I hear more and more people saying that the one thing that might make them want to leave Berlin is the way basic traffic rules and other rules about public spaces are studiously ignored, and that that fact is equally studiously ignored by whatever authority should be enforcing those laws, regulations and rules.

There is no traffic police, and the policemen tootling around in police cars obviously do not see it as their job to do anything about bikes and e-rollers on the pavements, often at breakneck speed – they observe, and drive on. People working in cemeteries observe and shrug when people race across the graveyards on bikes and e-rollers or walk their dogs there, often even unleashed.

And in parks, along canals and in all other public spaces, there is nobody around to remind people that dogs are required to be kept on the leash at all times. And I agree – it drives me crazy too, and it probably is the worst thing about Berlin – together with the number of human swine who throw garbage everywhere except in the bins.

This morning I went for a walk in Natur-Park Südgelände, where plenty of signs say dogs not allowed, and yet I saw two dogs there, unleashed.

Unbelievable. What is wrong with people? And why does Berlin even bother with rules designed to make life more comfortabls for us all if nobody is hired to enforce them?