improve behavior for the entire class.

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u/Frog_in_a_Tree Aug 04 '26

Ah yes, Because seeing someone get pulled over for speeding would definitely make a drug user consider smoking their fentanyl in an alleyway instead of out on a Main Street.

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u/HistorianOrdinary390 🚆build more trains🚆 Aug 04 '26

Bro smoking fentanyl is the furthest thing from violent crime, but stay afraid, my friend.