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How Automakers Invented the Crime of “Jaywalking”

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381–390 of 443 posts

Re: How Automakers Invented the Crime of “Jaywalking”

#381

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you really don't need to shower and change your clothes. You can if you want to ride your bike fast and push your physical limits, but generally casual biking won't make you sweat more than if you were walking.

Generally, casual biking has little average-speed benefit over walking, in which case why bother?

Biking is still at least three times faster than walking for the same energy input. Even near-zero-effort "casual" biking is as fast as a brisk jog.

Re: How Automakers Invented the Crime of “Jaywalking”

#382

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is it a strawman? If motor traffic can only move at pedestrians’ leisure, what happens if they decline to let it through for hours at a time? The soccer players would be committing no crime - the streets are for them first, motor vehicles last.

Are you being deliberately obtuse? Right of way is the right to use the road as a highway, not for another purpose. That applies to motorists just as it applies to other road users.

Half of this “streets for people” stuff is about using the street as a public living room, with people sitting, hanging out, playing, etc., not just walking. I’d definitely support shared space that still gives priority to public transit vehicles moving through.

Re: How Automakers Invented the Crime of “Jaywalking”

#383
post #305

Can HN please stop it with this "not owning a car is virtuous" shtick? I went most of my younger life not having a car, only learning to drive at age 28. I lived in a new england suburb close enough to go to my work and shopping services at a ten minute walk at the time, and it still was horrid. People here don't get how limited your life is without a car. You are limited to a ten-fifteen mile radius for everything,…

Counter point. Late 30s here, family, no car, no license. I use cabs all the time, it's great. I have a fine social life and can drink safely. I can rent houses and move about for work, then change countries without offloading assets at fire-sale prices. I choose not to live in an unpleasant climate, so snow is a non-issue for me. Have you considered the option that maybe you just don't get it? Cars are responsible f…

>> I can rent houses and move about for work, then change countries without offloading assets at fire-sale prices.

Um. Do you have... kids? Spouse?

Re: How Automakers Invented the Crime of “Jaywalking”

#384

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rolling a ball on the street is probably enough to stop human drivers as well. Is carjacking that much of a problem where you live? I've never heard of anybody being carjacked here. I guess you could equip your car with one of these devices if you're concerned: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLhWzMOccTg

A human driver has a good chance to recognize the situation for what it is and just hit the beachball. (Or heck, the hoodlum himself.)

Um where do you think this is happening exactly that people know that beachball = carjacking? Based on the language used, I suspect you aren't in such an area and are coming up with an unrealistic scenario here.

Re: How Automakers Invented the Crime of “Jaywalking”

#385

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A human driver has a good chance to recognize the situation for what it is and just hit the beachball. (Or heck, the hoodlum himself.)

Um where do you think this is happening exactly that people know that beachball = carjacking? Based on the language used, I suspect you aren't in such an area and are coming up with an unrealistic scenario here.

Okay, so we have to suppose we're driving through LA County's Palos Verdes Estates, and a beachball suddenly pops up. Fair enough.

Re: How Automakers Invented the Crime of “Jaywalking”

#386

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Automated speeding tickets will fix that quickly

Indeed. And automated driving will end a great deal of greed based revenue as well. And given the sensor data, proving lack of violation is trivial. The $64k question is: what will states and counties do without police citation revenue?

Automated enforcement revenue will be much higher

Re: How Automakers Invented the Crime of “Jaywalking”

#387
post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely. I see this here on hacker news with people excited about the notion of doing away with stop lights so that AI traffic can flow easily. People are completely ignoring the existence of pedestrians and cyclists. It would not be surprising to see a new crime of "hindering an autonomous automobile" be lobbied for.

Much better would be smart traffic lights that allow pedestrians or other roads to cross when there are no cars approaching for n seconds. The number of times I've waited for several minutes at a stop light in the middle of the night...

Really, pedestrians should wait indefinitely until there are no cars coming?

Re: How Automakers Invented the Crime of “Jaywalking”

#388
post #39

Reporters could send in the basic details of a traffic accident and would get in return a complete article to print the next day. These articles, printed widely, shifted the blame for accidents to pedestrians To me, that is the craziest sentence in the article. Reporters were outsourcing writing to the auto industry? Of course they blamed the pedestrians! In what world is this ethical? What is next? Sending overdose…

No one's linking to pg's famous article about it the dynamic? [1] He makes the point that that kind of thing happens because reporters are pressed for time and good journalism is hard. And generally, a PR person who feeds them such an article won't lie, they'll just selectively include facts.

I'm just impressed it was going on even then.

I agree that this kind of thing should be disclosed, just as same as if it were "here's $500 and remember where it came from". It's something of value being provided by an interested party that taints the publication. Not so much that it shouldn't be printed, but definitely enough that it should be disclosed ("I'm just parroting what GM told me").

[1] http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html

Re: How Automakers Invented the Crime of “Jaywalking”

#389

Now is an opportunity, perhaps first in ~100 years, perhaps last, to recover the streets for unaugmented humans: slow down cars in urban areas, increase qualifications for humans to drive, eventually ban human drivers entirely, leaving only automated vehicles with enough sensors and going slowly enough to reduce auto-related deaths for pedestrians and passengers alike to zero.

We'll run out of donated organs at that point.

Re: How Automakers Invented the Crime of “Jaywalking”

#390
post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Copenhagen isn’t McMansions on quarter acre lots, while most Americans panic at the suggestion of any density level higher than that. Permission to play in the street won’t fix low suburban density or the low effective density of high rise neighborhoods that are mostly vacant investment properties.

> Permission to play in the street won’t fix low suburban density It can help, if it means parents feel less need for private gardens.

Or apartment blocks with their own enclosed playgrounds.
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